You filed your Karta Pobytu (Polish residence permit, often called the TRC) in Warsaw. Three months later your employer sends you to a site in Gdańsk, or your wife gets a job in Wrocław, and you sign a new rental contract. Then the panic starts. Does the Mazowieckie office still decide your case? Do you have to start again? Will the stamp in your passport stop counting? Moving voivodeship during a Karta Pobytu application is more common than people think, and it is fixable. It just has to be handled in the right order. Here is how it works in 2026, what you should send, and what to avoid.
So, which voivode actually decides your TRC case?
Under Article 104 of the Act on Foreigners, a temporary residence permit is granted or refused by the voivode competent for the foreigner’s place of stay. In practice that means the urząd wojewódzki of the region where you really live, not where your employer’s head office is registered. The official guidance for foreigners also tells you to report address changes to the office handling your case; see the Mazowieckie voivode’s notice for foreigners who changed address. The legal text does not spell out every detail of a mid-process move, so the practice differs a little between offices. That is exactly why you should ask in writing rather than assume.
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Why does this matter to you? Because the office that holds your file is the office that will call you for fingerprints, ask for missing documents and issue the decision. If you now live in another region and nobody told them, letters go to the old address, deadlines pass, and a simple case turns into a refusal or a discontinuance.
- Your application stays valid. Moving does not cancel a filed application.
- The office has to know where to reach you. Correspondence goes to the address in your file.
- Some voivodeship offices publish a form called a request to transfer the case according to competence (wniosek o przekazanie sprawy według właściwości). The Lubuskie office, for example, has one on its site. Check whether your office has one.
What if I move to another voivodeship while my TRC is pending?
Think of it as two questions. First: which office should hold my case from now on? Second: how do I make sure nothing gets lost during the handover?
Offices handle this in different ways. Some will pass the file on to the voivode of your new place of stay after you ask. Others keep processing the file where it was filed and just update your address. Both can be legitimate, as long as the office confirms it in writing. What is not safe is silence: you move, say nothing, and hope.
If you only moved a few streets and stayed in the same voivodeship, that is a simple address change, and we have a separate walkthrough in Change of Address During Karta Pobytu Process. The extra layer in this article is the change of region.
Step by step: what to send, and to whom
- Step 1: Write to the office that holds your case. Use MOS (the online system) if your application was filed there, or the office’s official contact channel. Give your case number, the date of filing, your full name, your date of birth, your old address and your new address, plus the date you moved.
- Step 2: Ask one clear question: will the case be transferred to the voivode competent for the new place of stay, or will it stay where it is? Attach a copy of the new rental contract or another proof of address. Keep a copy of everything you send and the proof it was sent.
- Step 3: Follow the answer. If a transfer is confirmed, watch the new office’s letters and calls. If the old office keeps the case, keep going there for fingerprints or documents when it invites you. Either way, save the confirmation.
Do all three steps in the first days after the move. Do not wait until a letter comes back as undelivered. You can write the request in Polish or have a translator help you. The point is that it is dated, clear and traceable.
For the general rules, the gov.pl immigration portal for foreigners has current forms and contacts for every voivodeship office. Check it before you send anything, because forms and procedures have been changing in 2026.
Will moving reset my waiting time or my stamp?
This is the fear we hear most often. In our experience, a filed application keeps its filing date, and the stamp or confirmation you got when you applied does not disappear because you changed city. But there is a catch: that protection works only while your case stays active and you cooperate with the office. If the office cannot reach you and you miss a deadline, the problem is no longer the move. It is the missed deadline.
So keep the paperwork that proves your status: the filing confirmation, the stamp in your passport (if you have one), and your correspondence with the office. If you need to travel while waiting, read the checks first, because your documents have to be in order to re-enter Poland.
Our article on travelling while waiting for a Karta Pobytu explains what to check before you book a ticket.
Marlon, a welder from the Philippines, filed his application in Szczecin. Two months later his employer moved him to a shipyard near Gdańsk. He rented a room, told nobody, and a request for extra documents went to the old address. He found out only when the deadline was nearly over. He called us, we wrote to the office with his new address and the proof of rent, and the office accepted the documents. He kept his case. A letter on day one would have saved him a very bad week. (This is an illustrative, composite example, not a real client.)
What if my employer or job changes at the same time?
Moving city and changing employer are two different things, and mixing them up causes real damage. A new address alone does not change the basis of your stay. A new employer, a new position or different working conditions can. If your job changes together with your location, first read the rules in our article on changing employer.
Start with Changing Employer in Poland: 3 Steps to Protect Your TRC and then come back to this checklist.
Five mistakes that slow down a moving case
- Moving without telling the office, so letters go to the old address.
- Telling only your employer or your landlord. They are not the voivode.
- Sending a vague message with no case number and no proof of the new address.
- Applying again in the new voivodeship while the first case is still open. That can create a second file and a mess.
- Not checking the decision time. If the wait drags on, you still have legal tools, but you need the right office in the file.
If your case is already long, see Day 61 and No Answer? Poland TRC Decision Time for what you can do about a delay.
Practical tip: on moving day, write three lines to the urząd: case number, old address, new address with proof. Send it the same week, and keep the confirmation in one folder on your phone.
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