FAQ

First of all, you have to remember that studies in English are payable for everyone, both Poles and international students. As to studies in Polish they are free of charge only for Polish citizens and for the following groups of candidates from abroad:

• citizenship of one of UE, EFTA, EEA countries (or one of your family members has one),
• temporary residence permit due to some special circumstances (referred to in Articles: 159 section 1, or Article 186 section 1 subsections 3 or 4 of the Act of 12 December 2013 on foreigners),
• permanent residence permit,
• long-term EU-resident permit,
• refugee status (as well as beneficiaries of temporary and subsidiary protection).
• holders of the Pole’s Card,
• holders of the formal decision on Polish origin
• spouses, children and parents of the Polish citizen, if residing in the territory of Poland
• holders of the C1 level certificate in Polish language issued by the State Commission for the Certification of Proficiency in Polish as a Foreign Language

Please note: Foreigner can be exempted from tuition fee payment on the basis of the decision of the minister or the director of Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange on granting a scholarship.

To begin with, remember that student who is willing to transfer to the UW has to complete the first year of his/her studies at his/her home university.

To start the procedure, go to the recruitment website and then ‘transfers from other universities’. For studies provided in English language, please go to the “Studies” field and choose “Studies in English” option in the “Filters” section. Then please confirm your choice.

You will find detailed qualification rules and a list of required documents on each study page. Additionally, each Faculty provides a contact to Recruitment Coordinator for transfer from another University, who will be able to help you with formal matters.

Criteria which are considered for a transfer decision:

• the average of the candidate’s grades from the previous course of study,
• programme differences resulting from different study plans,
• the candidate’s life situation.

University of Warsaw has rich and constantly growing offer of studies in English language dedicated to international students. Right now we have 32 programmes in English on Bachelor and Master level:

As to doctoral studies, University provides four full-time PhD programmes that are held in English, but most faculties run individual PhD programmes for international students anyway. In order to gain more information, you can contact a faculty that you are interested in studying in. List of faculties at the UW is available here.

Admissions’ starting date varies depending on a faculty. Most admissions begin somewhere between April and June. In order to be sure, check the registration website often.

Usually there is no winter intake for English courses.

Yes, every student that applies for a course in English is bound to present a specific document that proves that she/he is able to study in this language. List of certificates that are acceptable at the UW can be found here.

Full list of documents necessary in the process of applying for studies at the UW is available here.

International candidates for studies at the UW can benefit from scholarships that are offered by Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange – NAWA (click here for more information) or Visegrad Fund (click here for more information).

Yes, the University of Warsaw offers 2800 places in six residence halls situated in various parts of the city. Each hall has a quiet study lounge, a TV room, a computer room and laundry facilities. Monthly rent ranges from EUR 80 to 150 (PLN 325-620) per person, depending on the type of room.

If you are an international student coming to study on a BA or MA degree programme at UW, you can apply for a room via USOSweb, short-term students, on the other hand, have assigned accommodation from the pool of places available in dormitories prior to their arrival. You can obtain all the necessary information about on-campus accommodation from our International Relations Office.

Health insurance in Poland is not obligatory but nevertheless is highly recommended. Without having it you may be charged with a huge bill if something happens to you.

There are two types of health insurance in Poland: public and private one. We cannot recommend you any private insurance company, but it should be really easy for your to find variety of such companies on the Internet. As to public insurance system in Poland, you can learn more about it here.

EU citizens are eligible for free health services in Poland providing that they present a valid European Health Insurance Card.

First of all, you have to remember that the registration process for obligatory subjects may vary in different faculties. Usually, you register for them through your own USOSweb account (Student’s Section –> Registrations).

For other classes (such as PE, language classes and so on) you register through special token registration service. Click here to check the website.

There is such possibility but only if lecturer approves it. If you already got a ‘yes’, you can fill in an application in USOSweb (Student’s Section –> Applications –> submit a new application). Application (filled in, printed and signed by you and professor) should be than delivered to the dean’s office of your faculty.

Students from abroad studying at the UW have a right to learn Polish language for free. If you do not have tokens for Polish language course on your USOS account already, contact your faculty and ask for them. They should be given to you straight away.

Have you changed your password already? If not, do it, because it is necessary for edu-roam to work properly. It is possible on this website. Also make sure that you are using right username. Correct one should look like this: <PESEL>@uw.edu.pl. You do not know what PESEL is? It is 11-digit number that you should have received from the University via e-mail when you have been admitted.

If you are still having troubles with logging into Edu-roam, that might be because you have an iPhone or an iPad (or basically any device with Apple iOS system). If that is the case, enter this website, click on ‘Kliknij, by pobrać instalator eduroam’ banner and choose ‘Uniwersytet Warszawski’ from the list that will pop out. After that click on ‘Wybierz inny instalator do pobrania’ and choose your operating system. You will download an installer specific for your iOS. After installing it your internet should work just fine. If you do not know how to proceed, check out our instruction.

If you are not a citizen of one of EU, EFTA or EEA countries, then yes, you definitely should legalize your stay in Poland. First of all, you have to find out whether you are allowed to enter the territory of Poland without a visa or not. List of visa-free countries is available on the website of Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If your home country is not on the list, then you should apply for a visa type ‘D’ (Individual Country Visa) with ‘09’ sticker (pursuit of first cycle, second cycle degree, uniform master’s degree or attending a third cycle studies programme) in Polish consulate (search engine for Polish offices abroad can be found here).

Students who have entered Poland on basis of visa-free movement and those whose visas are about to expire have to legalize their stay. You can read more about procedures of legalization of stay here.

Welcome Point office provides all necessary information on its website here. Please also check the website of the Office for Foreigners: https://udsc.gov.pl/en/cudzoziemcy/

You have to create your account in the inPOL portal.

The instruction how to do it is here

• 2 copies of the application for a temporary residence permit (download the application from the Office for Foreigners website, you can also use our instruction on how to fill in such an application);
• 4 recent colour photographs;
• a valid travel document (passport, 2 photocopies);
• confirmation from the university of acceptance for studies or continuation of studies, or a certificate of participation in training course (certificate is issued by the Faculty office);
• proof of payment of the required tuition/course fee, if they are payable;
• documents confirming having health insurance or coverage by the insurer of the cost of treatment in Poland;
• evidence of sufficient funds to cover the costs of living and return travel to the country of origin or residence and the cost of tuition/training course.
• transcript of records
• information about utilities expenses (such as electricity, water, waste disposal, heating, and sewage)

Documents drawn up in a foreign language should be submitted together with their translations into Polish made by a sworn translator.

You can search the sworn translator through the website of the Ministry of Justice.

You don’t have to worry; we have prepared an instruction that will help you in this.

You should have a minimum amount of PLN 776 + rental and utilities fees for each month of stay (this amount is specified in the Act of 12 March 2004 on social aid and at the time of publication is the abovementioned sum of money).

If you are the second/third year student, then you should show PLN 776 + rental and utilities fees per month +3 months of the graduation date which is written at the University statement.

Additionally, you should have funds to cover the cost of return travel to the country of your origin:

PLN 200 if you are from one of Poland’s neighboring states;

PLN 500 if you are from other EU country (not neighboring with Poland);

PLN 2500 when you arrived from a third country (not belonging to EU);

Documents that can confirm the possibility for a foreigner to obtain financial resources to cover the costs of living in the territory of the Republic of Poland and a return trip to the country of origin are:

• a certificate of the limit on your credit card issued by the bank that issued the credit card
• a certificate of having funds on an account from a bank based in Poland
• a certificate of awarding the scholarship
• a certificate of employment and amount of earnings

Certificates must be issued not earlier than one month before the date of submission of the application for a temporary residence permit.

Please remember that documents drawn up in a foreign language should be submitted together with their translations into Polish made by a sworn translator.

If you live in Warsaw, you should submit your documents to Mazowieckie Province Office, Department of Foreigners, Marszałkowska 3/5, ground floor, stands 10-11, rooms 14 and 16.

Office hours:

340 PLN at the time of submission of the application and 25 PLN for the residence card upon receipt of the decision. If you have a Polish bank account, you can transfer money before visiting the office and print out a confirmation (it must be in Polish) to avoid queues.

Transfer details:

Centrum Obsługi Podatnika
ul. Obozowa 57, 01-161 Warszawa
21 1030 1508 0000 0005 5000 0070

Otherwise you can also pay at the Department for Foreigners. To do this, you need to fill out a short form, which you will find there – the instructions how to do it is here.

If you do not agree with the decision received, you can appeal to the Head of the Office for Foreigners (Szef urzędu ds. Cudzoziemców) via the voivode who has issued the decision. Written appeal letter should be submitted within 14 calendar days from the date of receipt of the decision.

Due to a significant increase in incoming applications for residence permits, there are delays in the timely administrative process. You have to wait for correspondence in your case sent via the Polish Post Office, or other information about an extension or termination of the proceedings.

Remember that you must inform the Office of any change in your address and mailing address by submitting a letter through the application office or by post.

The application office in the seat of the Department of  Foreigners, Marszałkowska 3/5 (stand 8 after collecting the “A” ticket, ground floor)

Admission hours:

Monday: 10:00 am – 5:30 pm,

Tuesday – Friday 8:00 am – 3:00 pm

Customer Service Point of the Mazovian Voivodeship Office, pl. Bankowy 3/5, entrance F from Al. Solidarności

Admission hours:

Monday – Friday 8:00 – 16:00

In such a situation an application for discontinuance of the proceedings should be made.  You can legally leave the territory of Poland if you have a valid residence title, e.g.: residence card, visa, under the visa-free regime, having a stamp in your passport confirming the application for legalization of your stay.

In this situation, you can also apply for a refund of the stamp duty – you can find the form here (‘Podanie o zwrot opłaty wniesionej na konto Mazowieckiego Urzędu Wojewódzkiego’).

Fortunately, the appeal does not have to be written in advanced legal language, so we advise you to use online translators and send a document to Welcome Point to correct any mistakes. You can also use the assistance of one of the NGOs described in this section.

You have to attach all the documents that will show the authorities that you still fulfill all requirements for obtainingthe residence card. That means that the missing documents are crucial, but you also have to make sure they still have your valid insurance, validlease agreement, valid bank statement and so on. As the procedures take such a long time it is possible that those that were attached at the beginning of the procedure are simply no longer valid.

Yes, there are several organizations that provide free advice on legalization of stay:

Polish Migration Forum Foundation: https://forummigracyjne.org/

Association For Legal Intervention: https://interwencjaprawna.pl/en/

Fundacja Ocalenie: https://ocalenie.org.pl/

Yes, you should write a request to speed up the proceedings and describe your situation in great detail. Please note that all the documents submitted to the Office, including the letter of request, have to be in Polish. Then your case should be considered individually. More information on this topic can be found on the website of the Association For Legal Intervention.

It’s very good that your friend translated this letter for you. Everyone should ask for help in translating documents in Polish and check once again if they have surely attached all documents from the list. If it turns out that you have forgotten about a document, you must provide it within 14 days. If you are convinced that you have delivered everything, you have nothing to worry about.

No, you don’t. You only need to translate the document through a sworn translator and make sure that it will be valid for the entire duration of your planned stay in Poland. Please also make sure that your insurance covers health service in Poland.

You can submit the missing documents at the headquarters of the Department of Foreigners at Marszałkowska 3/5 in Warsaw – entresol, room A08 (stand 18).

Before that you have to make an appointment via the online calendar – you must obtain a “B ticket”, which is not available at the ticket machines at the headquarters of the Department of Foreigners.

Please note that in case of failure to submit a passport or application, you can submit them only upon prior appointment, with ticket “C”.
If you want to submit additional documents without a request from the Office, you can do it without a prior appointment, with a ticket “A”

Documents confirming the fact of having required financial resources may include a certificate on the limit on the credit card issued by the bank that issued the credit card (with a stamp); a certificate of having funds on an account from a bank based in Poland; certificate of employment and amount of earnings, certificate of awarding the scholarship.

The appeal procedure usually lasts 7 months or more.

Your parents should submit a written statement that they are supporting you. They have to additionally attach their work agreement.

Remember that all the documents must be either prepared in Polish or translated into Polish by a sworn translator.

You should definitely authorize the person who will be able to receive correspondence from the mail on your behalf. This is because even if you do not receive your letter, it will be considered delivered (which is especially important in the case of negative decisions).