According to a recent Eurostat report, in 2018 Poland issued more residence permits to non-EU citizens than any other country in the European Union.
Over 720,000 foreigners received their first residence permits in Poland in 2018, placing it at the top of Eurostat statistics, ahead of Germany (575,000 permits) and the United Kingdom (527,000 permits).

The vast majority of applicants wanted to reside in Poland mostly for employment reasons – they constituted 87 percent of all residence permits in Poland.

According to Eurostat, the number of first residence permits issued in the European Union to non-EU citizens has been steadily growing over the last few years and increased by 4 percent, compared to 2017. The number of residence permits issued due to employment reasons increased by 18 percent last year. In 2018, the European Union issued the total number of over 3 million first residence permits to non-EU citizens.