Work / Did someone say "Work in Poland"? [8]


Unfortunately, the hassle required to get work permits for non-EU citizens means that unless you really bring something to the table, it's easier to simply hire an EU citizen instead. If you become fluent in Polish, then you may have more of a chance - but as it stands, your best bet would be to work for a multinational and then attempt a transfer to Poland.

The problem is that you're applying for entry-level jobs, along with everyone else. And why bother with the hassle of a non-EU citizen who doesn't speak Polish fluently when you can get a EU citizen (with a passport allowing him travel all over Europe with no fuss) who speaks fluent Polish and other languages too?

Life / Is there an English shop in warsaw ? [17]


There's no customs duties for stuff sent within the EU, so Poczta Polska won't be adding on any 'fees'.

Of course, stupid Americans that order stuff from the US and then wonder why they get landed with a nice bill from Customs deserve all they get ;)

Life / Driving License - B1 that allows 16 year old to drive light vehicles? [27]

Why can't you exchange your driving licence for a UK one?

USA, Canada / POLAND -- A RETIREMENT HAVEN FOR POL-AMS? [30]

Ignore TJ123, he's an exceptionally bitter person who appears to be unemployable and unattractive to Poles.

From what the blog that ShawnW posted (it's a fantastic blog, I love reading about someone much older's experiences in Poznan!), you can see that it is a challenge in some respects, but in other respects, it's a very rewarding place.

I think it's a fantastic idea, provided they're financially secure. The fact that they're both Polish born means that they shouldn't have anywhere near as much culture shock, and being able in your retirement years to jump on a train and have coffee in Alexanderplatz or Wencelas Square is something that you'll never experience living in America.

Health care is dramatically cheaper here too from what I understand.

I'd tell them to investigate it, and if they can make the numbers work, then they should go for it.

Life / Canadian moving to Poland to work as an English teacher. Any advice? [13]

Unless I've misunderstood the system, yes, you'll have to obtain the residence card. I'm not sure if Poland applies restrictions on the visa - I *think* you'll be free to take your time finding a job.

With the flat, if the landlord won't register ("zameldowanie") you to the property, then you need to find another place as you'll need to register somewhere in order to obtain the residence card. The residence card is obtained once you're in Poland. I'm not sure if the issuing of a Residence card is linked to the posession of a work permit.

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]

Calling Harry a condescending **** because of telling you bluntly that the CELTA is difficult for practically everyone was pretty offensive, I'd say.

And where did he say that teaching English was easy?


What was your point? You replied with prices to the point that Harry made that proofreading is a difficult business to get into - which it is! Qualifications mean nothing in that particular game - though it might help, you still have to deliver the goods.

From everything I've heard, it's all about building up a reputation for being fast, reliable and accurate - but building that reputation from scratch is much easier said than done. I know at least personally, I'd take a personal recommendation over membership of some made-in-a-bedroom Society.

I can't imagine the English proofreading market is *that* big in Poland - and word spreads quickly!

Life / Canadian moving to Poland to work as an English teacher. Any advice? [13]

The UK has visa cards now, pretty much identical in purpose :)

Life / I'm an American who lived in Poland for 6 years. I'm not welcome anymore. [169]

These things are pretty easy, if you don't pay, then they'll pay for the flight - and place a note on your SISone4ALL record that you have an outstanding fine to pay in Poland. So of course, when crossing into Portugal for instance, you can expect a nice stay in the Portuguese prison and subsequently deported to Poland to pay (or face Polish jailtime).

Easy.

Or of course, they could just hold you until you pay.

Life / Canadian moving to Poland to work as an English teacher. Any advice? [13]

When you come here, you'll be obliged to obtain the residence card as a non-EU national. I'm not familiar with the process as I'm EU, but as far as I understand, you have to apply for this at the relevant Foreigners Office after getting the work permit.

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


No no, according to our friend here, labour costs are the measure by which to judge a society's development by.


Aha, so you're actually angry because no-one wants to hire you and no-one wants you as a proofreader, so you're actually the worst kind of expat, the unemployed, unemployable type!

Life / Canadian moving to Poland to work as an English teacher. Any advice? [13]


One little piece of advice. Comply with the terms of the visa - failure to do so can result in you being deported. The requirements for non-EU citizens can seem tedious and arcane, but don't try and get round them. It's the path to disaster.

Any potential school (if not registered with the Ministry of Education) will require them to obtain a work permit for you. If they claim otherwise, run a mile. You'll also have to sort out your residence permit once you arrive.

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


Try telling that to the course instructor after you fail because you assumed that teaching English is easy. Virtually anyone who has successfully passed the CELTA will tell you the same story - for a month, it was balls to the wall with pressure and stress. A friend of mine told me how one girl cracked after 2 weeks and quit the course in tears. Other people fail because they assume that weekends are drinking time and not studying time.

Perhaps you might want to consider the part where you have to actually get the business? Getting qualifications is one thing, but getting the work (and reputation) is a much harder job. Then there's the fact that you have to be completely familiar with the subject matter - anyone trying to 'blag it' will be found out pretty quickly.

As I understand it, a dictionary and thesaursus will only get you so far.

Why is the federal minimum wage in the USA only about 60% of the UK minimum wage? Must be a sign of a backwards society...

Life / Canadian moving to Poland to work as an English teacher. Any advice? [13]

Tips? I have many.

Do you have a job? Have you got the relevant visa and work permit?

Life / Car Documents - what to do if you lose them? [17]

It really doesn't seem to be too much of a hardship to carry around the Polish documents for that reason - but carrying around UK documents could be a complete pain.

But the Polish driving licence mystifies me - how on earth can you have a penalty points system without a paper counterpart to the licence?

Law / How much it cost to open new small kebab shop in poznan, total investment [10]


I'd be willing to bet that unless you got a prime place, you'll find it next to impossible to make it pay in the centre. Off the top of my head, you'll be running straight up against the place on Wielka that always has big queues, then there's Ali Baba on Gwarna and Roti on Sw. Marcin - not to mention the ones near Szkolna which always have big queues late at night.

There *is* a need for a decent kebab shop near Kaponiera - the one nearest to the night bus stop is overpriced rubbish. Apart from that, the market is saturated.

Life / Is there an English shop in warsaw ? [17]

I really hope they don't have such a thing here. I'd be doubtful if they do, because there simply won't be the demand for it. If there's a Kuchnia Swiat, they sell some stuff for a ridiculous amount of money compared to what it'll cost to buy in the UK.

Why would you want English mustard/newspapers/etc anyway?

UK, Ireland / Shipping books from England to Poland??? [5]

atrans.wikidot.com

I can attest to this bloke, he took a van full of stuff from Scotland to Poznan for me and was utterly fantastic the whole step of the way :) Really can't recommend him enough - if he's suitable for your needs and he's within 200zl or so of other prices, then go for him.

(having said this, he gave me a fantastic price!)

Work / Would it be hard to work in Poland if I don't speak Polish? [17]

Benefits? What kind of benefits?

As for waiting to get paid, common sense is not to work for anywhere that you'll have to wait for ages to get paid.

Law / Questions on business enviroment for the affiliate marketing business in Poland [3]


I'd be surprised if Poland cared - as long as you can show how you gained your income, there shouldn't be any issues. Certainly, I'd be hugely suprised if you needed anything to accept wire transfers - just that if you earn a huge amount from a source, they might ask you to explain where the money is coming from, but that's the same from any country for any amount of money.


I don't think so, but only the Polish taxman will be able to tell you for sure. But I can't see why VAT would be charged unless you're actively selling space on your websites.


No idea, I'm afraid.

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]

Why do you keep mentioning Polish girls when no-one else is mentioning them?


How much are you paying, if you don't mind me asking? Trying to get an idea for what's a fair price for one...

To the original poster - the vast majority of people posting on this site that live in Poland are here quite happily, apart from one. Draw your own conclusions from that on how difficult it is to live here as an expat, particularly one that has the benefit of an EU passport and thus doesn't have to bother with tedious visa requirements.

Work / Would it be hard to work in Poland if I don't speak Polish? [17]

Well, the most obvious option is English teaching. If you can get yourself the CELTA and arrive in Warsaw at the end of August, Harry on these forums (who is a pretty authorative source on these things) has stated on numerous occasions that you'll be fighting off the offers of work.

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


Have you seen how awful the DVLA are getting? With the first round of photocard renewals, they were losing people's entitlement to various categories - and refused point blank to actually do anything about it. The fact that the DVLA is also actively selling people's details to private 'parking' companies who then try and extort money out of people for dubious civil offences is another black mark.

I tried to sort something out when in Essex relating to national insurance payments. My local office from Chelmsford was in Southend, went there, only to be told that they had no drop-in service and that no, I couldn't see anyone. I could call someone, but they were as good as useless on the phone.

Haven't had any fuss with the Zameldowanie at all, nor with the EU version of the karta pobytu. And the UK version of the residence permit for EEA citizens is ridiculous - last I checked, they were processing permits applied for in January 2008!


How about when I applied for a NIP and didn't even have to show my passport?

Maybe things are just much more efficient in Western Poland than in the East ;)

But why is it such a bad thing that you can do all your business in person as opposed to having to deal with faceless offices that you can't even visit? The UK is rapidly becoming a complete nightmare to actually deal with people who make decisions.

Work / Canadian Woman Moving To Warsaw [29]


Unfortunately, I'm not from Warsaw and live about 300km from there ;)

The fact that you're spending so much time on here ranting and raving about Poland, combined with 'bitter experience about people losing a lot' sounds like someone was taken advantage of by one of those girls standing by the road from...Ukraine? ;)

Courtney - go for it, as the other person said. If you have common sense and don't act like Poland owes you a favour (unlike the bitter man here) - then you'll be fine. Just make sure that you double, triple check everything and that you understand fully what you're doing before you commit to anything, just as you'd do in Canada, then you'll be fine :)


Airport/nearest lake, certainly.

But I really don't understand..if you hate a country so much and everything about it, why stay? The door is there...

Courtney, the majority of people that you'll meet in Poland are fantastic people. But on occasion, you'll wander into a bar and hear someone moaning about everything. You'll hear English and your curiosity will be aroused, only to discover subsequently that the person is bitter, jaded and delusional - usually because of some woman that rejected him.

Stay well away from that type :)

The majority of expats are friendly, happy people though.

Please, try and keep to the original topic.

Work / Would it be hard to work in Poland if I don't speak Polish? [17]

What kind of job do you want to do?

Work / Mechanical design engineer, no Polish, will company like GE hire me? [59]


Or you may love them. I'm in love with the fact that I can visit the Urząd whatever and get a straight answer to a straight question. Try doing that in the UK - it's next to impossible. I don't have to send off my documents to some obscure address, I can register a car locally, I can pick up a driving licence locally, I can register for residence painlessly and easily at my local Voivode office.


Only those with feeble minds cannot see what Poland has to offer. Certainly, not a day goes by without me realising how many gaps in the market there actually is here.

Life / I'm an American who lived in Poland for 6 years. I'm not welcome anymore. [169]


Have you tried that one that posted on here?

Don't trust the word of the Straż Graniczna without having documentary evidence that you're cleared to enter after the year - ie, without an official letter from the relevant authorities (who, I don't know...) confirming that you're still eligible for the tourist stamp.

Travel / Berlin to Szczecin? [3]

Yeah, I'd recommend those minibuses too. The train connection is lousy to say the least - apparently DB want to take over the management of the entire route, but PKP don't want to hand over control. The difference in standard of track between Poland and Germany is unbelievable if you go between Szczecin and Angermunde.

Life / I'm an American who lived in Poland for 6 years. I'm not welcome anymore. [169]

lowfunk - I've got some bad news for you. According to several sources online, an entry in SISone4All for being banned from Schengen means that you cannot re-enter the Schengen territory without a valid visa. Apparently you'll need documents from the relevant Polish authorities confirming that they've no objection to the issuing of a visa (which may include the waiver!) before you can actually apply for a visa.

The best advice in this case is definitely to consult a Polish immigration lawyer - you will almost certainly need the help of one, especially as the granting of the 90 day tourist waiver will be problematic due to the previous ban which will be seen by anyone querying the database.

Law / Polish visa for Third country Nationals [4]

I assume that you have category D or D+C visa?

In which case, this actually isn't a Schengen visa - these haven't been harmonised yet (why, I don't know) and isn't actually valid for travel within Schengen. As I understand it, you'll need to obtain a new Category D visa for Poland.

But if you have legal residence in the Czech Republic, you should be allowed to apply for the Polish visa at the embassy in Prague. You'll probably have to go there to find out, but I'm fairly positive that the EU tends to regard legal residence of more than 90 days in one Schengen state as enough for this thing.

Let me know the category on the visa and I'll be able to help further - but I'm pretty positive that you'll need to reapply. However, you should be able to apply on the basis of your residence in the Czech Republic, which should simplify things a bit.

Travel / Driving around Poland, is diesel available and can we find lodgings as we go? [22]

It's unbelievable, I agree. I would think it's just someone on the windup, but when you read travelblogs by people who get upset because there isn't a 4 lane highway from Bialystok to Gdansk or whatever, you realise that they're serious.