Renting in Warsaw on a visa or visa-free, without a residence card: what landlords ask for and whether you can register (meldunek)

Yes. The law does not require a karta pobytu or a PESEL number for an ordinary najem (residential lease) in Warsaw: we did not find that requirement in the Civil Code or in the Tenant Protection Act, and the lease is signed with your passport. You can also register your address (meldunek) on a visa or while visa-free, by showing the visa or your passport (art. 43 sec. 3 of the Population Records Act). The landlord, however, decides whom to rent to and which documents to ask for, so “the law does not forbid it” does not mean every landlord will agree.

This article is written by allproperty, an agency that finds flats for tenants, so the last section explains our own terms. Where the text says “the law requires”, a reference to the provision follows, and “estimate” marks practice rather than a legal rule. We checked the provisions and the gov.pl pages on 7 October 2026. We do not cover which type of residence permit to choose or how long you may stay in Poland: those questions belong with gov.pl and the Office for Foreigners (UdSC).

Do I need a residence card or a PESEL to rent a flat?

Legally, yes. The law does not make a karta pobytu or a PESEL a condition of an ordinary lease, and the written form is met by a handwritten signature on the document or by exchanging copies, each signed by one party (art. 78 § 1 of the Civil Code). A lease of premises for longer than a year should be in writing, otherwise the law treats it as concluded for an indefinite period (art. 660 of the Civil Code). Your passport serves as your ID.

In practice a landlord is free to say no or to set conditions, because freedom of contract works both ways. Many landlords simply do not know how a foreigner’s right to stay works and worry about registration problems or unpaid rent. That is our estimate; we have no refusal statistics.

What do landlords ask for instead of a residence card?

The law does not list the documents a landlord may request, so what follows is our estimate of what is asked most often. It is worth having this set ready before you start viewing.

• Passport and proof of your legal stay: a visa or an entry stamp, so the landlord can see until when you may stay in Poland.
• Proof of income: a bank statement, an employment contract, a letter from your employer, or invoices if you work for yourself. Which options landlords accept, and how to show them without sending extra copies, is covered in our article on income from abroad; a general list is in the article on documents for renting.
• A deposit (kaucja): by law at most 12 months of rent in an ordinary lease and 6 in najem okazjonalny (art. 6 sec. 1 and art. 19a sec. 4 of the Tenant Protection Act). One or two months is more usual (estimate). It must be returned within a month after you move out (art. 6 sec. 4); more in our article on the deposit.
• Contact details and dates: a phone number, your address abroad, your arrival date and how long you plan to stay.
• Rent in advance: some landlords ask for several months up front. The law does not regulate that amount separately, so the choice is yours. Pay only after the lease is signed, and only to the account named in it.

Can I register my address (meldunek) on a visa or while visa-free?

You have a duty to register, and this is how it works.

Question	What the law or gov.pl says
Deadline	No later than the 4th day after arriving at the address, if you are not a citizen of the EU, EFTA or Switzerland and not a family member of such a citizen or of a Polish citizen (art. 41 sec. 3). Those groups have until the 30th day (art. 41 sec. 1–2a)
When not needed	If your stay in Poland does not exceed 30 days (art. 42 sec. 2)
Document showing your stay	The visa; if you entered without a visa, your travel document, meaning the passport (art. 43 sec. 3)
Without PESEL	You must appear in person (art. 40 sec. 3); online registration is not open to non-EU and non-EFTA citizens (gov.pl)
Period you declare	Not longer than your legal stay under your document (art. 41 sec. 4)
Cost	Registration is free; the certificate of registration for temporary stay costs PLN 17 (gov.pl)

At the municipal office (in Warsaw, the district office, urząd dzielnicy) you need the form, your passport, the visa if you have one, and a document showing your right to the flat, for example the lease. According to gov.pl, the owner or another person with a legal title to the flat confirms your stay on the form (art. 28 sec. 2 and art. 30 sec. 2 pt 10, read with art. 40 sec. 1). So before signing, ask the landlord whether they will sign that form. If the landlord does not want to, gov.pl describes a route through an administrative procedure at the office. The result is for the office to decide, and we do not promise it. Check in advance what your specific office wants to see. The general procedure, PESEL and the first days are covered in our articles on PESEL and meldunek and on your first days in Warsaw.

If you hold UKR status or a PESEL UKR, the rules are different and are described in the PESEL article.

How does the length of the lease relate to the length of my visa?

Only the registration is tied to your legal stay: its period cannot be longer (art. 41 sec. 4). The law lets you sign a lease for the term of your choice (a fixed-term lease of more than ten years counts as indefinite after ten years, art. 661 § 1 of the Civil Code). After that, it comes down to practice.

• What the landlord sees (estimate): if your visa or visa-free stay ends before the lease does, the landlord worries you will leave and stop paying. A year-long lease is therefore harder to get than one matching the stay your documents support.
• What matters to you: as a general rule, a fixed-term lease can be ended by either side only in the cases set out in the contract (art. 673 § 3 of the Civil Code). Without an early-exit clause you remain bound by the lease after you leave.
• What you can discuss (estimate): a term matching your documented stay with an extension by annex (aneks), or a longer lease with the right to leave on one or two months’ notice. If the term is not fixed and rent is paid monthly, then unless the contract sets its own notice period, a flat lease can be ended on three months’ notice effective at the end of a calendar month (art. 688 of the Civil Code). A shorter notice period for you is worth writing into the contract (estimate).

We do not advise on extending a stay or applying for a karta pobytu. For reference: since 27 April 2026, applications for temporary residence, permanent residence and EU long-term resident permits are filed only electronically through MOS; the conditions are on gov.pl/web/udsc/info-mos.

Can I sign a najem okazjonalny without a residence card?

Article 19a does not name a karta pobytu as a condition, but this type of lease has its own requirements, and they do not suit everyone. The owner must be an individual who does not rent out flats as a business, and the lease is for a fixed term of no more than 10 years (art. 19a sec. 1). The lease comes with the tenant’s notarial statement on submitting to enforcement and committing to vacate the flat, the designation of another place where you could live, and the consent of that place’s owner (art. 19a sec. 2). The deposit in this regime is capped at six months’ rent (sec. 4).

For a foreigner with no ties in Poland the sticking point is usually that second address; it is covered in our article on najem okazjonalny for a foreigner without a fallback address, and the general scheme is in the najem okazjonalny guide. The statement is made before a notary, and we cannot replace the notary.

How do we help?

allproperty finds flats for tenants. We serve you in your language: Ukrainian, Russian, English, Polish, German, Italian, Spanish and Turkish. We take your request (budget, district, rooms, move-in date) and hold online viewings by video call: we ask to be shown the places that matter, check what you would ask, speaks to the landlord directly and translates orally (this is not a sworn translation). At this stage the agent can ask the landlord in advance whether they are ready to sign with a passport and a visa and whether they will sign the registration form. We cannot guarantee that such a landlord will be found; that decision is theirs.

After you move in, we go with you to the office and help fill in the documents for a PESEL; the office makes the decision, and we do not promise the result. This help is included in the 70% fee. We do not advise on which residence permit you need or how long you may stay.

Our fee is 70% of one month’s rent (czynsz najmu; the administrative rent, czynsz administracyjny, and utility payments are not counted), paid once after the lease (umowa najmu) is signed, invoiced as a faktura bez VAT. Example: with czynsz najmu of PLN 3,500 the fee is PLN 2,450. What the service covers is set out in the agency contract.

Send a request for a flat search: give the district, number of rooms, budget and move-in date; tell the agent your type of stay document (visa / visa-free / karta pobytu) in the first conversation, and please do not send scans of documents. 70% of one month’s rent (czynsz najmu) after the lease is signed, faktura bez VAT. Phone: +48 666 866 468.

Sources

Checked on 7 October 2026.

• Ustawa o ewidencji ludności (Population Records Act), consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 384: art. 28, 30, 40, 41, 42, 43.
• Ustawa o ochronie praw lokatorów (Tenant Protection Act), consolidated text Dz.U. 2023 item 725: art. 6, 19a.
• Kodeks cywilny (Civil Code), consolidated text Dz.U. 2026 item 795: art. 78 § 1, 660, 661, 673, 688.
• gov.pl, Register your stay (for foreigners), updated 11 March 2026.
• Office for Foreigners (UdSC), information on the MOS system, electronic-only filing since 27 April 2026.

The cover image is an illustration generated by AI.