How to legally hire workers from Ukraine and other countries

Short answer: the simplest way to legally hire foreign nationals in a warehouse or on a production line is through an agency's temporary staffing service (praca tymczasowa) — the agency, as the formal employer, then carries responsibility for legalizing employment, for the full set of documents, and for keeping them valid. Your company benefits from the team's work without taking on the formal risk, which for foreign nationals is real and monitored by the National Labor Inspectorate (Państwowa Inspekcja Pracy, PIP) and the Border Guard (Straż Graniczna).

Why the paperwork here is more serious than for Polish workers

Hiring a foreign national requires both a legal basis for residence and a legal basis for work — and the rules change often and differ by nationality. Working without valid documents brings financial and reputational liability for the company using the labor too, not only for the employer. That's why the key question for an agency is: who tracks the validity of every single person's documents on the floor, and how — at the start and throughout the engagement.

What the agency takes on under temporary staffing

• Verifying the legal basis for residence and work of every candidate before assigning them to a site.
• Completing the legalization procedures required for that person's nationality and status.
• Monitoring document expiry dates throughout the engagement — not just at the start.
• A complete set of documentation on hand for any inspection.
• Medical checks, BHP (health and safety) training, and contracts — the same as for any temporary worker.

Communication in a mixed-nationality team

Legalization is half the job — the other half is day-to-day communication. Workstation instructions and BHP rules have to be understandable to everyone, regardless of their level of Polish. At Veln we communicate with workers in Ukrainian too (job ads, messages, contact with the dedicated coordinator), and during onboarding we make sure every new hire knows who to turn to in their own language.

What to watch out for when choosing an agency for international teams

• Ask how the agency verifies documents and what happens when one expires mid-assignment.
• Check whether the agency communicates with workers in their own language — a language barrier is a direct route to mistakes and turnover.
• Avoid offers of 'people on the spot, no paperwork' — for foreign nationals, formal shortcuts are a risk that an inspection will turn into your problem.
• KRAZ registration and transparent documentation apply here just as they do for Polish workers.

How we start these projects at Veln

The standard approach: a conversation about your operation, role profiles, then a pilot with a small group — including, if the profile calls for it, workers from Ukraine, Belarus, or Georgia. We handle the paperwork and its deadlines on our end, and you see the state of staffing live in MyVeln. Rules on foreign nationals change often, which is why we always discuss the detailed requirements against the current legal state, for a specific project.