End of Temporary Protection for Ukrainian Citizens — What's Next?

Temporary protection for Ukrainian citizens has been extended: Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/1912 of 30 July 2026 extended it "for a further period of one year, until 4 March 2028". But the second deadline did not move — a CUKR residence card application can still only be filed until 4 March 2027. These are two separate clocks, and only one of them shifted. If you hold PESEL UKR, the law provides a concrete way out of temporary protection: the CUKR card. This article explains what ends and when, what moving to CUKR looks like, and what to watch for before you decide. Your own situation — entry date, gaps in your status, cases already in progress — is individual, so at the end we show you how to ask the Dopomo virtual assistant about it directly.

Two dates, not one. Legal stay under temporary protection runs until 4 March 2028, but the window for filing a CUKR card application closes on 4 March 2027 — a year earlier. Processing takes up to 180 days, so file with plenty of room to spare, ideally before autumn 2026. The longer protection is not a reason to delay: after 4 March 2027 this route simply won't exist.

Two dates: 4 March 2027 and 4 March 2028

• 4 March 2027 — the CUKR window closes. This is the last day to file a CUKR residence card application. After it, that route disappears and only an ordinary temporary residence permit, on general terms, is left.
• 4 March 2028 — temporary protection ends. Until that day UKR status runs, and with it your right to work without a separate permit and access to the benefits tied to temporary protection. Polish law ties the legality of your stay directly to the period the Council decision is in force, so the date moved automatically, without any amendment.
• The CUKR window cannot be moved by a regulation or a communiqué. It is set by art. 42x of the special act, and that provision carries no delegation to change the date by a lower-ranking act — only an amendment to the statute could move it. Until there is one, 4 March 2027 stands.
• Your PESEL number stays, but without an active UKR status, the legal basis for your stay that it gave you disappears.

The way out: the CUKR residence card

If you hold PESEL UKR, you can move to the CUKR card ("Former holder of temporary protection") — a 3-year temporary residence permit on special conditions. You qualify if you meet all four conditions at once: you hold UKR status on the day you file, you keep it until the day the card is issued, you held UKR status on 4 June 2025, and you held it continuously for at least 365 days (broken periods cannot be added together).

Applications are filed electronically through the MOS portal (Moduł Obsługi Spraw — the government's case-handling system for residence matters) from 4 May 2026 to 4 March 2027. Processing takes up to 180 days — one of the main reasons not to wait.

If you are only arriving in Poland now

The Council decision of 30 July 2026 also changed the conditions for entering temporary protection. Two of them apply only to people crossing the border now:

• 30 days to register. PESEL UKR can now be obtained at any municipal office, but the application has to be filed within 30 days of crossing the border. Missing that deadline means protection expires — and with it the legal basis for your stay.
• The military condition, from 31 July 2026. Protection is granted "only to those persons who have fulfilled their military obligations in Ukraine"; proof is required "where appropriate". The decision deliberately sets no age or sex limits — Ukrainian law decides who the military obligation covers. Anyone who was under protection on 30 July 2026 or earlier keeps it on the previous terms; this condition does not apply to them.

A separate point: people arriving now cannot meet the condition of holding UKR status on 4 June 2025, so the CUKR card is not open to them. Their route to a stable stay is an ordinary temporary residence permit — on the basis of work, study or family.

A trap worth knowing about

If, in the meantime, you apply for and receive an ordinary temporary residence permit (on a basis other than CUKR), your UKR status automatically changes to "NUE" — and you lose the ability to apply for CUKR. This change can't be undone. So before filing any other residence application, check first whether you qualify for CUKR.

What happens after you file

• Your stay remains legal for the entire time a properly filed application is being processed.
• If you had an ordinary temporary-residence-permit case pending, filing the CUKR application automatically discontinues it.
• Fingerprints, your signature, and passport data are pulled automatically from the registers created when you got PESEL UKR — you'll go to the office only once, to pick up the finished card.
• Once the card is ready, you have 60 days to collect it from the date of notification — after that it's voided, and the fees you paid are not refunded.

Fees

The statutory fees are two separate payments into two separate accounts: 340 zł stamp duty for the permit itself, and 100 zł for issuing the card. Both are payable before you file. If you're refused, the stamp duty is not refunded — one more reason to file a complete, correct application the first time.

What comes after you get the CUKR card

The CUKR card gives you full access to the labor market and lets you run a business on the same terms as Polish citizens, and the time you hold it — counted from the day you collect it — counts toward the period required for EU long-term-resident status. The card is issued once, for 3 years, and doesn't renew automatically. Before it expires, you'll need to apply for a further permit under the general rules.

Your situation is different from everyone else's

The four CUKR conditions, the deadlines, the fees, and the NUE trap are the general rules. But what you specifically should do depends on your status history, your family situation, and whether you already have another application in progress. Instead of guessing, ask the Dopomo virtual assistant about your case directly — it answers based on official sources.

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