Do American English teachers need a Work Permit for working residency?

Some say there is a waiver for English teachers...the immigration info office says you need it to get the working Karta Pobytu but they are only right about their own rules half of the time. If I don't need it a contract and tax number are all I need for the work section of the application and it makes it much, much easier.

Does anyone know for sure? If so who told you this and can you reference it for me?

Again...this is for an American...we have different rules than EU members. (I say this because I often get EU members telling me not to worry or this and that and it doesn't apply to me...)

Thanks.

Anyone? I am kind of under a time crunch and am not getting the info anywhere else. A few people have said here you dont' need the permit to teach English...can those people reply and explain how they know that please?

I am British and I am not sure of the process for Americans, but I have never heard of a 'waiver for English teachers' as regards a Karta Pobytu. I have been here for over seven years now and before entry into the EU I had exactly the same process as other foreign workers and I had to get a working permit and Karta Pobytu before I was allowed to work.

You can find more useful info here on setting up your own business which I would recommend and info about Karta Pobytu if fact if you do a search on this site you will find a lot of useful info.

When I worked as an English teacher in Krakow a few years back, my school was able to take advantage of a special exemption. I believe it only applies to schools which are also private high schools - liceum or gymnazjum. Basically, I was able to legally work with a contract provided by the high school, even though I was actually teaching in the language school part. I didn't need to get a karta pobytu for this.

Found the Polish government's own site with the laws. Bottom line:
Some foreigners who are teaching their native language do not require a work permit but it's not immediately clear to me if this applies to teachers in private schools.

But don't take my word for it, go to the government's site, print it out and see it you can make it apply to you:

isip.sejm.gov.pl/servlet/Search?todo=open&id=WDU20061561116

Also look around for later additions (most of the additions I saw didn't change anything regarding language teachers)

this page has a translation (WARNING: only the Polish version is enforceable so as much as possible stick with that).

europa.eu.int/eures/main.jsp?acro=free&lang=en&countryId=PL&fromCountryId=DK&accessing=1&content=1&restrictions=1&step=2

powodzenia!

A simple way around all of this is to do what a American friend of mine did and that was to marry his Polish girlfriend :)

But seriously, if you want to stay in Poland you will have to get the karta pobytu at sometime so I don't know why you are trying to avoid it...and it's not that big a deal.

Actually his problem IINM is not that he's avoiding getting the karta, he wants that, he's trying to find out if he needs a work permit (not so easy to get) to get the karta.

The work permit should be fairly easy to obtain, but your employer needs to do it not yourself.

Thanks to those who replied with useful info.

Mafketis is exactly right as to what I am doing.

Like everything else in Poland each requirement has another one you must do first that is infinitely more complicated. The Karta Pobytu is tough enough...but the work permit (which may or may not be required first) is much more difficult and often takes longer than you even legally allowed to stay here WITHOUT the Karta Pobytu...and then you STILL have to go through that process.

UKPolska...the wedding thing can work....but it takes just as long or longer (they say plan on 6 months of stuff) as Americans again have special requirements due to our marriage registration)...in addition my gf is not around anymore and that is too big of a deal to grab someone and ask.

I will look into the 'setting up a business" thing too...thanks.

For now hoping the waiver is real for my case.

Well setting up a business is exactly what I was talking about when I said it is much different for EU...and I am NOT EU.

Yeah its not to tough for EU members so they imagine it is like that for Americans...it is not. That is not going to work for me either.

I may be "fooked"

Everyone tells internet tales of how simple they did this or that but it never works like that in real life...

I think really you are looking at this in doom and gloom and need to remain positive as I know a few Americans in Lublin who have opened their own business and I will give them a phone call and see if they have time to advise you in anyway they can.

Try to contact Harry as well on this site as he is VERY knowledgeable on this subject; you can find him through the search feature in the top right hand corner.


It depends doesn't it! As my wife who is Polish deals with all of the legal side and it's easier for Polish to argue with these people than us. :)

Well...I am sans polish gf now....and yeah it was easier then but even she was at her wits end with it last time.

Its not doom and gloom its experience. Everything I have been told about how to do something here has been wrong or incomplete. Today I went to the Urzad Pracy (Labor Office) for the 2nd time they couldnt say YES OR NO and said come back next week and ask some other person who is only there like 15min during the full moon weeks or something crazy. That never works.

I find it impossible to believe that it changes with every Yank that does this...yet all Yanks I talk to have different stories ranging from "took 5 min" to "I lost 20kg and am on antidepressants now". And none of them followed the exact same steps.

The immigration office did the same. It is a YES OR NO question. I pointed this out...yes very politely :)...and got nothing but shrugged shoulders. I asked if he processed many American English teachers...he said yes...I asked if THEY needed it. "It depends"...but he couldn't say on what. I said "where can I find the criteria...it MUST be written somewhere or you would have no basis to make a decision" He seemed to understand but still couldn't say. HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT OVER AND OVER?? They accept the applications and tell you what is missing...so how do they know what to ask for if they don't have criteria? It's insane.

I tried changing my coat, pasting on a fake moustache and going in again a few minutes later asking the same things again hoping I would win the Polish information lottery (you know what I mean) but to no avail. My Magic 8-Ball is more informative.

I will follow the rules...tell me the rules and I will follow them :) Not in Bizzaroland!!

And thanks UKPolska for asking your pals ;)

I would set up a business if I could do it for sure and not pay out the bunghole for it and could get reliable instructions.,,but in the thread linked to above the American asking never did get his questions answered and sounds like he has been at this for years. Most advice on the subject is simply wrong or rumor. Unfortunately you won't know it until you waste yet more time and youth.

Harry wrote something in that thread that went something like "to get something done here you have to convince them it is easier to just do it than to string you along and have you keep pestering them". I don't possess such diplomatic skills....choking them and calling their mothers unspeakable names is not effective I have learned ;)

I am afraid that this is the way things are done in Poland and I had to go through exactly the same process as yourself before Poland's entry to the EU. I was even arrested and marched out of the school by the immigration Police back in 2002, for working illegally after the local immigration office lost all my details in a fire.

Harry is correct as you have to obtain all the related details print it out and shove it under their noses, at least that is what we have done a few times, we were told once by a woman who was deadly serous that 'English people cannot have a Polish driving licence because they drive on the other side of the road'. And that was two years ago and not a lot has changed since, and just goes to show you the level of frustration you will encounter from time to time.

The only other way is to go to your embassy in Warsaw and beg them for help. explain that you have so much conflicting advice that you are confused and contemplating suicide....that should do it.

The US embassy won't tell me anything I don't know (been through it) and they sure as hell can DO anything. Most people have a false idea about what embassies do and don't do.

Passport prob? US taxes or voting? Sure...but they are useless when it comes to anything having to do with Poland's internal law and procedure and even the anectdotal advice they have is not accurate I have found.

If I told them I was suicidal they'd probably forcably repatriate me and send me the bill...and they don't use economy priced tickets when they arrange it ;)

I actually think this is all an ingenious program by the immigration department to keep foreigners from settling here without having to outright say that's the plan ;)

I kid...but that would be diabolically brilliant...so it can't be true.

Viva La Polska!

Ha. The people at the ACS screwed me over a $100 not following the State Deparment's own regulations. They're as bad as Polish bureaucrats!

Is there a work permit waiver for English teachers from the USA? Yes but only if they work for a school which is approved by the Polish Ministry of Education. If they work for any other school they do need a work permit.

Can Americans open a one-person company? Yes and they follow precisely the same procedure as a Brit would.

I can post links to the appropriate regulations if anybody needs them.