Poland: the type A permit and the D visa from New Delhi
A Polish employer obtains a type A permit from the voivode, then the Nepali worker applies for a national D visa at the Embassy of Poland in New Delhi.
Hiring a Nepali worker into Poland takes two separate decisions. First the employer obtains a type A work permit (zezwolenie na pracę) from the voivode of the region where the company sits. Then the worker applies for a national type D visa at the Polish mission covering Nepal, in practice the Embassy of Poland in New Delhi.
Step one: the voivode's type A permit
Under the procedure published on gov.pl, the employer files the type A application with the wojewoda of the region where the company is registered. The permit is issued naming the worker, the employer, the post and the salary. It is therefore not a document the worker owns; it is an approval for one specific job with one specific company. Change the employer or the job title and a new permit is needed.
Before the voivode signs, the file usually clears a labour market test. The local labour office, the powiatowy urząd pracy under the starosta, checks whether a Polish or EU candidate is available and issues a written opinion, the opinia starosty, on which the permit then rests. Which occupations are exempt is set regionally, so the same job title needs the test in one voivodeship and skips it in another. The permit once issued normally runs for up to three years.
Once it is issued, the employer has to send the original document to the worker. Polish consular requirements for 2026 state that the original type A (or type B) permit must be presented at the visa appointment. A scan or a photocopy is refused. For a Nepali hire, that single courier envelope is usually the weakest link in the chain, and losing it means cancelling the permit and reissuing it.
| Step | Who does it | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Type A permit | Employer | Voivode of the company's region |
| Sending the original | Employer | Courier to the worker |
| D visa application | Worker | Embassy of Poland, New Delhi |
| Labour approval | Worker and agency | Department of Foreign Employment, Nepal |
The regional detail of the permit itself, including how voivode practice varies by region, sits in the type A permit and the voivode.
Step two: the D visa from New Delhi
Poland has no visa section in Nepal. According to gov.pl/web/india, the mission covering Nepal is the Embassy of Poland in New Delhi, so Nepali applicants travel to India to file. The New Delhi visa application centre moved on 19 January 2026, so read the address off the appointment letter rather than an older listing.
Choose the visa category carefully. gov.pl is explicit that a type C Schengen visa covers work only up to 90 days. Anything longer needs the national type D visa, and sending a worker on a one year contract with a type C visa ends at the border.
Three items in the appointment file fail repeatedly. The original type A permit is the first. The second is legalisation. Nepal is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so a Nepali certificate cannot carry an apostille at all: it goes through full legalisation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kathmandu, then the Nepali embassy in New Delhi, then the Polish consular office, which is a longer chain than employers expect. The third is insurance, travel medical cover of at least EUR 30,000 valid for the whole visa period; an applicant who brings a three month policy for a twelve month visa is sent away the same day.
The trip itself is a budget line most employers leave out. Kathmandu to New Delhi and back, the Indian visa and the accommodation are a per candidate cost, and it is cheaper to move a cohort on one set of dates. Book those dates only once every original permit in the cohort is in hand.
Timeline and the two failure modes
The two clocks run in sequence, not in parallel. The first is the voivode's, and it varies by region and by the load in a given year. The second is the embassy's: Polish consular practice in 2026 commonly runs two to four weeks after the appointment. On top of both sit the Nepali labour approval and the travel to New Delhi. The country by country view in EU work permit timelines shows how that total compares with the other destinations.
The most expensive mistake is booking the appointment too early. A date taken before the permit is physically in hand means arriving without the original, a refused file, and another wait for a slot. The second is a mismatch: a contract written for a different job title than the one on the permit. The consulate reads both documents, sees the discrepancy, and stops the file.
Count forward from the day the voivode decides, not from the day the contract is signed. Our page for employers sets out how the permit, the embassy and the Nepali approval are held on one timeline.
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