The amendment to the law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens is more and more needed

By the Act of March 12, 2022 on helping Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict in that country, the Sejm of the Republic of Poland passed legislation granting Ukrainian citizens a number of rights and rights – in particular in terms of significantly facilitating the legalization of stay for people fleeing Russia’s aggression.

The adopted regulations – although they have opened the Polish borders to the influx of people from outside the European Union in an unprecedented way and granted them the right to stay and work legally – are becoming less and less relevant. It is worth recalling that the provisions of the act granted the right of legal residence and work to all Ukrainian citizens who came to Poland after February 24 this year, and therefore after the Russian aggression. However, the provisions of the act, which were created in a great hurry, were vague, not even specifying the status and possibilities of sheltering in Poland for people who left Ukraine for February 24 – for example, going on vacation – and then had nowhere to return to. This problem was also emphasized by the lawyers of our Law Firm – focused around the initiative of providing free legal assistance to refugees arriving in Poznań at the reception point at the Poznań Fair. It seems that with the establishment of a unified position of the Border Guard to legalize the stay of these people in relation to the granting of PESEL numbers and entry into the records, this problem disappeared.

However, almost 6 months have passed since the adoption of the act, and it has still not been clarified in terms of the rights of people who came to Poland before February 24, and their stay after that date was legal. This issue has been regulated in Art. 42 of the Act, which extends the period of legality of stay obtained before the outbreak of the war on the basis of a national visa or a temporary residence permit by operation of law until December 31, 2022.

It seems that this regulation should be changed, and the period of extending the stay equal to at least the period of legality of stay of persons who crossed the border after February 24. It is difficult to find a justification for differentiating the situation of people fleeing the war and people who, due to the war, cannot return to their own country – especially since the latter have already passed some verification in the Polish state administration, having obtained the right of residence on the basis of a visa or a residence permit. .

This situation requires the legislator to take steps now – especially since, according to the current content of the act, the period in which people who come to Poland after the outbreak of the war will be able – and at the same time will be obliged to do so – submit applications for legalization of stay on the basis of visa or temporary stay. It is not difficult to guess how large the scale of such applications will be and how much it can paralyze the work of public administration bodies.