Employment abroad in a EU Member State – form A1.

The employee who wants to work abroad on the basis of delegation by the employer, in this case by the Temporary Employment Agency, and at the same time wishes to continue to be insured in Poland, must have form A1 (previously form E 101). It is issued by the branch of the Social Insurance Office (ZUS) with jurisdiction over the employee.

Such form of delegation may not last longer than 24 months.

Terms of obtaining ZUS form A1 for a manual worker:

• The employee goes away for a period not exceeding 24 months
• The employee does not leave to replace another person
• The employee is subject to insurance for at least a month
• The company sending the employee must conduct a significant part of its business within the territory of Poland

Also the employee who has been employed to be delegated abroad is also entitled, however on condition of being insured before the employment with the given employer.

The form may also be obtained by an employee who is self-employed.

The terms of obtaining ZUS form A1 (E101) for a person who is self-employed – self-delegation:

• The entrepreneur has been conducting the majority of its business in the place of registration of the company (Poland)
• The business activity continued for at least 2 months before the “self-delegation” date
• When conducting business activity in another Member State, they must meet that country’s condition for conducting business activity
• The activity conducted within the territory of the Member State must be similar.
• The time for “self-delegation” has not exceeded 24 months.

The entrepreneur must present the relevant documentation confirming the above criteria, e.g. the contract for conducting the business activity, invoices for previous months, certificate confirming the VAT payer’s status, etc. The entrepreneur is also obliged to document that during the self-delegation period it still had the infrastructure allowing the resuming the activity within the territory of Poland after returning, e.g. office, address.

The provisions on insurance in the home country and the issuance of Form A1 leave a lot of scope for interpretation. This means that in most situations departing from the above requirements, ZUS evaluates the issuance of forms A1 individually.