Government Bill No. 2865 of December 9, 2022, amending the Act on Foreigners, was submitted for consideration by parliamentary committees. The purpose of the amendment is to:
1) introducing provisions aimed at ensuring the application of Regulation (EU) 2018/1860 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 November 2018 on the use of the Schengen Information System for the return of illegally staying third-country nationals (OJ L 312, 7.12.2018, p. 1, as amended), hereinafter referred to as "Regulation No. 2018/1860", i.e. the new system for exchanging information on decisions obliging foreigners to return,
and
2) introducing provisions aimed at ensuring the application of Regulation (EU) 2018/1861 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 November 2018 on the establishment, operation and use of the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the field of border checks, amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement, and amending and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1987/2006 (OJ EU L 312, 07.12.2018, p. 14, as amended), hereinafter referred to as "Regulation No 2018/1861", in the area of entry and stay of third-country nationals in the territory of the Republic of Poland and other Schengen states, i.e. the development of the above-mentioned SIS system.
In particular, the operation of the Visa Information System through the SIRENE office, i.e. the pan-European 24-hour contact point:
https://policja.pl/pol/sirene/biuro-sirene/7842,Co-to-jest-BIURO-SIRENE.html
In addition, the government bill assumes:
3) transferring the competences of the Head of the Office for Foreigners to the Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard, as a higher-ranking authority in relation to the commanders of Border Guard units and commanders of Border Guard posts, in certain administrative matters, including the obligation of a foreigner to return and the expulsion of a citizen of a European Union Member State or a European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) country,
4) transferring to the Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard the competences related to the organisation of voluntary returns and to the transfer of a foreigner to another European Union Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection and providing assistance related to such transfer; i.e. in particular:
- the foreigner's obligation to return and in matters related to this procedure, i.e. in matters of:
- extension of the deadline for voluntary return (in accordance with the new terminology – deadline for voluntary departure),
- withdrawal of the re-entry ban;
- granting residence permit for humanitarian reasons;
- granting consent for tolerated stay;
- withdrawal of residence permit for humanitarian reasons;
- withdrawal of consent for tolerated stay;
- issuing or replacing a residence card to a foreigner who has been granted a residence permit for humanitarian reasons;
- issuance or replacement of the "permit for tolerated stay" document.
and
transferring the competences of the Head of the Office for Foreigners, as a higher-level authority in relation to the commanders of Border Guard units and commanders of Border Guard posts, in the following matters:
- expulsion of an EU citizen within the meaning of Art. 2 point 3 of the Act of 14 July 2006 on the entry into, stay in and departure from the territory of the Republic of Poland of citizens of Member States of the European Union and their family members (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 1697), i.e. a citizen of a Member State of the European Union, a country of the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) – a party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area or the Swiss Confederation, or a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to whom this Act applies, i.e. the citizen of the United Kingdom referred to in Art. 10 paragraph 1 letter b and c of the Agreement on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community (OJ L 29, 31.01.2020, p. 7, as amended),
- expulsion of a family member of an EU citizen;
- annulment of a decision to expel an EU citizen;
- repealing the decision to expel a family member of an EU citizen and also transferring the competences of the entity whose statutory duties include the organisation of voluntary returns to the Commander-in-Chief of the Border Guard in the scope of organising voluntary returns.
- supplementing the catalogue of bodies keeping a register of cases concerning return obligations and a register of cases concerning expulsions from the Republic of Poland of European Union citizens and their family members;
- supplementing the regulations concerning the maintenance by the Head of the Office for Foreigners of a list of foreigners whose stay on the territory of the Republic of Poland is undesirable.
Furthermore, it is proposed that the category of personal data in the form of fingerprints and a copy of the foreigner's travel document (Article 439 paragraph 2 point 2) or a copy of the foreigner's identity document (Article 439 paragraph 2 point 3) be processed in the list.
The project also envisages changes regarding the requirement to have a confirmed knowledge of the Polish language as a condition for obtaining a long-term EU residence permit in terms of documents confirming language knowledge.
The draft act also aims to implement the recommendations set out in the Council Implementing Decision establishing a Recommendation on addressing the deficiencies identified in the 2019 evaluation of Poland’s application of the Schengen acquis in the field of return and Commission Recommendation (EU) 2017/432 of 7 March 2017 on making returns more effective when implementing Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ L 66, 11.03.2017, p. 15) and the recommendations in this regard set out in the Council Implementing Decision.
It is also proposed to introduce a maximum period for storing data in the registers of visa cases and in the central visa register.
The project also envisages changes to the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1009, as amended) aimed at changing the method of making data on the payer of contributions and foreigners insured by that payer available by the Social Insurance Institution to the Border Guard or the National Labor Inspectorate.
Changes are also planned in:
- Act of 24 May 2013 on means of direct coercion and firearms (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1416, as amended).
- the Act of 25 June 2015 - Consular Law (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 823, as amended) in order to extend the grounds for reopening proceedings before a consul in connection with the issuance of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union that affects the content of the decision issued.
We will provide details of the proposed changes in subsequent materials.
source: https://www.sejm.gov.pl/sejm9.nsf/druk.xsp?nr=2865
