More than 44,000 Belarusians have received visas for the relocation of skilled professionals and their families to the Polish Business Port (PBH). The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs data for mid-July is provided by Rzeczpospolita. Meanwhile, according to the Polish Border Service, on July 10, only 9,500 Belarusian citizens and their families entered the country on this visa.

Recall that Warsaw launched Poland. Business Harbor in September 2020 to help Belarus IT professionals who wanted to leave for Poland in a situation where the authorities violently suppressed the mass protests that swept the country after the presidential elections. In July 2021, Warsaw expanded the program to include IT professionals from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Russia (deleted after the invasion of Ukraine) and Ukraine.

PBH allows IT professionals and their families, as well as business owners and employees, an accelerated immigration regime and the opportunity to work freely in Poland without obtaining a work permit and to carry out business activities on an equal basis with citizens. Poles (including as individual entrepreneurs) without any additional conditions.

How do Belarusian IT specialists settle in Poland and return to their homeland? DW spoke to those who left the PBH program.

Working according to the Business-to-Business scheme

“My wife and I worked in the IT sector, we planned to buy housing in Belarus, but after 2020 apathy set in, the situation in the country got worse by the day. In November 2021, we moved to Warsaw under the PBH program “, says Andrei. The company he worked for also gradually moved to Poland. Andrei continues to cooperate with her, but now as an individual entrepreneur (IP). “The main advantage that PBH offers is the opportunity to open a business. When you work in Poland under the B2B (business-to-business) scheme, you pay a tax of 12.5%, which is significantly lower than when you are an employee”, – the interlocutor shares.

Validity of visas obtained under the Polish programme. Business Harbor, Andrey and his family has now expired. Belarusians applied for a temporary residence permit in Poland. “There is a comfortable atmosphere here, a lot has been done by the people, I do not notice any special difficulties. I am pessimistic about the situation in Belarus, my family and I still do not see an opportunity to return”, Andrei admitted.

Aleksei moved to Gdansk a few months ago and has been working in Belarus for over ten years in a state organization. “To obtain a visa for the PBH program, I provided a technical education diploma, a work card (he had several positions related to the information technology area) and diplomas from advanced training courses. That was enough”, recalls Alexei. As of February 2022, a Belarusian visa applicant needs a recommendation from one of the program’s partner companies.

Does the situation in Belarus force IT specialists to go abroad?

While Aleksey and his wife are settling in a new place, learning Polish and looking for work: “The advantage of a PBH visa is that you are not tied to a specific place of work, you can live here for a year, find a job self-employed, pay taxes, start an individual entrepreneur. This visa gives you more opportunities to find a job you enjoy.” At the same time, Aleksey, like Andrei, still does not think about returning to Belarus.

Many IT experts leave Belarus because they are pessimistic about the situation in the country

In turn, Arthur, another DW interlocutor, says he had no plans to move to Poland – this was demanded by the client of the project he was involved in. “We had to leave the project and look for a new one, where they agreed to work with Belarusians in Belarus, and there are few of them, or change. The political and economic situation is forcing the IT sector to move to Europe, customers don’t want to pay taxes to the Belarusian budget and sponsor the regime”, says Artur.

He has been in Poland since June but has not yet chosen a specific place of residence. Arthur calls his stay here a business trip and says he will return home as soon as the opportunity arises: “I’m going to work six months or a year in Poland and then I decide what to do next. Sometimes I go to Belarus for the weekend. This is my country, I try to border to promote our language and culture.”

“Poland mentally adapts to Belarusians”

“I decided to apply for a visa under the PBH program in the spring of 2021, when it became clear that the protest in Belarus was crumbling and it was necessary to back down. Despite the fact that you really don’t want to leave your homeland, you understand: when the iron curtain falls, it’s best to stay on the other side, not inside. First of all, you think about children, you don’t want the system to prepare North Korean supporters for them through education,” Anatole explains his reasons.

He left Belarus at the end of 2021, initially planning to live for some time in one of the Western European countries (a PBH visa gives the right to stay in other EU countries for up to 90 days in six months. – Red.), but eventually decided to settle in Poland. “I think Poland is mentally fit for Belarusians. Also, housing and food prices here are lower than in Western Europe, and salaries in the IT sector are the same everywhere. in another country, it would be necessary to look for opportunities for legalization, open a work visa”, says Anatole.

As for the prospects of returning to his homeland, then, according to him, if everything suddenly improved in Belarus tomorrow, he would return the next day.