This page is for people who arrived from Ukraine on or after 24 February 2022 or who are helping relatives get their status in Poland. It covers the conditions, the steps to UKR status, the rights it gives and what changed in 2026.
Who can get temporary protection?
Protection is granted to people who left Ukraine because of the war. Under the 2022 EU decision, they are:
- Ukrainian citizens who lived in Ukraine before 24 February 2022;
- stateless persons and citizens of other countries who had international or equivalent national protection in Ukraine before that date;
- family members of people in the two previous groups: a husband or wife, minor unmarried children (their own or their spouse’s) and close relatives who lived together and were dependent, if the family was in Ukraine before 24 February 2022. An unmarried partner is treated as a spouse only where national law does so.
Polish law adds children born in Poland, if their father or mother has temporary protection and the child is not a citizen of Poland or another EU country.
Protection in Poland is not granted to people who have a permanent or temporary residence permit here, an EU long-term resident permit, refugee status, subsidiary protection, or consent for tolerated or humanitarian stay, or to those who have applied for international protection. It is also not granted to people who already have temporary protection in another EU country, to EU citizens or to those who entered under a local border traffic permit.
For those who already had PESEL UKR on 30 September 2025, a 2025 law made an exception: former protection in another EU country did not take away their status. We have not found an official explanation of whether this exception still applies after 5 March 2026.
Military obligations requirement from 5 August 2026
From 5 August 2026, protection is granted only to those who have fulfilled their military obligations in Ukraine; where this is required, you must submit proof. The requirement applies to everyone who did not yet have temporary protection in Poland on 4 August 2026, including those who applied earlier but had not been granted protection by that day. It is up to the applicant to prove that they have fulfilled their obligations.
The preamble of the EU decision says that permission to leave is proven by a legal border crossing on exit from Ukraine or by an exit stamp in your passport. If a legal exit cannot be confirmed, you need an official document on paper or in electronic form, for example from the Reserv+ app.
The requirement does not apply to those who had temporary protection in a given EU country on or before 4 August 2026 and keep it in that same country without a break. The dates 4 and 5 August were set by a corrigendum to the EU decision; the official publication of 4 August first gave 30 and 31 July.
As of 12 October 2026, we have not found a Polish act or procedure that defines who checks this requirement and which documents gminas accept. There is only an announcement by the Office for Foreigners (UdSC) of 6 August 2026, which repeats the EU rule.
How do you get a PESEL number with UKR status?
A PESEL number is assigned in the Polish population register, and UKR status in that register means temporary protection. You apply for the number in person at the office of any gmina (the smallest administrative unit, similar to a municipality or a Ukrainian hromada) within 30 days of the day you cross the Polish border. If you do not apply within this period, your temporary protection ends.
- Bring a valid passport. The gmina confirms your identity using a valid travel document.
- Fill in the application on paper. You sign it by hand and legibly. If the application is for a child, it is filed by a parent, guardian, court-appointed representative (kurator), temporary guardian or a person who actually cares for the child; the child must be present.
- State your family ties. In the application you state how you are related to other holders of protection. The gmina checks these ties against civil status documents if they are not visible in the PESEL register.
- Give a photo and fingerprints. Fingerprints are not taken from children under 6.
A refusal is issued as an administrative decision, and the law provides no appeal (odwołanie) against it. Together with the application, you can agree to automatic confirmation of a trusted profile (Profil Zaufany) for public online services. We cover the number and how to keep it in detail on the page PESEL and PESEL UKR.
Since 5 March 2026, holders of protection who are not Ukrainian citizens also receive PESEL UKR; UdSC no longer issues certificates of protection. Certificates issued before that date remain valid until the end of 4 March 2027, unless the holder is assigned PESEL UKR earlier. Those holders who arrived legally from Ukraine in connection with the war can get PESEL UKR without entering Poland again.
What does temporary protection give you?
Protection gives you the right to stay and work legally in Poland, but not an automatic right to all benefits.
| Area | What is provided |
|---|---|
| Stay | Legal from the day of entry for as long as the EU decision on temporary protection is in force, if the person arrived legally to benefit from protection |
| Work | Free access to the labor market; the employer notifies the district labor office (powiatowy urząd pracy, PUP) within 7 days of the start of work |
| Business | On the same terms as for Polish citizens |
| Health care | Free without insurance only for children under 18, pregnant women and women who have recently given birth, victims of torture or rape, residents of collective accommodation centers, and people injured as a result of the war who were brought to Poland for treatment. Everyone else gets, without insurance, only care in case of a sudden threat to life or health, and other services come through insurance |
| Housing and food | The Minister of the Interior may provide them for no longer than 60 days from the first entry and no longer than 12 months from the start of the events for which the EU adopted the protection decision, that is, from 24 February 2022; by our calculation, this 12-month period ended in February 2023. Longer collective accommodation is provided only for vulnerable groups who cannot find housing on their own |
| Travel | The electronic protection document together with a passport gives the right to cross the border many times without a visa |
We explain how to get 800+ and other payments on the page Aid for Ukrainians in Poland.
What is the Dokument ochrony czasowej (formerly Diia.pl)?
This is now the name of the electronic temporary protection document in the mObywatel app: “Dokument ochrony czasowej (wcześniej Diia.pl)”. On 5 March 2026, the former Diia.pl became, by law, the protection document under the new act. According to mObywatel, the document can be used by Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and over who crossed the Ukrainian border after 24 February 2022 and have a PESEL number, an active trusted profile and active UKR status. Parents can download their child’s document. The document is canceled when UKR status changes to another one, for example CUKR or NUE.
The mObywatel page promises free movement in the Schengen area with this document. The law, however, says only that the document together with a passport gives the right to cross the border without a visa. Travel within the Schengen area relies on visa-free travel: a holder of a biometric Ukrainian passport can stay in Schengen countries for up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
When does protection end?
Temporary protection ends when a person:
- has not applied for PESEL UKR within 30 days of entry;
- has left Poland for more than 30 days;
- has renounced protection in writing at any gmina;
- has received a permanent or temporary residence permit, an EU resident permit, refugee status, subsidiary protection, or consent for tolerated or humanitarian stay;
- has applied for international protection in Poland (if the case ends with a final decision that does not grant international protection, including a refusal, leaving the application unexamined or discontinuing the case, temporary protection is restored);
- has received temporary protection in another EU country;
- has acquired the citizenship of Poland or another EU country.
In addition, the Head of the UdSC may, by a final decision, exclude a person from protection for security reasons or because of a serious crime. UKR status in the PESEL register is changed to NUE when a person has been excluded in this way, when circumstances arise in which the law does not grant protection, or when the EU decision has ended.
The 30-day rule applies separately from the 90 visa-free days in Schengen: leaving Poland for more than 30 days ends protection even if the visa-free period has not been used up.
Confirming your identity: two different deadlines
- PESEL assigned only on the basis of your own statement (oświadczenie), without any document. You had to confirm your identity at any gmina with a valid passport by 31 August 2026. From 1 September 2026, those who did not do so had their UKR status changed to NUE and lost the right to protection.
- PESEL assigned on the basis of a Pole’s Card (Karta Polaka), another document with a photo, a birth certificate or an invalid passport, and also if your passport has expired since then. You confirm your identity at a gmina within 60 days of the date your new passport is issued. According to UdSC, this is free of charge, and your PESEL number does not change.
What people whose status was changed to NUE can do is explained on the page PESEL and PESEL UKR.
Until what date is protection valid?
Under the law, until 4 March 2028. Article 106 of the Act on Granting Protection to Foreigners treats your stay as legal while the EU decision is in force, and Decision 2026/1912 extended protection until that date. UdSC announced the extension on 6 August 2026, and the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, in an information material on gov.pl, links the date 4 March 2028 to Article 106.
The UdSC pages on the CUKR card still say that UKR status is valid only until 4 March 2027: they were prepared earlier. Some deadlines in the 2022 special act also remain tied to 4 March 2027, including those for extended visas and residence cards and for the CUKR card application. We look at these dates in detail on the page Legal status in Poland.
When temporary protection ends, the law gives you 30 days to leave Poland; during this time your stay is legal.
Can you move to another EU country or leave for a while?
You can leave for a while, but for no more than 30 days; you cannot move and keep your protection in Poland. You can hold temporary protection in only one EU country: getting protection in another country ends it in Poland. The preamble of the 2026 EU decision says that countries should refuse a residence permit based on protection to anyone who already has such a permit in another country.
If you leave for another Schengen country, your UKR status can be changed on the basis of a departure application filed at a gmina. After you return, UKR status can be granted again on a new application, and the date of your re-entry will count as the date it was granted. According to the text of the EU decision, the exemption from the military obligations requirement applies only to those who keep protection in the same country without a break. We have not found a Polish explanation of how this applies to people who lost their status and apply again.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Missing the 30 days to apply for PESEL UKR after entry.
- Leaving Poland for more than 30 days, counting on the 90 visa-free days.
- Treating the document in mObywatel as a permit to travel around Schengen without a passport.
- Not confirming your identity within 60 days of getting a new passport, if your PESEL was assigned on the basis of another document or your old passport has expired.
- Taking the end date of protection from pages prepared before August 2026.