Poland will not be issuing student visas to foreigners without high school diplomas in a bid to stop people from overseas abusing such documents to work in the EU, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has announced.
A scandal erupted when the Polish daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported in May that some foreign nationals were obtaining student visas despite being ineligible for university admission in their own countries.
These individuals often failed to attend the universities they were supposed to study at, instead using the visa to work in the Schengen Area, Sikorski told commercial TV broadcaster TVN 24 on Monday.
“A student visa grants the right to work for one year, which led to numerous cases where individuals obtained visas and never attended the university that facilitated their entry,” Sikorski said.
He added that the new rules are needed to ensure that only genuine students are granted visas, thereby protecting the integrity of the Polish education system.
Sikorski made it clear that the system cannot be used to circumvent labor regulations. He added that universities had previously struggled to address this issue independently, necessitating the new government guidelines.
The foreign ministry said in a press release on Monday: “This… does not introduce any new legal measures; it merely consolidates the principles of applying existing laws, including those related to verifying the credibility of foreigners applying for visas.”
It added that the requirement for foreign students to have their diplomas verified by Polish authorities should have been standard practice, but it has been inconsistently enforced by some universities.
These individuals often failed to attend the universities they were supposed to study at, instead using the visa to work in the Schengen Area, Sikorski told commercial TV broadcaster TVN 24 on Monday.
“A student visa grants the right to work for one year, which led to numerous cases where individuals obtained visas and never attended the university that facilitated their entry,” Sikorski said.
He added that the new rules are needed to ensure that only genuine students are granted visas, thereby protecting the integrity of the Polish education system.
Sikorski made it clear that the system cannot be used to circumvent labor regulations. He added that universities had previously struggled to address this issue independently, necessitating the new government guidelines.
The foreign ministry said in a press release on Monday: “This… does not introduce any new legal measures; it merely consolidates the principles of applying existing laws, including those related to verifying the credibility of foreigners applying for visas.”
It added that the requirement for foreign students to have their diplomas verified by Polish authorities should have been standard practice, but it has been inconsistently enforced by some universities.
"In practice, this has placed foreign applicants in a privileged position over Polish citizens applying for higher education," the ministry said.
According to Sikorski, providing a high school diploma as part of the university application process is standard and should not be considered an extraordinary demand.
The new guidelines are also connected to an ongoing cash-for-visas scandal involving alleged corruption in the issuance of travel visas to hundreds of thousands of migrants by Poland’s former Law and Justice government. The new administration, in office since December, has established a parliamentary commission to investigate the claims.
The Gazeta Wyborcza daily suggested that up to 350,000 visas might have been issued between 2021 and 2023 in exchange for bribes to nationals from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, and Nigeria. However, later investigations indicated that this figure may have been considerably exaggerated.
Polish news portal OKO.press reported, about 34,000 people from these countries entered Poland legally during that period. Many of these individuals arrived for work, family reunification, or studies, while a significant number crossed the border in 2022 to escape the war in Ukraine.
A total of 607 people so far are believed to have received visas in a corrupt procedure, OKO.press reported, citing prosecutors.
Nine individuals have been detained in connection with the visa scandal in Poland, with the most prominent figure named by the authorities as “Piotr W.,” a former deputy foreign minister in the previous Law and Justice government.
Piotr W. was arrested for his alleged role in expediting the issuance of work visas in exchange for bribes.
According to Sikorski, providing a high school diploma as part of the university application process is standard and should not be considered an extraordinary demand.
Cash-for-visas scandal
The new guidelines are also connected to an ongoing cash-for-visas scandal involving alleged corruption in the issuance of travel visas to hundreds of thousands of migrants by Poland’s former Law and Justice government. The new administration, in office since December, has established a parliamentary commission to investigate the claims.
The Gazeta Wyborcza daily suggested that up to 350,000 visas might have been issued between 2021 and 2023 in exchange for bribes to nationals from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, and Nigeria. However, later investigations indicated that this figure may have been considerably exaggerated.
Polish news portal OKO.press reported, about 34,000 people from these countries entered Poland legally during that period. Many of these individuals arrived for work, family reunification, or studies, while a significant number crossed the border in 2022 to escape the war in Ukraine.
A total of 607 people so far are believed to have received visas in a corrupt procedure, OKO.press reported, citing prosecutors.
Nine individuals have been detained in connection with the visa scandal in Poland, with the most prominent figure named by the authorities as “Piotr W.,” a former deputy foreign minister in the previous Law and Justice government.
Piotr W. was arrested for his alleged role in expediting the issuance of work visas in exchange for bribes.
Source: PAP, oko,press, fakty.tvn24.pl, TVP World
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