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Every foreigner over the age of 14, submitting an application for granting the refugee status in territory of the Republic of Poland according to national legislation and the Council Regulation (EC) No 2725/200 signed 11 December 2000 (so-called Eurodac Regulation), comes under the dactyloscopic data collection process, i.e. collecting his/her fingerprints.

Fingerprints are sent to the Central Unit in Luxembourg in order to be registered and checked both whether the foreigner has applied for granting the refugee status before and whether he/she has stayed in one of the European Union country.

Fingerprints data will be blocked in the Central Unit after the foreigner is recognized as a refugee in any of the European Union countries.

Poland, as a European Union member, complies with the Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 - 18 February 2003 (so-called Dublin II Regulation), too. The above mentioned regulation establishes criteria and mechanisms of defining the member state, responsible for recognizing of the refugee status application submitted in one of the member states by third-country national. Basing on the above mentioned regulation, Poland is a state responsible for recognizing most of the applications for granting the refugee status submitted by foreigners in Poland. It means that if the foreigner leaves the territory of Poland and submits the application for granting the refugee status in another member country of the European Union, he/she will be returned to Poland.

If the are circumstances allowing Poland to apply to another member state of the European Union for taking responsibility for the foreigner or taking him/her back, it is in interests of the foreigner to provide as soon as possible necessary information for the Dublin Procedure Section of the Refugee Procedure Department in the Office for Foreigners. The stay of the foreigner's family members or relatives in the territory of another member state can be such a condition.

Poland's accession to the Schengen zone in no way affects the compliance of the Eurodac and Dublin II regulations.  In general,  applicants for being recognized as refugees in Poland are obliged to stay in the state's territory till the final decisions in their cases are issued.