Law / Canadian applying for the European Residence Card in Poland [7]

This is what tell on the website of the foreigner's office:

mazowieckie.pl/news.php?id=5718

The thing is how to analyse it. Do you have to fulfil all conditions at the same time, or only one? After all fulfilling all conditions seems hardly possible...

Law / No Karta Pobytu anymore for EU citizens ? [8]

So I went on Monday to Długa 5 to check this out. The ladies in the EU section by the way are very helpful and very friendly. And as usual waiting time almost zero - only person in front of me.

Anyway, it is true EU citizens do not get a Karta Pobytu anymore, only a document certifying they are registered and giving them the right to stay for 5 years.

She also told me that if the 5-year term is finished you now get automatically a 'pobyt na stały", a permanent residence permit.

By the way, they have greatly improved the "ticket issuing" system. On the ground floor near the entrance is sitting a guy who is giving you your ticket. This to prevent the sharks waiting there before office time to exploit people with asking money for a low number.

Life / Public transport on Christmas Day in Poland [10]

That is a relief. I have to catch on Christmas day the train from Warsaw to Chabówka near Zakopane. That is an IC route so that should be OK then I guess

Thread attached on merging:
Public transport in Poland on Christmas Day

Does anybody of you know whether trains are running on Christmas Eve / Christmas Day in Poland - especially the IC?
I am asking this because I have to work on 24 December. MY wife is leaving by car to her home town Rabka-Zdrój on the 23rd.

Depending on my work, I might take the train to Chabówka 24th late afternoon to join her, or in the worst case on the 25th in the morning.

But I have no idea if the IC trains are running from Warsaw to Kraków/Zakopane on the 25th ? And more important, the local trains and buses ?

Life / Stupid question i know - is post delivered in Poland on a Saturday? [17]


In most European countries, Sunday is considered a resting day.
So why should we be expected to get mail then?
In my native Belgium we survive like that perfectly - the only item you will find in your postbox Saturdays in the newspaper. What more do you want in the weekend ?

Travel / Snow tyres in Poland... legal or reccomended? [25]

I have a company car and our fleet manager obliges us to switch from Summer to Winter tyres and vice versa. Besides the fact it makes common sense - winter tyres have a complete different grip on snowy and icy roads.

Winter tyres are not mandatory here in Poland, but I know insurance companies ask ugly questions in case of accidents with cars involved who have the wrong type of tyres.

Besides, in the long run the cost price is the same because you are using each type of tyre double as long because it us used every year only for six months.

Stupid to economize on safety I think.

Life / How well is English spoken in Poland? [27]

I do not think it is a legal obligation here in Poland to speak English.
Local stores serve local people in their local = Polish language.
Buying a phrasebook "Polish for tourists" or something like this could help.
(By the way I am not Polish but Belgian and I speak every day Polish at all times, I consider it to be a matter of everyday respect)

Law / How long does it take to get a Polish Resident card and Work Permit? [13]

It depends if are EU or non-EU.
If you are EU, it all should go automatically and in high-speed.
If not, prepare for several "entertaining visits" here in Warsaw to Długa 5.

Life / Deadly Roads - "Are polish roads really THAT dangerous?" [139]

No here in Poland you just pay to get a yearly MOT inspection (meaning you pay the local inspector to get your car passed, whatever the state your car is in). The "passing stamp" on your documents is purely symbolical.

Life / Deadly Roads - "Are polish roads really THAT dangerous?" [139]

I am driving every day 50 kms one-way to work (from Bielany to Radziejowice) and the kind of things I see every morning and evening.... there is no pen to describe that.

- Signs with speed limits are showing the minimum speed limit as concerns most drivers
- Red lights are purely Christmas decoration
- Overtaking in a bend is an obligation
- How longer the CB antennae on a car is, how more suicidal traffic behave the driver will show
- Direction indicators are a useless luxury om most cars, best to be forgotten.
- And never ever under any condition, give right of way to anybody. That would be a foolish sign of human weakness.

I am lucky that my VW Touran is powerful enough to rescue me out of most dangerous situations... But what I do not like is that here in Warsaw you have "to go with the flow". Basic politeness in traffic - as much as I try to show it - is immediately punished by all the egoistic maniacs on the road.

So on the end my driving style also has roughened, although I hope not so much as compared to the average Pole.

Life / How to Survive on a Minimum Wage in Poland? [45]

To be honest I also am considering buying an MP3 player, just to to ease my time in the Gymnasion fitness in Warsaw - they play such horrible music there, absolutely discourages you from any exercise :)

And as regarding taking credit... My parents gave me once a very sound advice: The only things you take a credit for is a car and a house. The rest? If yo cannot afford to buy a camera this year.... there will be always next year.

Life / The people of Poland are wonderful!!! [26]

You should be impressed. They treat people like **** at any given US border crossing.
In a style very similar to what the Stasi were doing in the past.
You should have waited at the border for days as anybody else and experience what we Europeans see at the US border crossings.
And what mystifies me is to which great lengths of effort people go to be able to go the USA. I do not need a visa at all, but would never ever go there.

Life / How to Survive on a Minimum Wage in Poland? [45]

What is very obvious here in Warsaw, is how they trick the low-income people into getting loans for almost everything. Like, buying a mobile phone or MP3 player on monthly installments. Or how they almost push you in Carrefour, Tesco and others to get a credit card of their chain - giving the illusion that afterwards shopping is virtually for free.

What is also obvious is how the pigs, which the retail chains are, have to adjust to market reality. I remember a few years ago Carrefour paid their staff around 800 PLN per month. And they thought it was a great privilege you could have the honor to work there. These days for example Tesco is desperately looking for people willing to work there and they offer now 1.800 PLN (still way below the average Warsaw income which is around 2.700 PLN). amd medical care.

And still half of the check-out tills are empty because nobody wants to work there.
In fact I have a lot of schadenfreude about this. It hopefully teaches them a lesson.

And I agree with other posters that the Poles need to have the very latest in electronics. It is a question of prestige I guess.

My Kenwood hifi installation is 20 years old and still going strong. Why replace it?
It comes from an era - long time ago :) - they still made things to last.
But here in Warsaw that is an out-of-date mentality.
Buy the latest technology, get a credit and we will see...

Life / Paying bribes in Poland - necessity or a luxury? [41]

I have never paid a bribe anywhere in Poland and I do not intend to do that.
Way back in 2004 when I moved to Poland, it took me because of that principle about six months to register my personal car (which I brought with me from Belgium) including about 20 visits to various offices, but on the end I managed.

Once I offered a box of Belgian chocolates to the girls in EU section of the Foreigner's department (because they managed to replace my lost Karta Pobytu in very short term), but that was immediately refused.

The logistics company I work for also has an official policy of doing everything official.

Life / Would anyone be interested in English Magazine For Expats in Poland? [9]

It already exists - the NWE.

Law / No Karta Pobytu anymore for EU citizens ? [8]

"Nuts" meaning it is not true that they do not issue KP anymore, or it is absurd ?
Well it was with Multibank he has problems. As it is, he does not have a passport, because we Belgians do not need a passport, we have our national ID-card but for some absurd reason this does not satisfy the bank.

I am going to Długa 5 next week to clarify the matter for him.
Otherwise he will have to apply for a passport just to open an bank account. Totally absurd if you ask me...

On the other hand, I opened together with my wife a savings account last year in the same Multibank branch (Arkadia) and they were perfectly satisfied with my KP.

Or was it because we already have our mortgage with them that they did not behave absurd?

Travel / How can I stay for longer than 90 days in Poland? [26]

With your border controls whose style is about the same to any Gestapo or NKVD treatment, I do not not think you Yank have a lot to complain about.

Ever wondered how Europeans are treated in the USA ?
You could always move to Iraq. After all they are not in Schengen. And finally, you think Anercian citizenship is the ultimate dream of most Europeans? Would not touch an Anercian passport from miles away personally.

Life / Good Cinemas in central area of Warsaw [10]

no discounts. i am pretty sure there is still a movie theater on the river side of Wilson's square
[/quote]
Not true. Cinema Atlantic on Chmielna offers a membership card with which you can buy tickets at reduced prices. Nice cinema, same repertoire as the big guys and well-placed for an after-movie drink.

Life / Katowice: what do you think? [42]

I once missed a train connection and had to stay a few hours in Katowice PKP....
A slimy, dark, horrible place reeking of urine and full of horrible drunks crowding around the ATM's because they know these machines "produce" money.

I was ever so happy to be able to hop on the EC back to Warsaw.
I know most PKP stations are pretty depressive but Katowice was a place apart.
Maybe it changed since 3 years ago... I hope so for the locals...

Life / How to obtain EHIC (European Health Insurance Card,) in Poland? [41]


This is rubbish. I am Belgian, living in Warsaw for four years now, and when I go back home every for months or so, I have my "książka" stamped at work. Download and print and complete the EKUZ form from the NFZ website....and then go to the NFZ office behind the Marriott.

The crowds are always endless there, true, but the staff is always helpful. You need to be patient though :) Bringing a book helps when you have 120 persons in front of you :)

Life / Internet cowboys in Poland - Internet Providers [15]

We also have Neostrada at home but only because we have no choice. TPSA is a French-owned monopolist wit NOT capable employees and a horrible attitude.

Same for Cyfra+, another French-run horrible company who seem to despise their own customers.

Travel / Just got back from a package holiday in Bulgaria with a load of Poles [7]


I live four years in Warsaw and if I look around at work and between the people I know in Warsaw, I have neverr met anybody meeting the stereotypes you mention here.

Travel / Irish/Brits banned from hotels in Warsaw [43]

Good most stag parties skip Warsaw. The few I saw did not make a good PR campaign for Britain :)

Travel / Pictures and advice from trip through Poland [18]

I came the first time in 1989 to Poland and live in Warsaw since 4 years and I like it very much.

Life / You know when you have been too long outside of Poland when... [23]

.... when you step on a tramway let us say in Berlin, Antwerp or Dusseldorf and the people do not smell

Life / is there wireless internet in poland [19]

Imagine that since recently we even have cars and other mechanical vehicles here :) And steam-driven calculators :) Even the blasted I-phone can be bought here .
What a question that is of a very ignorant twit.
Wifi is available in may places, though mostly they are hotspots you have to pay for.
I am using an I-plus card in my laptop. Suits me fine out of home for mailing and surfing.

Travel / Your favourite place/thing in each Poland's city:) [8]

The bike route from Pole Mokotowskie through Park Ujazdowski and through the green zones to my home in Bielany,passing Warsaw's Old and New Town.

And a perfect stop in Kępa Potocka park for a refreshing cold beer.
And as a "thing" the roof garden on the University Library here in Warsaw. Amazing.
As for weird.... the ruins of "Fort Bema" in Bemowo. Especially in wintertime an unforgettable and somewhat eerie sight, this Russian fortress.