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A visa scandal in Poland is gaining momentum. Last year it was revealed that Polish authorities were selling visas on the side for $5,000 a pop all the while staging the migrant drama at the border with Belarus. This year the visa saga has reached new heights. It turned out that Polish universities were involved in the scam, thanks to which enterprising “students” from Asia and Africa were able to move into the “paradise gardens” of Europe. Warsaw has already declared that the visa Eldorado is over. Rectors of private universities have been arrested in droves all over the country and the authorities have announced that regulations on granting visas to foreigners will be tightened.
The innovations have affected Belarusians as well. Belarusian IT specialists, who had moved to Poland, have already felt them. The program Poland Business Harbor has been closed for them while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has actually branded Belarusian IT specialists as foreign agents. Belarusian students in Poland, whose visa applications are now being denied, are next in line. And, judging by the rhetoric of Polish authorities, the visa policy will continue to tighten.
$5,000 a pop. How did the visa scandal begin?
For several years Polish authorities poured efforts into the migrant crisis. Warsaw described itself as an eastern shield, the purpose of which was to protect not only Poland, but also the entire European continent from the flood of refugees. It came to a point when Polish authorities moved army units to the border with Belarus. Meanwhile, a large-scale fraudulent scheme meant to make money on migrants was launched in the country.
In September 2023, just before parliamentary elections Poland was hit by perhaps one of the biggest corruption scandals in the country’s history. It turned out that a visa center in the Polish city of Lodz was selling visas to citizens from tens of countries, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran, for about $5,000 apiece.
It is worth noting that sales were booming. For comparison, in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 as many as 6,986 Bangladeshi citizens received Polish visas. In 2023 the number went all the way to 27,896 according to data from the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy of Poland. If we compare similar years, the number of Polish visa holders among Nepalese nationals rose from 9,175 to 35,287, that of citizens of the Philippines from 6,317 to 29,154, and India from 8,063 to 45,998.
The situation could be explained by the “entrepreneurial spirit” of some unscrupulous Poles. If it were not for two “buts”: the scale of the visa trade and the involvement of Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk in the scam. After the facts were published, the official was dismissed from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his name was promptly removed from the list of candidates nominated by the then ruling party Law and Justice (PiS).
While the PiS Party was in power, they tried to keep Wawrzyk’s case under wraps. This is not surprising. First, the story about the sale of visas at the level of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called into question the whole policy of the political party both in terms of migration threats and in terms of Belarus’ discreditation. Belarus was blamed for having provoked the migrant crisis. Secondly, the uncovered scam was obviously only the tip of the iceberg. It is highly doubtful that Wawrzyk could pull a fast one on those, who stood at the helm of power at that time - President Andrzej Duda, former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the “gray cardinal” of all Poland Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
This is how the current prime minister of Poland, and at that time the leader of the united opposition Donald Tusk commented on the situation: “They whipped up anti-migrant hysteria, attracted a record high number of migrants, made millions on visas and, finally, announced a referendum on migration. Lukashenko is an amateur compared to them,” Tusk said.
After the change of government and Tusk’s accession to power, the visa scam was dragged back into the spotlight as expected. In January Wawrzyk was detained. A commission of inquiry was set up, which included representatives of the Investigative Committee, the prosecution service, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Supreme Chamber of Control at the Polish parliament. Meanwhile, the case started getting additional details.
Affordable visas. How “dead souls” flooded Polish universities
Last month Poland’s Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior and Administration presented a white paper to explain causes behind the country’s migrant crisis. The document states that Poland has been experiencing unprecedented migration pressure since 2015. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the previous government took a number of uncoordinated actions that led to a loss of control over migration flows.
Thus, work permits were issued to foreigners in Poland without proper oversight, without taking into account priorities of the Polish foreign policy and the security policy as well as real needs of the Polish economy, the white paper said. The document drew special attention to the issuance of student visas to foreigners, who allegedly came to Poland to study only to emigrate to other Schengen zone countries.
It turned out that in some universities the percentage of foreign students exceeds 70%. Curiously enough, the number of foreigners studying in Polish universities decreases sharply by the second year of studies. For example, according to the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in 2022 the number of foreign first-year students was 59,439. Only half of them remained in 2023 or 31,517 people. One can conclude that many foreigners are attracted not by a Polish diploma, but by the opportunity to legally enter the Schengen zone through Poland.
According to the Polish publication Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, tens of thousands of people could have come to Poland under the pretext of studying. “Students from Rwanda, Turkey and Zimbabwe are eager to study in Poland, but they lose enthusiasm in the first year already. They go to university to get a visa. The idea is to cross the Schengen zone border. A student visa allows them to stay in the European Union and work legally. In practice, most foreigners do not start studying at all. They only pay tuition fees,” Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reads.
At the same time, some private educational institutions consider foreign students as a source of income. “They do not check the level of qualifications of those foreigners, who wish to study in Poland. For example, they cannot even check whether a candidate has a secondary school completion certificate,” said Poland’s Vice-Consul in India Mateusz Reszczyk at a session of the visa scandal investigation commission.
A year of studying business management in English at a Polish university costs €3,120. And it is an affordable price for foreigners wishing to enter the Schengen zone. Statistics reflects it: 61% of the students at the Higher School of Management and Administration in Opole are foreigners. Most of them will not stay beyond the first year.
“Many third countries have a widespread perception that Polish visas are easily accessible and relatively cheap,” findings of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration read. Getting a Polish visa, or rather buying one, is many times cheaper than looking for other ways to migrate and legalize someone’s stay in Schengen zone countries.
Meanwhile, a wave of arrests of rectors of private universities, who are accused of corruption, has swept across Poland. Such cases were recorded in Katowice, Krakow, Lodz, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Torun. A major investigation into an organized criminal group is also underway at a private university in Warsaw. Whether the detention of rectors is related to the visa scam has not yet been officially reported.
IT specialists turned agents. What surprises are in store for relocants?
According to the Polish MP Michal Szczerba, who chaired the visa scandal investigation commission, security agencies started getting the first signals about irregularities with visa issuance as early as mid-2022. But since the name of a high-ranking PiS Party official was involved in the case, the investigation was closed. The story unexpectedly surfaced before the parliamentary elections in Poland. Although in this case it would be correct to replace the word “unexpectedly” with “timely”. The ruling Law and Justice Party suffered significant damage to its reputation, which came in handy for their opponents.
The new government led by Tusk promised to bring the visa case to a conclusion and bring the guilty to justice. There is no need to doubt that it will happen. First of all, this is a great opportunity for Tusk to steamroll the PiS Party and cleanse the political field from his longtime opponents: Kaczynski and Morawiecki. Secondly, Tusk needs to somehow rehabilitate himself in the eyes of his European partners. After hearing the news about the visa fraud, Germany introduced border controls at its border with Poland, and German defense, security, and law enforcement agencies began pushing migrants back into Poland. In fact, Germans borrowed a page from the book of their Polish colleagues, who implemented this practice at the border with Belarus.
In early June, summarizing interim results of the commission’s work, Szczerba said: “For me the visa scandal was a betrayal of Polish ideals, a betrayal of European values. It was a contract, according to which a bribe determined who can enter Poland or the Schengen zone”.
According to his assessment, visas were issued “in absolutely huge quantities through various channels”. We are talking not only about work visas and student visas, but also visas available via certain programs. As an example Szczerba mentioned the Poland Business Harbor program, which provides a simplified procedure for granting a visa to IT specialists without the need to obtain a work permit.
This program was initially intended for citizens of Belarus, and then it was extended to other countries: Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, and Russia. However, as the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita found out, visas were also issued to citizens of tens of other countries, including citizens of India, Iran, Japan, and Azerbaijan. At the same time, according to data available as of November 2023, about 90,000 people had received Polish visas as part of Poland Business Harbor. But as a result, only every seventh invited IT specialist came to Poland. It is unclear where the rest went.
In late January 2024 the program was suddenly shut down. And now Polish officials, who were involved in Poland Business Harbor, are testifying before the visa scandal investigation commission.
The former Minister of Development and Technology Jadwiga Emilewicz, who stood at the origin of Poland Business Harbor, said that the program was kind of an experiment and “was not formulated as a resolution of the Council of Ministers or a ministerial decree”. One may start wondering whether the program had a legal foundation at all.
Emilewicz also admitted that she did not know how many visas had been issued to Belarusian citizens under Poland Business Harbor. Nevertheless, she insisted that the program had only good goals at heart, as it helped meet needs of the Polish IT market.
However, the current Polish government has a different opinion. At first the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the program for IT workers did not live up to expectations. And then they started wondering whether such initiatives threaten Poland’s national security.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk went even further. He accused the previous government of creating a network of foreign agents on Polish territory. “They’ve brought hundreds of thousands of migrants from Asia and Africa, while making money on visas as well as Russian and Belarusian IT workers in order to help build a network of foreign agents,” Tusk said.
One can only wonder how masterfully the Polish prime minister managed to mix together African migrants, Belarusian IT specialists, and enemy agents. It seems that now they pose a threat to the national security of Poland in equal measure. And one can only speculate what surprises Poland has in store for the relocated IT workers, who have been thrown into the thick of domestic political battles.
The end of the visa Eldorado. Will visa restrictions affect students?
While the visa scandal investigation commission is conducting the investigation, the Polish government wastes no time and is already working on measures to tighten the migration policy. Thus, this year Poland has significantly reduced the number of issued visas and increased visa fees.
“It is the end of the visa Eldorado,” writes the Polish publication Rzeczpospolita. “Donald Tusk’s government has shut off the tap on issuing visas to foreigners: the decrease ranges from 50% to 90% depending on the type of visa”.
From 1 January through 14 June 2024 Poland issued about 98,000 work visas. To compare: a year earlier foreigners received more than 284,000 work visas.
The restrictions also affected the issuance of so-called humanitarian visas. In 2020-2023 about 55,000 humanitarian visas were issued or more than 13,000 per year on the average. Since the beginning of 2024 only 542 people have received humanitarian visas.
In addition, fees for accepting and processing applications for a national visa (type D) increased on 1 June. Now the fees stand at €135. According to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the increase in visa fees will allow filtering out visa applicants, whose purpose for coming to the country differs from the declared one.
Another important change is that Poland is considering restricting the access of foreign students to the Polish labor market. Introducing a requirement for students to have a certain amount of money in their bank account has been suggested.
“The Ministry of the Interior and Administration is conducting analytical work that will determine priorities of the Polish migration policy. It will also have an impact on tightening the visa issuance system,” Rzeczpospolita writes.
Visa restrictions will also affect university students. Thus, the Polish government promised to tighten the procedure for admission of foreign students. Belarusians, who hoped to get a Polish diploma, already get visas that are valid for a shorter period of time. Previously they received visas valid for a year, but new visas are valid for six months. As a result, students miss classes and do not know how to deal with it. On top of everything Belarusian students in Poland are now denied scholarships. Allegedly “for technical reasons”, which have not been resolved for half a year already.
Neither dean’s offices of educational institutions nor the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs want to resolve with the situation. For them Belarusian students are just migrants. They were needed once. But today they are virtually useless.
They were needed at the time when Warsaw was trying to create a beautiful TV picture of honorable Poland and bitter Belarus next to it. However, years of propaganda have been wasted. And today the “usefulness” of the migrated Belarusians is in question. That is why Belarusian IT specialists have suddenly become “agents” and students have become migrants, who want to take away jobs from young Poles.
It seems that Warsaw is ready to get rid of both. And to do it in style by wrapping up the visa scandal. The situation with Belarusians, who sought genuine acceptance in a foreign country, remains uncertain. But it would be extremely naive to expect that anyone in Poland cares about their future.
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