A Visa Revolution? Digitisation of Consular Services
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced a major digitisation project – the Electronic Consular Services Platform (ePUK), which is to replace the existing tools used to manage consular matters for foreigners and Polish citizens (including the eKonsulat system). At the same time, an amendment to the Consular Law Act is being prepared to adapt the regulations to new e-services and technological realities, as well as to streamline and improve processes that are currently scattered, time-consuming, and inconsistent.
The main objectives are simple: fewer paper applications and less manual processing, more online processes (for both Polish citizens and foreigners), standardisation of procedures, better data flow between branches and headquarters, and a reduction in the number of manual tasks.
From the perspective of foreigners and corporations, the most important thing is that ePUK is to be a platform for providing modern consular e-services (more ‘transactional’ rather than just booking and form-filling), which is to reduce queues and multiple visits to offices and improve communication regarding the status of cases.
Consultations on the IT project assumptions and work on amending the Consular Law Act are currently underway.
The plans for the first quarter of 2026 indicate further formal steps (including obtaining the opinion of the relevant committee, work on the draft act and its submission to the government, as well as organisational and tender-handling activities related to the implementation of ePUK).
There is a realistic chance that consular services will improve if the new solutions are implemented.