Under the Poland.Business Harbour program, Poland has issued approximately 93,500 special work visas to IT professionals and their families over the last three years, allowing them to settle in the nation. Only about 13,500 of them, nevertheless, have really used these visas to enter Poland between September 2020 and September 2023. Authorities now worry about the intended beneficiaries’ whereabouts as a result of this.

The Poland.Business Harbour initiative was first introduced by the government in September 2020 for inhabitants of Belarus, according to Rzeczpospolita. At first, the program offered small- and medium-sized business owners, IT industry professionals, and their families an expedited visa pathway.

The program was then extended to Russian, Georgian, Ukrainian, and Moldovan citizens in July 2021. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participants in this program could work in Poland without obtaining a separate work permit.

Furthermore, data from Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicates that up to 44 different nations’ citizens are granted this specific kind of special work visa. The organizations in charge of the scheme, although, have not been able to offer precise information about how many people have actually entered the nation via it.

The Polish Investment and Trade Agency’s Marcin Graczyk addressed these worries by stating that the organization is not in charge of granting visas and, as a result, is unable to offer any more details regarding the total number of foreign nationals living in Poland at this time.Visa for Business Harbour.

Based on the information at hand, businesses have registered about 83,000 individuals who have moved to Poland since the program’s start. However, just 1 in 7 of the foreigners who were granted a special work visa actually moved to Poland throughout this three-year period, according to Rzeczpospolita.

According to data from the Border Guard Headquarters, 1,114 foreign nationals entered Poland with this kind of visa in 2020. About 6,600 and 3,300 foreign nationals with special work visas entered the nation in 2021 and 2022, respectively. According to data from the Border Guard Headquarters for the current year, 13,500 foreign nationals entered Poland using special work visas between January and September 2023.

Based on this statistics, it appears that a much smaller number of IT specialists and business owners than expected have relocated to Poland after being given a special work visa. A tax advisor made the observation that these figures cannot be exclusively ascribed to resignations, and SoDA vice president Konrad Weiske underlined the urgency of getting this matter clarified.