On 23 March 2026 the expatriate community lit up with confirmation that Poland has quietly removed the so-called *informacja starosty*—the labour-market test—from standard work-permit applications. The change, introduced via amendments to the Act on the Employment of Foreign Nationals earlier this year, only became operational this week after provincial labour offices updated internal instructions. Under the old system, employers had to advertise a vacancy for at least 14 days and obtain a certificate from the local job office confirming that no Polish or EU candidate was available. That requirement added three to six weeks to processing and generated high rejection rates for administrative errors. Eliminating the test brings Poland into line with practice in countries such as the Czech Republic and Germany, which have already waived labour-market checks for highly-skilled talent. For business, the impact is immediate: global companies can now submit work-permit petitions with a signed employment contract, proof of qualifications and standard corporate documents, cutting lead-times by roughly a month. Fast-track “priority” lanes—introduced last year for strategic investors—remain in place and will now be even faster because officials have fewer documents to review. Migrants hired under local contracts, intra-company transferees switching to Polish payrolls and remote staff regularising on-site presence all benefit from the streamlined regime. Staffing agencies, however, note that seasonal agriculture jobs and posted-worker permits still require the labour-market test, preserving safeguards for domestic workers in vulnerable sectors. HR teams should update onboarding timelines, drop redundant advertising steps from compliance checklists, and retrain vendors to use the revised e-permit templates issued by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy. Companies mid-process can request that pending applications be converted to the new track, potentially shaving weeks off start dates.
Source: Reddit / r/WorldWithoutLimits
