Queue no more - Szczecin opens new service centre for foreigners

A new service centre for foreigners (Punkt Obsługi Cudzoziemców) was officially opened at the Voivodeship Office in Szczecin last week. The centre, located in a specially designed glass-enclosed structure in the office’s courtyard, will be able to serve twenty customers at a time, in matters related to their legal stay in Poland - including issuing of residence permits and work permits to third-country nationals, EU residents and their family members.

The new facility has been adapted to the needs of people with disabilities and equipped with a children’s play area. As indicated by Paweł Szefernaker, Secretary of State at the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration, one of the centre’s aims is to reduce long queues of customers and to speed up service times:

Provision of services to foreign nationals is one of the main tasks coordinated by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. We want to create the best possible conditions for businessmen and foreigners to take care of the required formalities, so that the procedure of obtaining residence permits and work permits becomes as efficient as possible. The centre will not only serve as a showpiece for the office but prove that we care about the quality of service received by foreigners.

The total cost of the project exceeded PLN 8.3 million, most of which (PLN 7.7 million) was financed by the European Union Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

According to data published by the Voivodeship Office in Szczecin, foreign nationals have been granted over 23,000 work permits and nearly 5,500 residence permits in the Szczecin area alone, since the beginning of 2020.

If you happen to live in Szczecin, remember that you may also visit The Information Centre for Foreigners (Centrum Informacji dla Cudzoziemców) in order to receive information and support in matters related to your everyday life in Poland.

Where do you come from? Find out the most common countries of origin for foreign residents in Poland