"100-150 IT Specialists Apply For Visas In Minsk On One Date"

How entire companies are applying for Poland Business Harbour.

According to the latest figures, Poland Business Harbour visa was granted to 33+ thousand people (visas are issued to IT-specialists and their family members). Devby.io asked IT professionals to share with us how their companies organize the mass application process.

What you need to know about PBH

The Poland Business Harbour programme helps IT professionals, start-ups and entire companies relocate to Poland.

The programme includes issuing a national D23 visa, legal support for relocation, assistance in contacting local authorities, FEZs, investors, and grants.

Launched in September 2020.

The latest figures for the number of PBH visa holders were published in the Belarusians in Poland telegram channel with reference to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs - 33 845 (8469 from 24.02.22 to 30.04.22). This includes not only IT specialists, but also their family members.

It is worth noting that the number of people who received visas differs greatly from those who actually moved to Poland with them. In February (even before the war in Ukraine started), the Polish Border Committee wrote that since mid-2020 only 7.9 thousand Belarusians entered the country with PBH visa. This was about a third of all visa holders at that time.

With the outbreak of the war, the number of Belarusians wishing to obtain a PBH visa increased dramatically. This is evidenced, in particular, by the workload of Polish visa centres all over Belarus. The number of visa refusals has also increased. Our readers told us that now representatives of non-technical professions (e.g. business analysts) are often not granted a PBH.

Story 1: How the visa application process is organized

In our company (our source refused to name it, referring to the NDA) employees apply from two locations: Minsk and Tbilisi.

The process is as follows:

- The employee voices his/her desire for a relocation to the HR men;

- The HR men send a form/table with the personal data of the employee (and his/her family members, if necessary);

- They collect the data from all the applicants for some time (usually a week to a week and a half);

- Prepare a letter from the company with these data and send it to PAIH (Polish Agency for Trade and Investments, one of the coordinators of the Poland Business Harbour programme);

- a month and a half after the letter is received from the embassy with the date and time of application and a list of the company employees who are available for the next slot;

- the HRs prepares employees for submitting the documents at the embassy.

So far, the biggest difficulties with filing are in Georgia. We sent a small list of employees (10-15 people) to PAIH at the end of April. Only recently (in May) we received an answer: we were booked to apply in the middle of August.

In Minsk, it is easier with dates: a month and a half passes from the letter to PAIH to the date of application. Now, it may be longer, as they register 100-150 people for one date in Minsk.

There were no refusals in Minsk. In Georgia the first date will be in August - so we shall see.

Story 2: grocery company with the office in Minsk (staff - about 70 people).

In March, the company registered a legal entity in Poland and applied for inclusion into the list of PHB partner companies.

We interviewed our employees, found out the approximate number of applicants for visa.

On the Polish side, we had a representative who was in contact with the Polish consulate. He sent us a form, which had to be filled out by the visa applicants. In fact, this was an "invitation from the Polish company".

Since the 1st of February, Poland has toughened the conditions for obtaining a PBH visa. Now a visa applicant is required to have a recommendation from a PBH partner company. There are more than 300 of them.

We did not have to make an appointment at the consulate in Minsk - all was done by the HR department.

I sent my form around the 10th of March, and about the same time our company appeared in the list of PBH partners.

At the beginning of April, 15-20 company employees (some with their families) applied on one day. The whole group was given 2 hours to submit documents, but it took longer - partly because families with children were served without a queue.

For me, it only took 5 minutes.

Visas were issued in 16 days to all employees of the company - regardless of position and colour of passport (we have guys from Russia with Belarusian residence permits).

Story 3: Outsourcing company with the office in Minsk (about 100 people)

In April, the company announced that it could help with getting a visa. The applicants were divided into several groups. The first group of candidates included several dozens of employees.

The application was scheduled for the beginning of May. The date was postponed twice - first to the second half of May, then to June. We are waiting and hoping that it will not be postponed a third time. The reason for the postponements is the high workload in the visa centre, it cannot provide free dates for PAIH.