Poland issued 355,418 residence permits in 2014

The Polish government issued 335,418 residence permits in 2014, according to a news release by Eurostat. As many as 69.6 percent of all permits in Poland were handed to Ukrainian nationals, while Belarusians accounted for 20.8 percent. Only 1.7 percent of permits were given to Moldovans. Poland was by far the “first destination” for employment permits (206,200). Out of the 302,800 Ukrainians who were allowed to live in the EU in 2014, 80 percent of them (247,400) reside in Poland. Just 0.3 percent of the permits in Poland were due to family reasons, 8.4 percentdue to education, 58 percent for employment purposes and  33.3 percent for “other reasons.” According to the release, Poland took 15,4 percent of all new non-EU residents. As listed in the same news release, the EU saw 2.3 million new non-EU residents in 2014, a 2.2 percent decrease from 2013.