Employee Relocation to Poland – What Does the Company Need to Organise?

When a company brings in a specialist from abroad, transporting their belongings is the smallest worry. Employee relocation is a package: legalising stay and work, housing, a PESEL number, a bank account, school for the children, sometimes a language course. The move is one item out of ten, and usually the one that goes most smoothly.

Below is the list we go through with HR departments for relocations to Wrocław and the surrounding area — what's on the company's side, what's on the employee's side, and in what order.

1. Basis for stay and work. For EU citizens, registering a stay of over three months is enough. From outside the EU — a work permit or a declaration, plus a visa or residence card.
2. Relocation budget and its scope. What does the company cover: transporting belongings, the first rental, the deposit, the family's flight, school? Setting this out from the start saves misunderstandings in month three.
3. Temporary housing for the first few weeks. A long-term rental almost always requires a PESEL number and an employment contract, which the employee doesn't have yet.
4. A contact person who speaks Polish. Someone who'll go with the employee to an office or call on their behalf — this shortens the paperwork by weeks.
5. A date for transporting belongings agreed with the start date of work, so the container doesn't arrive before the flat does.

• Registering the address of residence at the municipal office.
• A PESEL number — needed for the clinic, the bank, the tax office and renting a flat.
• A residence card, if the employee is from outside the EU; the application is filed with the voivodeship office before the visa expires.
• A bank account and a NIP number, if they settle their own taxes.
• Enrolling children in school or nursery — in the local catchment area or at an international school.
• Exchanging a driving licence, if it's from outside the European Union.

For a move from outside the European Union, personal belongings enter as transfer of residence goods — free of customs duty and VAT, provided the conditions on length of stay and use of the items are met. For a move from within the EU, there's no clearance at all — only the timing matters.

Two options companies choose most often:

• Full transport — the employee's whole household travels to Poland. Makes sense for a relocation lasting years, with family.
• Hand-carry transport — a dozen or so boxes, work equipment, personal items, the rest stays behind or goes into storage. Makes sense for a one-year contract or when the flat is furnished.

In both cases, it's worth agreeing in advance who receives the items if the employee hasn't arrived yet — and whether there's somewhere to store them. For us, that's a unit in our Wrocław warehouse, billed for the storage period.

• Deposit and first rent at once. Renting in Poland usually means three times the monthly amount up front — without it, the employee won't sign the lease.
• Clinic and family insurance. Work-based insurance covers the employee; the family needs to be registered separately.
• A pet. A microchip, a rabies vaccination and a veterinary certificate is a matter of a few weeks, and for some destinations, a few months.
• A car on foreign plates and the deadline for re-registering it.
• The return. A contract ends at some point — it's worth knowing whether the company also covers the transport back.

Do you handle the paperwork, or only the transport?

Transport, storage and customs clearance of belongings. For legalising stay and work, we work with law firms, but that's a separate service — we say this plainly, so no one expects the paperwork to be sorted out as part of the move.

Do you invoice the company when an employee relocates?

Yes, that's standard for relocations. The invoice breaks down transport, the crew's work, materials and any storage.

How many employees can you relocate at once?

We've relocated single people and entire teams. For a larger group, we schedule transports in the order of the start dates, not all at once.

What about belongings that stay in the country of origin?

They can wait with a partner from the FEDEMAC network or come with a second transport. For transfer-of-residence goods, you then need to watch the twelve-month deadline for declaring them.