29.11.2019 – WHO CAN ENTER POLAND UNDER THE VISA-FREE TRAVEL?

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Some foreigners are not required to have visas or other documents that allow them to enter and stay in Poland. These people travel to Poland under the visa-free travel. The total time of stay in Schengen member states (including Poland) without the visa cannot be longer than 90 days in the period of every 180 days.

Schengen member states include: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Spain, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland (the last 4 countries are part of the Schengen Area, but don’t belong to the EU).

Attention: The Great Britain, Ireland, Cyprus, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania are EU member states that are not part of the Schengen Area.

The Governor relevant to the place of the foreigner’s stay in Poland under the visa-free travel can extend the period of stay in Poland, in justified cases, for the next 90 days if such possibly is provided for in the visa waiver agreement. The extension of stay for the next 90 days under the visa-free travel is complete when a confirmation stamp is put in the foreigner’s travel document

Foreigners not required to have a valid Schengen visa include:

  • Albania (only citizens with biometric passports are not required to have visas)
  • Montenegro (only citizens with biometric passports are not required to have visas)
  • Georgia (only citizens with biometric passports are not required to have visas)
  • Moldavia (only citizens with biometric passports issued according to the ICAO standards are not required to have visas)
  • Ukraine (only citizens with biometric passports are not required to have visas)

During their stay without a visa, foreigners have to meet the following conditions:

  • possess a valid travel document,
  • be able to explain the purpose and conditions of the planned stay and
  • possess sufficient means of support or the way to legally acquire them,
  • is not the person, who has been registered in the Schengen Information System as not permitted to enter, and
  • is not considered a threat to public order, internal security, public health or international relations with other member states, in particular the person has not been registered as not permitted to enter in national data bases of member states.

The European Commission has posted a special calculator for calculating short-term stays under the visa-free travel in the website of the Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs.

After entering it, there are empty gaps, which you have to fill in respectively: in the gap  (Date of entry/Control), write the date of the planned control or the date of entry. Then, in the next gaps – (Enter previous stay(s) in the Schengen area): dates of all entries and leaves from the Schengen Area member states.

After entering all data, the calculator will automatically calculate and show in the third gap how many days have already been used (from the allowed limit of 90 days of stay for every 180 days). Moreover, the calculator will automatically show the earliest possible date of entry to the Schengen Area member countries.

The Schengen calculator can be found here:

https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/content/visa-calculator_en