# A1 certificates & posted workers coming to Poland

> Posting an employee to Poland from another EU country: when an A1 certificate applies, how social-security coordination works, and where posting ends and local employment begins.
> Source: https://certapoland.com/a1-posted-workers-poland/

For employers **posting an employee into Poland** from another EU/EEA country. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.

> **Which direction is this?** This page covers the *inbound* direction — a foreign employer sending someone to work in Poland. If instead you are a Polish company or sole trader posting staff *abroad* and need an A1 from ZUS, that is a different service in a different direction, handled by [Biuro Rachunkowe Precyzja](https://www.biuroprecyzja.pl/), our parent firm.

## The short version

Posting an employee to Poland for a genuine, time-limited assignment is not the same as hiring locally — and the difference decides where social security is due.

For a real posting, the employee can generally stay on their **home country's social-security system**, evidenced by an **A1 certificate** issued in that country under the EU coordination rules (Regulation 883/2004). The question that matters is the **boundary**: how long, how regularly, and whether the arrangement has quietly become ordinary employment in Poland. We help you read that boundary honestly — and where you have crossed it, we set up local employment properly instead. One does not stretch to cover the other.

## Two different things — don't mix them up

This is the single most-confused point, so it is worth being plain about. Posting and local employment are **separate arrangements**, and choosing the right one is a legal question about the facts — not a preference.

**Posting (delegowanie / A1).** A defined assignment with a foreseeable end. The employee stays employed by, and integrated with, the **home** employer; they remain on the home social-security system, and the A1 is the evidence of that. This is the right tool when someone is genuinely sent to Poland for a project or a period, then returns.

**Local employment (lokalne zatrudnienie).** The employee works from Poland on an ongoing basis, as part of everyday operations, with no real end date. Here Polish social security generally applies and a Polish employment contract is the honest structure — the [hire-in-Poland route](/hire-employees-in-poland/), not a stretched A1.

An A1 does **not** convert a local job into a posting, and a posting does **not** replace local employment when the facts have moved on. They sit side by side; the work you actually do decides which applies.

## Where posting ends and employment begins

An A1 is the correct tool for a real posting: a defined assignment, the employee still integrated with the home employer, a foreseeable end. It is the **wrong** tool when someone has simply moved to Poland and works from there indefinitely — at that point Polish social security generally applies, and forcing a posting to fit does not change the underlying facts. Getting this wrong is common and avoidable; the fix, when the line has been crossed, is to set up local employment, not to keep renewing a certificate that no longer matches reality.

## How we help

We assess which side of the line you are on and set up whichever is correct — coordination for a genuine posting, or local employment where the facts call for it. We do not push one over the other; the assessment follows the facts, and we tell you plainly what they point to. Backed by Biuro Rachunkowe Precyzja, cross-border since 2017.

Related: if the assignment is really becoming a job, see how to [hire an employee in Poland](/hire-employees-in-poland/) and the [social-security obligations](/social-security-compliance-poland/) that follow.

## When it is time to talk to us

Reach out when you are planning to send someone to Poland, or when a posting has run long enough that you are no longer sure an A1 still fits.

[Book an assessment →](/book-assessment/)

---

*General information about a service, not legal or tax advice. Whether your situation is a posting or local employment is confirmed case by case.*