Switching from B2B to an Employment Contract and Your Residence Card, Step by Step (2026)

In short and to the point:
  • If you hold a PESEL number with UKR status, switching from a JDG to an employment contract isn’t a migration procedure at all: you already have free access to the labor market, and you don’t file any application for a new basis of stay¹.
  • If your residence card was issued under Article 142 of the Foreigners Act (for the purpose of “running a business”), switching means filing a new application for a zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę (a “single permit”), because the very purpose of your stay changes².
  • The law gives the voivode 60 days to decide from the day the application becomes complete³, but across Poland the procedure typically takes 2 to 7 months on average, and in some cases more than a year⁴.
  • As long as the application was filed on time and without formal defects, your stay is treated as legal until the final decision, regardless of how long the procedure actually takes⁵.
  • Legal stay and a legal right to actually start your new job under an employment contract are two different things: until you receive the single permit, you need a separate bridge, most often an oświadczenie (employer declaration) in the register of declarations, which is registered within 7 working days⁶.
  • If you already hold a single permit through a civil-law contract (not your own JDG), switching to an employment contract with the same employer doesn’t require a new permit: a written notification to the voivode within 15 working days is enough⁷.
  • The window for voluntarily switching without a penalty for the mere fact of past misclassification runs until 8 July 2027, and this concerns labor law, not the migration procedure, which has its own deadlines⁸.

In this article, JDG (Jednoosobowa działalność gospodarcza, the Polish sole proprietorship) refers to the form of business that foreigners in Poland most commonly register to work under a B2B model, and PIP (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, the National Labour Inspectorate) is the authority that, since 8 July 2026, has the power to reclassify a B2B contract as an employment relationship on its own. We cover both terms in detail in the pillar article of this series. The voivode (wojewoda) is the authority that issues, amends, and revokes residence cards and single permits. MOS (Moduł Obsługi Spraw) is the state electronic portal through which residence applications must be filed as of 27 April 2026⁵.

What is your basis of stay, this decides which plan to read

Before planning your switch, establish one fact: whether your stay is based on temporary protection (ochrona czasowa) (a PESEL number with UKR status) or on a residence card under Article 142 (for the purpose of running a business). This is exactly the fork in the road that the series article on the residence card based on a JDG covers in detail, and it directly determines how complicated your switch to an employment contract will be.

If you’re not sure, check the “cel pobytu” (purpose of stay) field on your residence card or in your certificate from MOS (Migracyjny Ośrodek Spraw). If it says “prowadzenie działalności gospodarczej” (running a business), a serious procedure described in the section below awaits you. If your document is a PESEL number with UKR status, a simple path awaits you, and that’s the one worth starting with.

Switching from a JDG to an employment contract is either a matter of a single letter from your employer to the PUP, or a months-long administrative procedure, depending on one detail: what basis of stay you currently hold.

If you hold a PESEL number with UKR status, four steps, no migration procedure

The key fact: you don’t need to file any application for a new basis of stay. People with temporary protection have free access to the Polish labor market by virtue of that status alone, regardless of the type of contract or employer¹. For you, switching from a JDG to an employment contract is purely a matter of labor law and taxes, not migration law.

The practical plan looks like this.

Step 1. Sign an employment contract with your employer in the usual way. No work permit, oświadczenie, or residence card application is needed here: your right to work under any type of contract doesn’t depend on a work-related document.

Step 2. Check whether your employer has filed a renewed notification with the PUP. If your employer previously notified the powiatowy urząd pracy (PUP, district labor office) that they were entrusting you with work under a JDG or a civil-law contract, the law requires them to file a new notification within 7 days of the change in the type of contract between you⁷. This is your employer’s obligation, not yours, but it’s worth asking directly whether they’ve done it: failing to meet this obligation is a violation on the company’s part that doesn’t affect your stay, but could draw the attention of PIP or ZUS during an inspection.

Step 3. Check the validity period of your UKR status itself. Temporary protection runs until 4 March 2027 and is automatically extended, with no additional application needed². If your PESEL number was issued without presenting a passport, you must confirm your identity separately at your gmina office by 31 August 2026: this has nothing to do with switching to an employment contract, but it’s worth checking in parallel.

Step 4. Handle the financial side separately from the migration side. Closing your JDG in CEIDG, recalculating ZUS contributions for the previous period, and changing your tax form is real work, but it doesn’t concern your right to stay in Poland. We cover this part in the series article on the real ZUS and PIT costs after reclassification.

Example. Yaryna holds a PESEL number with UKR status and has worked through a JDG for one marketing client since 2023. In July 2026, her employer, after consulting a lawyer, offers her an employment contract even before any PIP inspection. Does Yaryna need to file an application for a new basis of stay before signing the contract?

No. Yaryna can sign the employment contract at any point, without any application to the voivode. Her stay is already protected by temporary protection until 4 March 2027, and this protection doesn’t depend in any way on the type of contract she works under.

If your residence card is based on a JDG, the full step-by-step plan

Here the situation is the opposite: the legal purpose of your stay itself changes, from “running a business” to “performing work,” and the Foreigners Act requires a new application for this, not a simple letter³. Here’s the sequence worth following, in exactly this order.

Step 1. Agree with your employer on the start date of the employment contract well in advance, not at the last minute. This isn’t a formal legal requirement, but a practical necessity: the procedure ahead takes months, and the earlier you start, the lower your risk of a gap between your old and new basis of stay.

Step 2. Gather the documents for a single-permit application (zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę, under Article 114 of the Foreigners Act). This is one of the few permits where a single procedure resolves both the residence question and the right-to-work question at once⁴. You’ll need: a signed employment contract, or a clear promise of one from your employer with terms (position, salary no lower than the minimum, working-time arrangement), proof of health insurance, and, from your employer, documents on the company’s financial standing. Also prepare proof of payment: 440 PLN for the single-permit application itself and 100 PLN for issuing the residence card⁹.

Signing an employment contract in an office in PolandSigning an employment contract in an office in Poland

Step 3. File your application exclusively through the MOS portal (Moduł Obsługi Spraw). As of 27 April 2026, paper applications for residence permits are not processed at all, regardless of when they were mailed⁵. The foreigner files the application in person (to have fingerprints taken), no later than the last day of legal stay under the old card.

Step 4. Get your confirmation stamp and count your stay as legal from the day you filed. If the application is complete and filed during a period of legal stay, your stay in Poland is treated as legal from the day of filing until the day the decision becomes final, however long that takes⁸. This is exactly the protection that removes the fear of a “gap” between the old JDG-based card and the new permit.

Step 5. Close the gap between legal stay and a legal right to your new job. This is what people most often overlook, and it’s exactly where the practical risk lies. The mere fact of filing a single-permit application does not automatically give you the right to immediately start work under your new employment contract: the right to work while waiting exists only under specific conditions (for example, if you already had a valid work permit or oświadczenie before filing the application)⁹. Until the decision is ready, the simplest legal bridge is to keep invoicing as a JDG (your old residence card remains valid), or to ask your employer to register an oświadczenie o powierzeniu pracy cudzoziemcowi (employer declaration) in the PUP’s register of declarations in your name, already under the new employment contract terms. For Ukrainian citizens this procedure is still available⁶, registration takes 7 working days in straightforward cases (30 days or 2 months if the case is more complex), costs 400 PLN, and is valid for up to 24 months, which in most cases covers the entire waiting time for the larger permit.

Step 6. If the procedure drags on beyond a reasonable time, don’t wait in silence. See the section below on complaining about inaction.

Step 7. After a positive decision, formally close out your old basis of stay. Collect your new residence card (the voivode issues it as a matter of official duty after the decision), and if you no longer need your JDG, file to be deregistered from CEIDG. Your old Article 142 card loses its purpose, but formally closing your business is a separate action worth not forgetting.

Example. Maksym holds a residence card under Article 142, his JDG has been registered since 2021, and he has a single client, the very same one whose contract PIP just reclassified as employment. His employer offers an official employment contract and is ready to start on 1 August 2026. Maksym already filed a single-permit application through MOS in June. Does he also need to register an oświadczenie with the PUP to legally start work under the employment contract on 1 August specifically, without waiting for the voivode’s decision?

Yes, and this is exactly the step people most often skip. Filing the single-permit application only guarantees Maksym’s legal stay, not the legality of his new job under the employment contract until the decision comes through. To start work on 1 August rather than several months later when the voivode’s decision arrives, Maksym specifically needs to register an oświadczenie under the new terms: without it, working under the employment contract before receiving the permit is technically illegal employment, even though the stay itself remains legal thanks to the filed application.

Legal stay while an application is being processed is one protection. A legal right to actually start your new job under an employment contract is a second, separate protection, and the law doesn’t give you the same automatic guarantee for it.

And if you already have a single permit through a civil-law contract

There’s a third, less obvious group of readers: people who don’t run their own JDG but already hold a single permit (zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę) specifically through a civil-law contract (for example, an umowa zlecenie) with a specific employer named in the permit itself. If it’s this same employer that wants to replace the civil-law contract with an employment contract, the procedure is much simpler for you than for a JDG owner.

The law expressly exempts this case from a new application. Replacing a civil-law contract with an employment contract with the same employer requires neither an amendment nor a new single permit: the employer simply notifies the voivode who issued the permit in writing, within 15 working days of the change⁷. This is the exact opposite situation from a JDG-based card, where the purpose of stay itself changes: here the purpose stays the same (“performing work”), and only the legal form of the contract changes.

Example. Daryna holds a single permit for residence and work, issued two years ago specifically for an umowa zlecenie with a specific company. In 2026 the same company offers her an employment contract for the same position. Does Daryna need to file a new residence application?

No. This is exactly the case where the law exempts you from a new application: it’s enough for the employer to notify the voivode in writing about the contract change within 15 working days. Daryna’s permit remains valid unchanged, including its validity period.

If you’re not sure which of the three groups you belong to (temporary protection, a JDG-based card, or a single permit through a civil-law contract), a simple test: check whether your residence permit even names a specific employer and a specific position. If it does, and it’s not your own JDG, you’re in this third group.

How much time the law gives the voivode, and how long it actually takes

The law sets a 60-day deadline from the day the application becomes formally complete. This applies both to the single permit (zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę, a permit that resolves both the residence and the work question at once) and to an ordinary residence permit: the clock starts from the day the foreigner appears in person (to have fingerprints taken), or from the day all formal defects in the application have been remedied³.

In practice, this deadline is almost never met literally. Before issuing a decision, the voivode is required to seek an opinion from the commander of the Border Guard, the commander of the regional Police, and, if needed, the Internal Security Agency, and these authorities have 30 to 60 days to respond⁴. Because of this, the real average time across Poland is 2 to 7 months, and in some regional offices, as the state portal biznes.gov.pl itself acknowledges, it can exceed a year⁹.

This isn’t an abstraction. In January 2026, the Regional Administrative Court in Gdańsk (Wojewódzki Sąd Administracyjny w Gdańsku) found the inaction of the Voivode of Pomerania to be “a gross violation of the law” in a residence permit case where more than a year and a half had passed from the moment the application became complete to the date of the court’s ruling⁴. In May 2026, the Regional Administrative Court in Wrocław found similar inaction, though without ruling it a “gross violation,” against the Voivode of Lower Silesia⁴. Both rulings confirm the same thing: waiting longer than the official 60 days isn’t an exception, it’s the typical situation across the whole country as of 2026.

The official 60-day deadline exists on paper in every case. In Gdańsk in 2026, the court found that the real wait had stretched to more than a year and a half.

What to do if the procedure drags on beyond a reasonable time

If significantly more than 60 days have passed since your application became complete, and the voivode hasn’t even sent out any request for an opinion or isn’t informing you about the status of your case, you have a legal tool at your disposal, not just patience.

First, file a ponaglenie (a request to expedite) with the voivode themselves. This is a written complaint about inaction, filed directly with the authority handling the case, and it doesn’t require a lawyer or a fee. If this doesn’t help within a reasonable time, the next step is a complaint about inaction to the Regional Administrative Court (Wojewódzki Sąd Administracyjny). This is exactly the kind of complaint filed by the claimants in the two cases described above, and in both cases the court obligated the voivode to resolve the case within a specific deadline⁴.

This doesn’t guarantee a positive decision on the merits, the court doesn’t force the voivode to grant the permit itself, only to make some decision, positive or negative, within the set deadline. But it’s a real, free way to stop a case from sitting motionless for years.

Employer obligations worth checking on your end

Switching from a JDG to an employment contract places several notification obligations on your employer, and although this isn’t formally your responsibility, the company’s failure to meet them can create problems specifically for you during a future inspection.

If you have temporary protection, your employer must re-notify the PUP about the change in contract type within 7 days⁷, and the data from that notification is automatically shared with ZUS, PIP, the National Revenue Administration (KAS), the Border Guard, and Statistics Poland (GUS)⁷. This means: if your employer doesn’t file a new notification, the discrepancy between the actual contract type and what’s recorded in the PUP system becomes visible to oversight authorities automatically, without a separate inspection.

If you have a single permit through a civil-law contract, your employer must notify the voivode in writing about the contract change within 15 working days⁷. If you have a JDG-based card, the obligation to notify that the purpose of your stay has ended rests with you personally, not your employer, and the deadline is the same, 15 working days; we cover this in detail in the series article on the JDG-based residence card.

Frequently asked questions

Can I start work under my employment contract right away, while waiting for the single permit? This depends on your basis of stay before filing the application. If you already had a valid work permit or oświadczenie before filing, you can keep working under those terms. If not, the simplest legal bridge is to register a new oświadczenie with the PUP under the new terms, in parallel with your larger residence application⁹.

Is my old residence card cancelled on the day I file for a new permit? No. Your old card remains valid until its own expiry date, or until a separate decision revokes it. The new-permit application and the status of your old card are two parallel things, not automatically linked.

How much does a single-permit application cost? 440 PLN for the application itself, plus 100 PLN for issuing the residence card, 540 PLN total, as of mid-2026⁹. The fee isn’t refunded even if you’re refused, except in a few cases specified by law.

What happens if I don’t file a new application at all and keep working under an employment contract on my old JDG-based card? This is a real risk of illegal employment for you personally, and illegal hiring for your employer, because your old Article 142 card doesn’t give you the right to be an employee in someone else’s business. Beyond fines, it’s also grounds for the voivode to later refuse your next residence permit.

Does the amnesty window until 8 July 2027 also apply to the migration procedure? No. The window under Article 16 of the PIP Act exempts a company from a penalty for the mere fact of past misclassification of an employment relationship⁸. The deadlines for processing a residence application are a separate matter under the Foreigners Act, and the amnesty window in no way speeds up the voivode’s procedure.

I have a PESEL number with UKR status, but my employer says they need some kind of permit for my job. Is that true? No, your employer needs neither a work permit nor an oświadczenie for you: temporary protection already gives you free access to the labor market¹. Your employer only needs to file or update a notification with the PUP within 7 days⁷, and that’s their own obligation, not yours.

Can I apply for a single permit while my old JDG-based card is still valid for several more years? Yes. The law doesn’t require you to wait for your valid permit to expire: you can file the application at any point during your legal stay, and the earlier you do it, the lower your risk of a gap between the old and new basis.

What to do with this information

A general article can’t account for the exact type of your residence permit, its issue date, and the specific terms of your new employment contract. MojaFirma offers two formats depending on your situation.

If you’re switching from a JDG to an employment contract yourself and want to check your specific case. The basic format is the online B2B audit: you fill out a questionnaire about your situation (type of basis of stay, expiry date of your current card, terms of the new contract), and within 48 hours you receive a report with a step-by-step plan tailored to your specific type of permit. If your case is closer to a JDG-based card with a more complex procedure, the next step is an individual consultation: 60 minutes with a lawyer who prepares your specific document package for a single permit and an action plan for the waiting period.

If you own or run HR at a company that’s simultaneously moving several contractors from JDGs to employment contracts. A mass switch means several parallel migration procedures at once, each with different deadlines and risks for each person. For this, there’s the B2B operating model audit: an assessment of which contractors just need a letter to the PUP and which need the full single-permit procedure, plus a plan for the sequencing of switches to avoid a situation where several people simultaneously end up without a legal right to their new job. If you’d rather fix the contracts themselves first, before dealing with the residence side, start with the 12-point checklist for fixing a B2B contract under PIP 2026.

Fill out the B2B audit questionnaire

Sources

  1. Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for admitting foreigners to work in the territory of the Republic of Poland, Journal of Laws 2025 item 621, Art. 3(1)(12) (free access to the labor market for people benefiting from temporary protection); Act of 12 March 2022 on assistance to Ukrainian citizens, Journal of Laws 2022 item 583, Art. 2 and Art. 22.
  2. Act of 23 January 2026 on winding down provisions arising from the Act on assistance to Ukrainian citizens, Journal of Laws 2026 item 203, extension of temporary protection until 4 March 2027.
  3. Act of 12 December 2013 on foreigners, consolidated text Journal of Laws 2025 item 1079, Art. 101(1), Art. 104(2), Art. 142(1).
  4. Act on foreigners, Art. 112a(1) and (2) (60-day deadline), Art. 109(1) (opinions from the Border Guard, Police, ABW, 30 to 60-day deadline); in practice: Judgment of the Regional Administrative Court in Gdańsk of 9 January 2026, case no. III SAB/Gd 450/25; Judgment of the Regional Administrative Court in Wrocław of 28 May 2026, case no. I SAB/Wr 160/26.
  5. Office for Foreigners, information on the launch of the MOS electronic system, 27 April 2026.
  6. Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for admitting foreigners to work, Journal of Laws 2025 item 621, Art. 61 and Art. 66 (deadline for registering an oświadczenie: 7 working days, 30 days, or 2 months); Regulation of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy of 21 November 2025 on the countries whose citizens may be covered by employer declarations, Journal of Laws 2025 item 1617, covers Ukrainian citizens.
  7. Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for admitting foreigners to work, Journal of Laws 2025 item 621, Art. 5a(1), 5(1) and (8) (PUP notification and data sharing with ZUS, PIP, KAS, Border Guard, GUS); amendment to Art. 119(1)(5) and (2) of the Foreigners Act (replacing a civil-law contract with an employment contract without amending the permit, notifying the voivode within 15 working days), per Biznes.gov.pl, How to obtain a single permit, section “Additional obligations of the foreigner after obtaining the permit.”
  8. Act of 11 March 2026 amending the Act on the National Labour Inspectorate, Journal of Laws 2026 item 473, Art. 16 (amnesty window until 8 July 2027); Act on foreigners, Art. 105(1) and Art. 108(1) (legal stay while an application is being processed).
  9. Biznes.gov.pl, How to obtain a single permit, zezwolenie na pobyt czasowy i pracę, sections “Working while waiting for a single permit” and “What a single-permit application should contain” (fees of 440 PLN, 100 PLN; practical timeframes of 2 to 7 months, in some cases more than a year).

Legal status as of: August 28, 2026.

This article is not legal advice. Every situation is individual and depends on the type of your residence permit, the specific employer, and the circumstances of the switch. Author: Valerii Kushnirskyi, in-house legal practitioner at MojaFirma. This article was prepared based on the Act on foreigners (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 1079), the Act on the conditions for admitting foreigners to work (Journal of Laws 2025 item 621), the Act on assistance to Ukrainian citizens (Journal of Laws 2022 item 583, as amended), and the Act of 11 March 2026 on PIP (Journal of Laws 2026 item 473).