Poland: visa and entry rules

Poland's borders: every crossing point

Two road crossings operate with Kaliningrad region: Mamonovo-2 — Grzechotki and Bagrationovsk — Bezledy.

Gronowo and Goldap have been suspended by the Polish side, and their status is reviewed regularly — worth checking before a trip.

With Belarus most crossings are closed or work with restrictions; the direction is unstable.

With Ukraine the crossings work: Medyka — Shehyni, Korczowa — Krakovets and others.

With Germany, Czechia, Slovakia and Lithuania the borders are inside Schengen and there is no permanent control, though spot checks do happen on the German side.

Cars on Russian plates are not admitted to Poland — the ban has been in force since September 2023, and it is applied first of all at the Kaliningrad crossings.

Driving to Poland

Cars on Russian plates are not admitted, a ban in force since September 2023. It also covers the Kaliningrad direction, where the crossings formally work: a car on Russian plates will not be let through them.

The practical option is to rent a car once you are in Europe.

A Green Card is compulsory.

An International Driving Permit is needed only if your licence was issued outside the EU and the EEA; a licence from an EU or EEA country is valid as it is.

Travelling to Poland with a pet

The rules are the same across the whole EU.

An ISO-standard microchip is compulsory, and it is fitted BEFORE the rabies vaccination — otherwise the vaccination does not count.

A rabies vaccination — not before 12 weeks of age, and 21 days must pass between the vaccination and entry.

A rabies antibody titre test is required only for pets from a country not on the EU's approved list. The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are on the list, so this does not apply to pets travelling from those countries; Russia is one of the countries it does apply to. The blood is taken no earlier than 30 days after the vaccination, then there is a three-month wait before entry.

An EU veterinary certificate is required, issued by the state veterinary service.

No more than five animals per person without commercial paperwork.

Overstaying your visa in Poland

The breach is recorded across the whole Schengen area, not by individual country.

The main consequence is a refusal of your next visa. The record stays in the system, and getting a Schengen visa afterwards is substantially harder.

An entry ban for a significant overstay covers the entire area at once.

Days are counted across the whole of Schengen. The typical mistake is to count the stay in each country separately.