Migrant EN

The labour market test is the procedure of acquiring information about the situation on the local labour market; such procedure should confirm the lack of eligible Polish nationals or EU nationals who could be employed in a given position.

This means that an alien may be granted a work permit for a specific employer inPolandonly under the condition that among the job seekers registered at the labour office there are none who would meet the job requirements. 

The procedure is as follows:

1. an employer submits to the District Labour Office a notification of a vacancy. Codes and names of occupations can be found at www.praca.gov.pl.;
2. labour office analyses the records of  the unemployed and job seekers;
3. if the analysis reveals an adequate number of persons meeting the requirements arising from the job description, the Labour Office organises the recruitment among the unemployed and job seekers;
4. labour office compares the amount of remuneration proposed by the employer with the remuneration that can be obtained in the same, or similar occupation or for performance of similar type of work - these sums should be similar;
5. The poviat governor (district governor) issues the relevant decision:

• if there is no person who can be recruited from among the unemployed and job seekers - within 7 days from the date of  placing the offer at the labour office;
• if recruitment among the persons registered at the Labour Office is possible, this period amounts to 14 days from the date of  placing the offer at the labour office;

6. Such decision issued by the  governor is passed to the employer who attaches it to an application for a work permit. 

Please note that job requirements understated or overstated in comparison with the normal scope of work to be performed in a given position by the alien are not taken into account during the procedure. 

Not every job requires a labour market test to be run by the labour office.

The labour market test is not required for example in the following circumstances:

1. work that is to be done is enumerated in the list of occupations which are in great demand, as provided for in the regulation of a voivode,
2. the validity of the work permit is to be extended for the same alien for the same job;
3. an alien is a citizen of the country bordering Poland or a country with which Poland cooperates on labour migration and who intends to work as a domestic worker or a care-giver;
4. an alien is a citizen of the country borderingPolandor a country with which  Polandcooperates  on labour migration and who, in the period immediately preceding the  application, for at least 3 months performed work for the same entity on the basis of the declaration of intention to entrust a job to a foreigner