Last year, Poland issued 683,228 residence permits. Second is Germany (535,400), then Great Britain (517,000) and France (250,200). In 2017, 3.1 million permits had been issued in the whole of the EU, reports Eurostat.
The majority of people receiving residency in Poland were Ukrainians. In 2017, they took up 85.7 percent (585, 439 people) of all the approved applications. Second were Belarusians (42, 756) and third were Moldavians (7,803).
The majority of people receiving residency in Poland were Ukrainians
Poland is third when it comes to permits issued per 1,000 citizens – 18.
In comparison, the only countries to have given out more are Malta (23) and Cyprus (22). Both of those countries, however, find themselves directly on migration routes from North Africa and the Middle East.
The most common reason for a permit to be given out in Poland is for work – 87 percent (59 percent of all the approved permits in the EU are intended for that purpose). Italy, Spain and Belgium issue the majority of their permits due to family reasons – uniting couples and families, for example.
