• The residence card confirms the foreigner's identity and entitles her/him, together with a travel document, to cross the border.
• If the submitted confirmation of residence registration covers less than 2 months – the card will be issued without the address. 
• An application for the replacement of the card must be submitted in the event of:

the change of the data placed in the current residence card
the change of the card holder's face appearance in comparison to her/his face appearance shown in the photograph placed in the card to an extent making the identification of the card holder difficult or impossible
loss of the residence card
damage of the document

• An application for the replacement of the residence card should be submitted within 14 days from the occurrence of the cause of the replacement.
• In the event of loss or damage of the replacement card, you should notify of this fact the Voivode who issued the card within 3 days from the loss or damage of the document.
• If you submit the notification of loss/damage of the document on a special form (download here), you will receive a free of charge certificate confirming the notification of loss/damage of the document. The certificate is valid until the issue of another document, however, no longer than for 2 months from the date of issue.
•  You should submit an application for the issue of the card:

1. if the first residence card is issued when:

you are staying on the territory of Poland or you are staying on this territory to rejoin your family (after obtaining a voivode's decision on a temporary residence permit)
you are a member of the immediate family of a repatriate.
 
2. in the event of issuing another residence card, if you have a permanent residence permit or an EU long-term residence permit and your residence card has almost expired

• You should submit an application for the issue of a residence card at least 30 days before the expiry of your document