Polish hauliers run the largest road-freight fleet in the EU and cannot find drivers at home; the Philippines trains them for the Gulf, Japan, Korea and, since 2024, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. Putting a Filipino behind the wheel of a Polish truck is lawful and repeatable, but it is a chain of five documents issued by four authorities, and the order matters. This page sets the chain out, with the realistic timeline.
The voivode issues the work permit; the Polish Embassy in Manila the visa; the powiat office exchanges the licence; an accredited training centre runs the Code 95 course and the voivodeship examination board holds the state exam; PWPW issues the tachograph card; GITD issues the driver attestation to the carrier — not to the driver — for the period of the driver's employment and permit, up to five years. The attestation certifies that a third-country driver is lawfully employed by the Community-licensed carrier; it is checked at the roadside across the EU and is the document hauliers most often discover they need after the truck has left.
Since 1 June 2025 a Polish employer hires a Filipino on a work permit type A applied for electronically through praca.gov.pl at the voivodeship office for the place of work: no labour-market test, no starosta opinion, pay at least the statutory minimum and not lower than comparable employees, a written contract before work begins in a language the worker understands, a validity of up to three years, a fee of PLN 400 for work longer than three months (PLN 200 for up to three months) since 1 December 2025 (Regulation of 20 November 2025, Dz.U. 2025 poz. 1622). The statutory decision time is one month (two in complex cases); the national average in practice has lengthened to about 81 days in April 2026, and it varies by voivodeship. With the permit the worker applies for a national visa D through the Embassy's visa application centres in the Philippines — where appointment capacity, not the permit, is the real bottleneck of the Polish route — and, once in Poland, may switch to a temporary residence and work permit filed only through the MOS system since 27 April 2026. The declaration route (oświadczenie) that makes Poland fast for Ukrainians is not available to Philippine nationals.
Our group has recruited and deployed Filipino professional drivers for a Baltic haulier in one round of more than a hundred and for Czech operators, with the same chain — licence exchange, Code 95, qualification card, attestation — under each country's rules. Poland adds a longer visa-appointment queue in the Philippines and a larger domestic training infrastructure for Code 95; the haulier's part is the attestation and the fleet integration, ours is a tested shortlist, a complete file and a calendar that holds. Fleet operators planning hundreds of drivers over several years run pilot cohorts of ten to twenty first, because visa-appointment capacity in the Philippines, not the training schools, sets the throughput.
Recruitment runs through our own DMW-licensed agency, Prime Search Manpower Agency Inc. in Makati (licence DMW-027-LB-11182024): your company is accredited at the Migrant Workers Office in Prague, which has handled labour matters for Poland since December 2021, the job order is registered with the DMW, and every worker leaves Manila with a verified contract, medical clearance, pre-departure orientation and an Overseas Employment Certificate. Recruitment follows the employer-pays principle: no applicant pays for an interview, a trade test or a place on a shortlist. Your company is the employer from day one; we never employ or lease the workers.
Everything here is subject to the Act of 20 March 2025 on the conditions for entrusting work to foreigners, the Act on Foreigners, the voivode's practice in force, the Polish Embassy in Manila's appointment rules, Polish labour law and Philippine DMW rules.
For six months after residence starts; residents of more than 185 days must exchange it. As a Vienna Convention licence it is exchanged without a theory exam if the document conforms to the convention model.
Yes — the initial qualification (280 hours, or 140 accelerated for drivers aged 21 and over in C/C+E) and the state exam, entered in the licence or in a driver qualification card for drivers without a Polish licence.
The świadectwo kierowcy under Regulation (EC) 1072/2009, issued by GITD to the carrier for a third-country driver it lawfully employs; fee PLN 10 to PLN 40 by validity, decision within a month. The carrier applies via biznes.gov.pl.
Five to eight months from brief: three to five for the permit and the visa, then the licence exchange, the Code 95 course and exam, the tachograph card and the attestation in Poland.
Yes, a KRAZ temporary work agency may be the employer; the attestation is still issued to the carrier whose Community licence the driver works under.
General information for employers, not legal or migration advice. Rules change; we re-verify before each hire.