Visa requirements for Polish citizens

Poland belongs to the European free movement area, so Polish citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Poland and 93 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Polish passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Poland without one.

The reverse holds for 66 countries: holders of the Polish passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Poland (Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus and 61 others).

13 countries ask holders of the Polish passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 3 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Poland.

10 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Poland, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Poland, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in Germany (5) and the Czech Republic (2).

The United States refused 12% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Poland in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 37 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 159 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Visa-free travel with the Polish passport

By continent, the Polish passport is visa-free in 43 countries in Europe, 29 countries in the Americas, 22 countries in Asia, 15 countries in Africa and 11 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Polish citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days), Dominica (180 days) and Mexico (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Polish citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 22 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Polish citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 19 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 4 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Poland’s neighbours

Germany, Lithuania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Belarus and Ukraine admit Polish citizens without a visa. For the other neighbours, the rules are: Russia (e-Visa for up to 30 days).

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the German passport ranks 6th (161 destinations), the Slovak passport ranks 19th (160 destinations), the Czech passport ranks 28th (159 destinations), the Lithuanian passport ranks 34th (158 destinations) and the Ukrainian passport ranks 61st (132 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 93 can enter visa-free and 105 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Poland.