Ukrainians Who Settled in Poland Before the War: Legal Stay Extended Only Until 4 March 2027

What changed

On 5 March 2026, a Polish law winding down the measures created by the wartime «Special Act» — the 2022 Act on Assistance to Citizens of Ukraine — entered into force. President Karol Nawrocki signed it on 19 February 2026. The law closes the 2022 system of automatic visa and residence-card extensions and moves protection for Ukrainians onto a single framework aligned with an EU Council decision.

The key date in the new law is 4 March 2027. That is when the current EU Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2025/1460, which extended temporary protection for people displaced from Ukraine across the whole EU, expires.

Not every Ukrainian in Poland falls under temporary protection, though. A separate rule applies to people who already held a valid residence document — a national visa, a residence card (karta pobytu), or a temporary residence permit — on 24 February 2022, meaning they had legalised their stay in Poland before the full-scale invasion. This group does not become a temporary protection beneficiary, even if they later left for Ukraine during the war and returned.

For this group, no new residence card is issued. Instead, the validity of the document they already hold — a visa or a karta pobytu — is simply extended by law until 4 March 2027, and no further.

Who this affects

The rule covers Ukrainians who meet both conditions at once:

• they obtained a residence document in Poland (national visa D, karta pobytu, temporary residence permit) before 24 February 2022, and it was still valid on that date;
• they are not temporary protection beneficiaries under the Special Act — that is, they don't hold PESEL UKR status obtained through the temporary protection procedure.

This is a narrower group than people who hold PESEL with UKR status or the upcoming CUKR residence card, which is for temporary protection beneficiaries and is a separate topic. If your residence document was valid before the invasion, the automatic extension applies to you, but temporary protection status does not.

In practice, this means the right to work without a separate permit (through an employer notification only) continues for this group during a three-year transitional period, running to roughly March 2029. A business registered before 5 March 2026 can keep operating, but any new business activity has to be registered under the general rules that apply to third-country nationals.

What to do now

1. Check the exact date on your document (visa or karta pobytu) and confirm whether your case falls under the extension to 4 March 2027 — contact your local voivodeship office (Urząd Wojewódzki) or check the mos.cudzoziemcy.gov.pl portal if you're unsure.
2. Decide in advance which legal basis you'll apply for after 4 March 2027: a national visa D, a temporary residence permit on general grounds (work, business, family reunification), or continued business activity under the general rules for third-country nationals.
3. If you're working under the simplified employer-notification procedure, ask your employer how long this will apply to you specifically, and plan ahead for a standard work permit.
4. Don't wait until the final months before 4 March 2027 to file for a new legal basis — voivodeship office queues can run for months.
5. If needed, get a free legal consultation — for example from the Association for Legal Intervention (Stowarzyszenie Interwencji Prawnej) or another organisation that helps Ukrainians with legalisation in Poland.

Common mistakes

The most common mix-up is confusing this group with holders of the CUKR residence card — but CUKR is specifically for temporary protection beneficiaries with PESEL UKR status, not for people who already held a valid document before 24 February 2022. These are two different stories.

A second mistake is assuming the extension will keep renewing automatically, as it has several times before. The extension to 4 March 2027 is tied to the current EU Council decision and doesn't guarantee a further extension after that date.

A third mistake is assuming that a long period of residence in Poland by itself grants temporary protection status. If your residence document was valid on 24 February 2022, it doesn't matter how many years you've lived in Poland — it doesn't make you a temporary protection beneficiary.

Rules change often — before taking action, always check the current requirements on the official government source referenced above.