The Civic Platform aimed to exaggerate concerns about migration, according to government spokesman Piotr Müller speaking on Polsat News. He explained that the regulation intended to facilitate the entry of workers into Poland is unlikely to advance beyond the initial stage.
The government spokesperson shared his views on the plan during a live Polsat News segment.
This measure is a technical regulation, which the Civic Platform has tried to spin into a broader migration story. Yet Müller emphasized that it remains a technical rule and is unlikely to proceed, because misleading narratives have been circulating around it and have been amplified by the Civic Platform.
As he noted, the regulation would only modestly adjust how the Foreign Office organizes this process.
He expressed a hope that the measure would not be pursued further to avoid stoking public sentiment.
In a separate online recording, Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform described the document as part of a strategy to showcase mass immigration under the current government’s policy.
According to Tusk, the document in his hand proposes processing at least 400,000 visa applications in the coming year, with a focus on applicants from Asia and Africa. He warned that if the period were extended, more than a million applications could be handled, jokingly referring to it as a potential Kaczyński million.
Earlier reports from Dziennik Gazeta Prawna indicated that the government had halted work on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regulation designed to facilitate worker immigration from Asia.
The draft regulation has been under formal discussion since June 19 and, according to available information, legislative work has reached a stage of completion.
Read the latest coverage from DGP for context on this development.
Draft regulation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a draft regulation in June that outlines the countries where foreigners may submit visa applications directly through the ministry. The government website hosts the list, which enumerates 21 nations including Saudi Arabia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Philippines, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates.
The justification for allowing direct submission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs centers on delivering a more efficient service for applicants abroad. The project notes that a model similar to this had been tested in 2021 with Belarus due to particular needs and expectations at the time.
For the additional countries, the justification emphasizes the need to share visa processing responsibilities between consular staff and State Department officials acting under the authority of the Secretary of State, because the rising volume of visa applications has outpaced available personnel and the costs of processing abroad are increasing.
The authors of the project highlight that the expected rise in visa applications is linked to stronger demand from employers and entities operating in the Polish labor market looking to recruit foreign workers.
Under the proposed system, visa applications could be filed with the Minister responsible for Foreign Affairs when external service providers are involved in accordance with Article 43 of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009, commonly known as the Visa Code. This means that the regulation would not trigger automatic visa approvals in all countries on day one, but would be implemented in phases after consulates commence services via external visa outsourcing. This approach is intended to ensure the proposed system operates with sufficient efficiency.
The term visa outsourcing describes a process where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions collaborate with external service providers to act as intermediaries between applicants and Polish missions. They might provide information on visa conditions, collect applicant data, receive applications, and collect fees as part of this service arrangement.
The project file notes that visa outsourcing is part of broader efforts to streamline processing and improve service levels for foreigners seeking employment in Poland.
The discussion and documentation have been carried under the umbrella of public service reforms aimed at aligning administrative capacity with demand from a growing labor market, while maintaining stringent security and border-control standards.