Poland Type A Work Permit for a Japanese Chef: 2026

Poland's 2025 reform replaced the labour market test with a county-level restricted occupations list, so check with your county (starosta) before you assume cooks are freely hireable. A type A work permit is not enough on its own: the chef still needs a national (type D) visa, which costs JPY 36,818 at the Tokyo embassy and is decided within 15 working days. Pay must not undercut a comparable Polish worker; GUS puts the national average gross wage for cooks at PLN 5,680.87 a month, well above the PLN 4,806 statutory floor for 2026. Budget about four months from a standing start to a first shift.

1. The type A permit and the 2025 reform

For a restaurant hiring its own chef, a type A work permit is the one that applies: work in Poland under a contract with an employer whose seat or branch is in Poland. Types B to E cover management-board members and foreign employers posting staff, and do not fit an ordinary restaurant hire.

The Act on the Conditions for the Admissibility of Employing Foreigners, in force from 1 June 2025, replaced the old labour market test with a different mechanism: county heads (starostas) can list occupations and types of work for which permits will not be issued in their county, typically after local redundancies or a major employer closing. We could not find one central, searchable public list covering every county's restrictions; ask the powiatowy urząd pracy (county labour office) for your restaurant's location directly whether cooks or restaurant work are currently restricted there before you rely on the permit going through.

2. What to pay: comparable pay and the GUS benchmark

A type A permit has three pay conditions: the contract must pay no less than a comparable Polish worker in a comparable role, monthly pay must be at or above the national minimum wage (PLN 4,806 a month, PLN 31.40 an hour, from 1 January 2026), and working time must run from a quarter of full time up to full time.

The comparable pay rule, not the minimum wage, is what actually limits your offer. Poland's statistics office, GUS, publishes an occupation-level wage survey every two years; the most recent edition, for October 2024, puts the national average gross monthly wage for cooks (occupational group 512) at PLN 5,680.87, against a whole-economy average of PLN 8,944.79. GUS does not break this figure out by city, and the survey is not repeated until October 2026 results are published, expected in 2027, so treat it as the floor of a reasonable range rather than a Warsaw-specific figure. If your chef is your most senior cook, benchmark against what you would pay a Polish head chef in the same role, not the average line cook.

3. After the permit: the national (type D) visa

A work permit is not a visa. Once the voivode issues it, the chef still applies for entry, normally a national (type D) visa at the Polish embassy or consulate that serves them. Poland's embassy in Japan publishes its own consular fee schedule:

The embassy's own visa page states a decision is issued within 15 working days, extendable to 30 for detailed document review. Build the type A permit's 12-month start-date limit and the visa's own processing time into one schedule; do not treat the permit as the finish line.

4. Applying, fees and your duties once the chef starts

1. Apply online through praca.gov.pl ("Zatrudnianie cudzoziemców", form ZC-WWZ), signed with a qualified signature or trusted profile, to the voivode.
2. Attach employer documents: identity or register extract, a statement of no criminal record signed within 30 days, proof of funds to meet your obligations, and a statement that pay is not lower than for comparable workers. Foreign-language documents need a sworn Polish translation.
3. Pay the fee: PLN 400 for work lasting over three months (PLN 200 up to three months).
4. Wait for the decision: no longer than a month, extendable to two in complicated cases. The start date cannot be more than 12 months after the application.

Once the chef starts: send the contract to the office through praca.gov.pl before their first day, sign it in writing with a translation the chef understands, give them a copy of the permit, and notify the voivode within 7 days of anything like a late start, a break of more than two months, or ending the job early. From 1 June 2026 these notifications go electronically only. Apply for a new permit if you change the role, the minimum pay or the working time beyond a proportional increase. Unpaid social security or tax, and signs the job is fictitious, are common refusal grounds; clean ZUS and tax records matter more than a persuasive application.

5. Offer letter template

Put pay, hours and duties in writing before you file. The chef will want it in Japanese to make the decision; the Polish text supports the comparable pay declaration in your application.

6. Cost total and backward schedule

7. Warsaw, Krakow and the working holiday route

Japan's foreign ministry counted 2,031 Japanese nationals in Poland as of 1 October 2025, down 9 percent on the previous year, with 1,545 long-term rather than permanent residents. MAFF's country-by-country restaurant count does not publish a separate Poland figure, so we cannot size the Japanese restaurant scene directly; on the ground, Warsaw and Krakow carry the largest concentrations and compete for the same small pool of cooks. Do not count on a resident Japanese community to staff a kitchen.

Japan and Poland have run a working holiday programme since 2015, capped at 500 places a year; see our European working holiday guide for what work it actually allows. For a permanent hire, type A remains the route, and our relocation guide and contract checklist will help you build an offer that meets the comparable pay rule while still attracting a good candidate.

General information checked against official Polish and Japanese government sources in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Polish rules on employing foreigners changed in 2025 and implementing practice, including county restricted-occupation lists, is still developing; confirm current details with the voivode's office, your local labour office and the Polish consulate before applying.