In Poland, Ukrainians increasingly face difficulties in obtaining PESEL UKR status

Ukrainian citizens arriving in Poland are increasingly reporting problems with obtaining temporary protection status. This concerns obtaining a PESEL UKR number, which grants them the right to legal residence, access to healthcare and employment without additional administrative procedures.

As reported by inPoland, some Polish institutions have begun to change their approaches to considering such applications.

According to the Polish publication DGP, one of the employers encountered a situation where a Ukrainian citizen who arrived directly from Ukraine for employment applied for a PESEL UKR number, but instead received a regular PESEL number with NUE status.

The local authority explained the decision by saying that the applicant comes from a region where there is no active hostilities at the time of the application, and therefore, according to officials, does not fall under the criteria for temporary protection.

Entrepreneurs and organizations that accompany Ukrainians in Poland emphasize that such cases are becoming more and more frequent. According to them, the institutions are more carefully checking the motives of arrival – whether a person really left Ukraine because of the war, or whether their move is exclusively economic in nature.

A separate problem remains the restoration of the UKR status for those Ukrainians who previously had temporary protection, but lost it due to a long absence in Poland.

Experts note that increased checks may affect both the labor market and the legal status of thousands of Ukrainians seeking temporary shelter or work abroad.