Office for Foreigners

A reply to an application cannot be sent to an address abroad.

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 40 § 4 of the Act of 14 June 1960 the Administrative Procedure Code:

• if you do reside or temporarily stay in the Republic of Poland or another European Union Member State or;
• you have not appointed a legal representative to conduct the case who resides in the Republic of Poland and you are not acting through a consul in the Republic of Poland, you are obliged to appoint a representative in the Republic of Poland for delivery, unless the delivery is made by means of electronic communication (only in the case of having an electronic signature allowing identification and authentication, required for the implementation of the on-line service).

No, it is not possible to obtain such information by e-mail. In order to effectively for the removal of foreigner’s data from the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable or from the Schengen Information System for the purposes of imposing an entry ban, your application submitted electronically must be certified with a qualified electronic signature, a trusted signature or a personal signature, or authenticated in a manner allowing to confirming the origin and integrity of verified data in an electronic form.
Submit an official request for information regarding the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable or the Schengen Information System imposing an entry ban.

The application may be lodged in the following manner:

• by post to the address of the Office: ul. Taborowa 33, 02-699 Warsaw, or
• submitted in person at the registry office of the Office for Foreigners at ul. Taborowa 33 in Warsaw (Monday-Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.), or
• electronically, however only if you have a valid electronic signature for identification and authentication required to provide the online service

Each foreigner may act through an appointed legal representative – a natural person having the capacity to perform acts in law.
Therefore, you have the right to submit an official request for information regarding the personal data of a foreigner under the condition that you have a power of attorney, granting you the right to request/rectify/remove the personal data included in the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable. The original of the power of attorney or an officially certified copy of the power of attorney must be attached to the application.

Pursuant to Article 444 of the Act of 12 December 2013 on Foreigners, submitting requests for access to information/rectification of data/removal of data included in the Register does not have to be made in person. Each foreigner may act through an appointed legal representative – a natural person having the capacity to perform acts in law.
You have the right to submit an official request for information regarding the personal data of a foreigner under the condition that you have a power of attorney, granting you the right to request/rectify/remove the personal data included in the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable. The original of the power of attorney or an officially certified copy of the power of attorney must be attached to the application.

The Head of the Office for Foreigners is the only authority responsible for entering personal data on the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable, extending the retention period for the entry or removing the entry from the Register.
The correctness or deletion of your personal data can be verified only by submitting a request to the Head of the Office for Foreigners in the manner stipulated in Article 444 of the Act of 12 December 2013 on Foreigners.

The administrative procedure is carried out in two instances; therefore, it is conducted in the following manner:
1) you submit an application for rectifying/deleting your data from the Register to the Office for Foreigners, the authority responsible for examining cases pursuant to Article 444 of the Act on Foreigners (first instance);
2) in the event of a negative decision issued in the first instance and refusal to rectify/delete the data, you have the right appeal to the Head of the Office for Foreigners within 7 days upon receiving the original decision (the second instance).
The decision issued after the appeal is final in the administrative course of the instance.
However, if you do not agree with the decision, within 30 days of receiving the decision you have the right to:
1) submit a complaint against the decision of the Head of the Office for Foreigners regarding the rectification/deletion of data in the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable to the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw; and
2) file a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court in case of a negative decision of the Voivodeship Administrative Court.

The following circumstances constitute grounds for imposing an entry ban to the territory of Poland:

• the lack of a valid travel document, valid visa or other valid documents required to enter or remain in the territory of Poland or;
• the lack of the document referred to in Article 25, item 1(2)(a) or Article 25, item 2 (provisions regarding the mandatory health insurance) or;
• within the last 180 days you have used up the permitted length of stay in the Schengen area (90 days) unless international agreements provide otherwise, or;
• failing to provide sufficient documents to confirm the purpose and conditions of your intended stay, or;
• not having sufficient financial resources – the amount of required financial resources depend on the duration and purpose of the intended stay; or not having the financial resources required to book a return trip to the country of origin or residence; or not having the financial resources for transit through the territory of the Republic of Poland to a third country which will grant you a permit to enter; or not having a document confirming the possibility of obtaining such resources in accordance with the law, or;
• using an illegitimate travel document, visa or any other document granting you with the right to enter and remain in the territory of the Republic of Poland, or;
• entering the country while being listed on the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable, or:
• entering the country while being listed in the Schengen Information System imposing an entry ban, or;
• the entry ban is required for reasons of national security, public safety or due to international relations of the Republic of Poland or another European Union Member State.

The national legislation does not expressly state that the breach of visa conditions of a non-EU country constitutes the basis for refusing entry into Poland. However, in the event that border authorities receive information that the nature of the breach could result in recognising you as a threat to, for instance, public safety and order on the territory of the Republic of Poland, they have the right to decide on imposing an entry ban.

Pursuant to Article 436, item 2 in conjunction with Article 436, item 1(3) of the Act on Foreigners, the data of a foreigner sentenced with a fine by a final judgment in the Republic of Poland for an intentional or fiscal offence shall be deleted only in the even the fine has been paid.
If you pay the fine imposed by a final court judgment and the judgement and fine were the only reasons for retaining your details in the Register, the entry will be removed from the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable.
Information regarding payment of the fine should be submitted by the competent court to the Office for Foreigners. Upon receiving such information, the Office initiates the procedure for removing the personal data from the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable. You may also apply for the removal of your details from the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable, indicating that you have paid the fine.

The application may be lodged in the following manner:

• by post to the address of the Office: ul. Taborowa 33, 02-699 Warsaw, or
• submitted in person at the registry office of the Office for Foreigners at ul. Taborowa 33 in Warsaw (Monday-Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.), or
• electronically, however only if you have a valid electronic signature for identification and authentication required to provide the online service.

Please attach payment confirmation to the application.

When applying for a visa, I was refused because of an alert in the SIS. If you have been refused a visa because your personal data are listed in the Schengen Information System for the purpose of imposing an entry ban, you are not allowed in the Schengen area and thus you are not allowed to remain in the territory of Poland until the alert expires.
In the event that the alert in the Schengen Information System was issued by Poland, you have the right to submit a request to the Office for Foreigners for deleting the entry in the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable or the Schengen Information System if they impose an entry ban in violation of the Act.

The application may be lodged in the following manner:

• by post to the address of the Office: ul. Taborowa 33, 02-699 Warsaw, or
• submitted in person at the registry office of the Office for Foreigners at ul. Taborowa 33 in Warsaw (Monday-Friday from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.), or
• electronically, however only if you have a valid electronic signature for identification and authentication required to provide the online service.

The Office for Foreigners provides only the following information:

• information regarding the entry in the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable or lack thereof, or;
• information regarding an alert in the Schengen Information System issued by Poland for the purpose of imposing a ban on entering the Schengen territory.

In the event that the alert in the Schengen Information System was placed by another Member State, the Office for Foreigners cannot provide such information. In the case of alerts from the other Member States, you have the right to submit a request for information on an entry ban in the Schengen Information System. The request shall be submitted to the Bureau of Intelligence and Criminal Information of the National Police Headquarters.

After the expiration of the re-entry ban, personal data are deleted from the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable. For instance: if the ban expires on January 1st, 2019, you will be granted entry to Poland on January 2nd, 2019.

You have the right to apply for a Schengen visa after your personal data have been removed from the Register of foreigners, whose residence on the territory of Poland is undesirable or the Schengen Information System for the purposes of imposing an entry ban.  The visa procedure, however, requires meeting all the conditions for granting a certain type of visa and the absence of condiions giving grounds for refusal of visa.