Monday morning. You check your passport and your karta pobytu (the Polish residence card, often called a TRC) and do the math: six weeks left. Your employer says, “I'll handle it, don't worry.” But which documents? Filed by when? Filed by whom? Nobody gives you a straight answer, and by midnight you're scrolling your phone instead of sleeping.
If that's you, start here: you need speed, not panic. This guide shows how a Nepali worker gets a karta pobytu in Poland — new application, renewal, switching employer, appeal after a refusal, permanent residence and bringing family — in plain words you can read between shifts. Factory, warehouse, delivery, hotel or construction: the basic route is the same.
What is a karta pobytu (TRC), and which stage is this guide about?
A karta pobytu is the card that proves you may live in Poland for a set period. In English many people call it a TRC (Temporary Residence Card). It is issued by the urząd wojewódzki, the voivodeship office of your region. The process almost always looks the same: online application, documents, fingerprints, waiting, decision.
This guide covers the residence card stage — when you are already in Poland. We do not obtain visas or work permits, so we don't write about them here, and the process on the Nepal side is outside this article. For official rules, always check gov.pl/web/cudzoziemcy.
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When must you file in MOS? 5 steps before your TRC expires
The biggest rule is simple: a temporary residence application goes through MOS (the online system) and must be submitted no later than the last day of your legal stay in Poland. You cannot file from abroad, and an application sent any other way can be left unexamined. The “last day” is a limit, not a target — file a week or two earlier. Do these five things in order:
- Check your dates. Look at the card's expiry and at the legal-stay date in your passport. Whichever ends first is your real deadline.
- Open a MOS account. Log in to mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl through login.gov.pl. The application may need an electronic signature (podpis zaufany or a qualified one), so set that up a day or two before.
- Collect documents. Passport, proof of where you live, health insurance, work papers, photos and — if needed — legalized documents from Nepal. The list changes with your basis (work, family, study).
- File the application. Complete every form, upload the files, submit. Keep the confirmation on your phone and in your email.
- Fingerprints and the stamp. Go to the office on the date it gives you. If it points out formal defects, fix them within the deadline it sets.
If you filed correctly and during your legal stay, your stay is treated as legal from the filing date until the decision becomes final. The proof is the stamp in your passport, which is normally placed after you give fingerprints and any formal defects are fixed. A stamp does not mean the card is ready. It means you are protected while you wait.
One hard warning: the stamp does not give you the right to enter Poland or travel through the Schengen area. Don't leave expecting to come back freely. Working while you wait is usually tied to two things — you were already working on the filing date, and you hold the stamp showing the application had no formal defects. Confirm how this applies to your case before you act. Read how long you can stay outside Poland in this guide and how to check your case in our MOS tracking guide.
Documents from Nepal: apostille or embassy legalization?
This is where many people get stuck. From the sources we checked, Nepal does not appear to be a member of the Hague Apostille Convention (check the official HCCH status table again before you start). So plan for embassy-level legalization, not an apostille, for public documents issued in Nepal such as birth or marriage certificates and police certificates. The Embassy of Poland in New Delhi legalizes documents from Nepal — Nepal is on its list of countries.
- The document usually has to be authenticated first by the competent authority in Nepal; only then does the Polish embassy legalize it. Confirm which authority on the embassy's page.
- The embassy legalizes originals and official copies only — not photocopies or printouts.
- Documents in Nepali need translation into Polish by a tłumacz przysięgły (sworn translator). A friend's translation is not enough.
- Not every application needs these papers. Family, marriage and birth-certificate cases need them most. Ask before you spend time and money.
According to the embassy's page, documents can be submitted on Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:30 to 12:00 without an appointment, at 50-M Shantipath, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. Hours and rules can change, so open the embassy's official legalisation page before you plan. Add the time to prepare the papers, too — when your card has six weeks left, paperwork is what eats the calendar. If you need these documents, start today.
Renewal, new employer, appeal: what to do in each case
Renewing your card
A renewal is filed in MOS like a new application, before your legal stay ends. How long the decision takes depends heavily on the city, and nobody can promise a timeline. To see how it works in your region, read the processing-time guide by voivodeship.
Changing or losing your employer
If your permit names a specific employer, the rule is to notify the voivode in writing within 15 working days after you stop working there, or to file a change application in that same period, according to official voivodeship sources. Details depend on your card type and rules can change, so start counting the day your job ends. More in our guide on whether a karta pobytu is tied to the employer.
If your application is refused
The clock starts the day the refusal reaches you. As a rule you have 14 days from delivery to file a written appeal (odwołanie); the decision itself states the exact date and where to send it. The appeal goes through the voivode who issued the decision to the Head of the Office for Foreigners (Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców). Day one: photograph every page, note the delivery date, and send it to us.
Months passed and still no decision
The stamp protects your stay, but an endless wait is exhausting. The next tools are a ponaglenie (a formal reminder to the office) and then a skarga na przewlekłość (a complaint about delay). The steps are in this step-by-step guide.
A generalized example (not a real client): Bikash, a warehouse worker from Chitwan working in Wrocław, heard “we'll do it later” from HR until only 9 days of legal stay were left. The dates and papers were checked, the MOS application was prepared, and he filed before his stay ended. Then he gave fingerprints and got the stamp in his passport — only after that could he wait calmly.
When choosing an intermediary, watch for red flags: a guarantee that “it will definitely work,” no copies of your documents, cash-only payment, or any suggestion to use fake papers. Always confirm official facts yourself on gov.pl or MOS.
Permanent residence and bringing family: when should you start?
Permanent residence (zezwolenie na pobyt stały) normally comes only after a long period of continuous legal stay, and its conditions are changing right now — a Polish-language requirement has been proposed. So check the current rules before applying and keep track of your time spent outside Poland. The EU long-term resident card is a different permit; see this comparison.
For family: relatives of a foreigner who lives legally in Poland can apply for a temporary residence permit for family reunification. You must show a stable, regular income that covers your own and your family's costs. If the relative is outside Poland, the person living in Poland can file for them with their written consent. Nepali marriage and birth certificates (legalized and translated) matter most here, so the documents section above is critical.
Practical tip: Keep clear photos of all documents in one phone folder and set a calendar reminder 21 days before your deadline. If any papers need legalization, start long before that date, not on it.
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