According to EU Helpers, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has stated that visas were not given in a controlled manner, which is why the program has been discontinued, as disclosed by the authorities.
Over the past year, a number of concerns have been brought forth regarding the program. Nevertheless, the decision to halt the program was made recently since it was necessary to thoroughly evaluate the circumstances.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the program's termination, stating that the nation's Business Harbor Program fell short of its objectives.
The same emphasized that there appeared to be anomalies in the procedure as the quantity of visas granted under the program did not match the goals or the demands of the market.
The Ministry went on to say that the initiative will stay on hold until the nation develops a way to confirm which people and businesses are actually benefiting from it.
In an effort to draw in IT professionals and businesses from Belarus, Poland introduced its Business Program in September 2020. Later, experts and businesses from other nations, including Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Armenia, were included to the program.
IT professionals and businesses were able to take advantage of a quicker migration path thanks to this program. This implies that anyone who qualified were free to relocate and find employment in Poland without being subject to onerous laws and regulations.
Given the benefits the program provided, many citizens of the qualifying nations filed for work visas in order to enter Poland. According to data, Poland had granted almost 93,500 visas under the program by September of last year, with Belarus accounting for the majority of the recipients.
Soon after, the figures dropped as a result of accusations that the Polish government had granted hundreds of visas in return for bribery. In exchange for money, the nation is said to have granted about 250,000 work visas to foreign citizens.
After the controversy, there were 6,500 work permits granted to foreign nationals in the second half of 2023 as opposed to 15,100 in the first half of the year.
Foreign IT specialists who seek to enter Poland for work will now need to go through the standard visa processes as the program has been suspended. The authorities stated that they will keep pushing to make the visa application process easier for the other sectors experiencing shortages.