Polish consulates introduced a new visa application requirement that affects families of relocated IT specialists

Why consulates started changing rules

Visa intermediaries started reporting the "six-month rule" in January. Apparently, it deviates from common practice: Most tried to verify this information via the VFS Global visa center website, but the AI consultant repeatedly wrote that "official information does not contain a requirement for six months of registration to apply for a Polish visa."

Nevertheless, such a rule is being applied. Apparently, it was introduced due to a widespread practice: if an applicant could not get an appointment in their region, intermediaries recommended they register in another where there were fewer applicants. As a rule, they themselves organized the registration. Now, consulates have begun to close this loophole.

"Husbands commute back and forth"

Olga Timkina, who deals with legalization issues in Poland, shared on Facebook how the new rules prevented a husband and wife from reuniting during a company's relocation to Poland.

"Given: a company with approximately 20 IT specialists. And IT specialists, as a rule, have families. Wives. Children. Getting a work visa now is not just difficult, it's very difficult. But my partners are wizards; they managed to get appointments. And then the quest begins. Visas for children were processed quickly at the Minsk consulate. Why? Because children don't need facial verification [...] But wives..." — wrote Olga.

In the Minsk consulate, there is no "reunification" visa category for spouses, but such a category exists in Grodno. It was decided to re-register the wives in that region.

The relocation took place at the end of 2025. The wives were successfully re-registered. But around the same time, the Grodno consul introduced the six-month rule.

"What to do? We wrote. We called. We explained. We asked. We spent a week on this. The answer was simple: 'Your problems.' Husbands commute back and forth. Wives are in Minsk. They can do nothing," — Olga describes the situation.

Then they decided to take another route — get invitations for the wives and apply in Minsk, without waiting for the Grodno registration to turn six months old. But for this, they had to return to their previous registration.

They gathered documents, "caught dates." But on February 9, the Minsk consulate introduced the same 6-month rule. If the women had re-registered at their original address, the six-month count would have started anew.

"Result: husbands work in Warsaw, wives cannot go to them simply because that's how the system is set up. We convinced everyone to wait until May-June and apply in Grodno for reunification. We very much hope that nothing new will be invented during this time," — wrote Olga.

• 1
• 1
• 3
• 8
• 1
• 0
• 4
• 0