An investigation found the country’s former conservative government had pressured its consulates in Asia and Africa to issue Polish visas in exchange for cash, including to Russian nationals.
Poland announced it would tighten its visa regulations following a probe by state auditors who found that under the previous government, the country’s consulates in Asia and Africa took thousands of euros in exchange for work visas.
The new rules will also apply to students looking to obtain study visas in Poland, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said in a speech on Thursday.
Sikorski said that the right-wing Law and Justice or PiS party government, which developed the cash-for-visa scheme, lost control over the system from 2018 to 2023.
“We can confirm that, unfortunately, in a scandalous way, unlawful pressure was exercised over Polish consuls with the intention of increasing the number of visas issued to people … who should not necessarily obtain them, including the citizens of the Russian Federation,” Sikorski said.
The results of the investigation found 46 irregularities under the former government in five different areas, including a lack of transparency and poor supervision under Zbigniew Rau, the country’s former minister for foreign affairs.
The allegations that the strongly anti-migration party had sold thousands of temporary work visas hit the PiS party in the run-up to last year’s election, which they eventually lost to PM Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party.
At the time, Tusk called it “the biggest scandal in Poland in the 21st century.”
Between 2018 and early 2024, thousands of visas were issued to people paying large sums to agencies cooperating with Polish consulates. One agency issued over 4,200 visas over the six years, with some applicants paying as much as €7,000.
In one case, visas for dozens of Indian farmers were issued under documents describing them as Bollywood filmmakers, for which they paid up to $40,000 (€36,582).
Local media reported that the group had travelled to Poland before later going to the US.
Nationals from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the Philippines, Qatar and the UAE are also believed to have paid inflated fees for temporary visas.
Over 357,000 visas were granted to Russian citizens following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The audit chamber is weighing up whether to bring the case to prosecutors. Former Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk, who was dismissed in the fallout of the incident, has already been charged on the matter in a separate investigation by the country’s anti-corruption bureau.
