Complaint about a Polish office or official (skarga, art. 227 k.p.a.)

What a complaint is for

A skarga is a complaint about how an office or its staff work. It can be about (art. 227 k.p.a.):

• neglect, or tasks done badly, by an office or its employees;
• a breach of the law or of your interests;
• slow or bureaucratic handling of a matter.

For example: a clerk would not take your papers, gave you wrong information or treated you badly; or nobody answers your letters.

Anyone may complain, foreigners too: the right belongs to everyone (art. 221 § 1). You can complain for yourself, in the public interest, or for another person with their consent (art. 221 § 3). You need no case number and no decision. What the letter says counts, not its title (art. 222).

No one may suffer harm or blame for a complaint, if they act within the law (art. 225 § 1). So describe what happened, not what the person is like.

What a complaint cannot do

Your problem	The letter	The rule
You disagree with a decision	odwołanie (appeal)	14 days from delivery, to the higher body, through the office that decided (art. 129 § 1–2)
Your case is late	ponaglenie	to the higher body, through the office; it can order the office to decide by a set date (art. 37 § 3 and § 6)
How an office or a person acted	skarga	an answer within a month (art. 237 § 1)

The complaint rules do not stop or extend the 14 days to appeal. If you are still in time, appeal.

If the complaint is about your own case:

• the case is still open: the office deals with your complaint inside the case, under the k.p.a. (art. 234 pkt 1);
• the case ended with a final decision (one you can no longer appeal): the complaint is treated, by its content, as a request to reopen the case, to declare the decision invalid, or to cancel or change it (art. 235 § 1). That is possible only in the cases the law lists (art. 16 § 1);
• there is no case yet: if you are a party, the complaint starts one (art. 233).

A skarga to the administrative court (WSA) is a different letter. It goes to a court, against a decision, within 30 days of delivery (art. 53 § 1 p.p.s.a.).

Who deals with it

Send the complaint to the body that must deal with it (art. 228). Unless a special law names another one, the k.p.a. names these (art. 229):

The complaint is about	Who deals with it
a mayor (wójt, burmistrz, prezydent miasta) or the head of a municipal unit	the municipal council, rada gminy (pkt 3)
the county board, the starosta, or the head of a county service or unit	the county council, rada powiatu (pkt 4)
the voivodeship board or the marshal	the voivodeship assembly, sejmik (pkt 5)
a mayor, a county or voivodeship board, or the head of a county service, in tasks the government gave them	the voivode, or the higher body (pkt 2)
a municipal council, a county council or a sejmik	the voivode; in money matters, the regional audit chamber, RIO (pkt 1)
a voivode	the competent minister, in matters under the k.p.a.; in others, the Prime Minister (pkt 6)
another government office	the higher body, or the one that supervises it directly (pkt 7)
a minister	the Prime Minister (pkt 8)
a consul	the minister of foreign affairs (pkt 8a)
a central office or its head	the body it is under (pkt 9)

For a mayor, the row depends on the task: the law calls tasks the government gives to local offices zadania zlecone.

The Head of the Office for Foreigners (Szef Urzędu do Spraw Cudzoziemców) is a central office. The minister of internal affairs supervises it (art. 16 of the Foreigners Act).

About an employee. The law names bodies, not people. Send the complaint to the office where the person works; for a foreigners' department, that is the voivode office (urząd wojewódzki). The body may pass it to the employee's superior (art. 232 § 2), but never to the person you complain about, or to someone under them (§ 11 of the regulation). An employee who gets a complaint about themselves must pass it to their superior at once (art. 256).

Not sure where to send it? Send it anyway. A body that is not the right one must, within 7 days, pass it on and tell you, or tell you which body is right (art. 231 § 1).

How to send it

The Council of Ministers' regulation of 8 January 2002 on complaints and requests ("the regulation") accepts a complaint in writing, by fax, by email, or orally, written down by an official (§ 5).

• Email counts for a complaint. It does not for an appeal or a ponaglenie: an office leaves those unexamined when they come by email (art. 63 § 1 k.p.a.).
• On paper or electronic: a letter to an office may be either (art. 14 § 1d k.p.a.). Every public body must have an e-Doręczenia address (art. 8 of the act on electronic delivery).
• ePUAP no longer counts. Since 1 January 2026, a letter you send through ePUAP no longer has the effect of an e-Doręczenia delivery (art. 147 ust. 2 of that act). Some office pages still list it.
• Orally: the official writes a record (protokół) with the date, your name and address and a short summary, and you both sign it (§ 6).

Give your name and address: a complaint without them is left unexamined (§ 8 ust. 1). If the office cannot tell what it is about, it asks you to explain within 7 days (§ 8 ust. 2). If you ask, the office must confirm that it got your complaint (§ 7). The complaint rules set no deadline for filing it.

What to write

• who you complain about: the office, and the person if you know;
• what happened, in order, with dates and places;
• which part of art. 227 it fits: neglect, a breach of the law or of your interests, slow or bureaucratic handling;
• what you ask for: for example, that the office corrects the error, deals with your matter, or makes sure it does not happen again;
• your name, address and signature.

Respubliko writes this complaint in Polish from your answers. You check it, sign it and send it yourself.

How long they have

The body must deal with the complaint without undue delay, and within a month at most (art. 237 § 1). The law does not say from which day the month runs. Keep proof of when you sent it.

If there is no answer in time, the rules on delays apply (art. 237 § 4): the body must tell you why, give a new date and tell you about your right to a ponaglenie (art. 36 § 1). You can send a ponaglenie (art. 37).

The answer

You must be told how your complaint was dealt with (art. 237 § 3). The answer must name the body, say how the complaint was dealt with, and carry the name, surname and job title of the person who signed it. If the complaint is rejected, the answer must also give the facts and the law behind that, and explain the rule on repeated complaints (art. 238 § 1). If the body finds faults, it can order steps to remove them and their causes (§ 12 of the regulation).

The answer is a notice, not a decision, so there is no appeal against it: an appeal is against a decision (art. 127 § 1).

Complaining again. If your complaint was found groundless, the answer showed why, and you send it again with nothing new, the body may keep its view with a note in the file and not answer you (art. 239 § 1). Write again only with new facts.

The Commissioner for Human Rights. If a public authority broke your rights or freedoms, anyone may ask the Commissioner for Human Rights (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich, RPO) for help (art. 80 of the Constitution): free of charge, and in no set form (art. 10 of the RPO act).

A wniosek: asking an office to act

A complaint says an office did something wrong. A wniosek (a request or proposal) asks it to act or to do better: in particular to improve its organisation, strengthen the rule of law, work better and prevent abuse, protect property, or meet people's needs better (art. 241).

• Send it to the body in charge of its subject (art. 242 § 1). A wrong body must pass it on within 7 days and tell you (art. 243).
• The term is the same: without undue delay, and within a month at most (art. 244 § 1).
• If the body cannot finish in time, it must tell you, within that term, what it has done and when it expects to finish (art. 245).
• If you are unhappy with how it was dealt with, or there is no answer in time, you can complain (art. 246).

Respubliko can write a wniosek too.

When to get help

When a right or a deadline is at stake, for example your residence, do not rely on a complaint alone. Use the appeal or the ponaglenie, and ask free legal help.