American in Poland...Schengen changes...help with residency.

I am an American and have been in Poland for much of the past two years doing the in/out thing for a new stamp every 90 days. Well with Poland joining Schengen at the end of the year it puts me in a bind.

I have some medical problems and am seeing a great doctor in Warsaw...I have a note from him saying I need to stay here for an operation and I intend to submit this to try and get a karta pobytu. Every time I have been to the immigration office I get different stories as to if this is OK or not.

I also have a Polish fiancee...so we thought maybe we could just get married sooner than we planned and fix the problem...but it seems it takes 3-4 months just to get all the legal stuff out of the way to get permission to marry. So we wouldn't be able to marry in time for the changes.

I have not been working here as I get a small disability stipend due to my medical problem...I might be able to get a job/work visa...but I think already being in Poland that is very tricky.

The final option is to stay illegally...but if something were to happen to any of my family in the US and i needed to leave Poland I would be busted and not be able to come back to my fiancee...

It is all a mess...and the medical problems are making it tough to get myself around the city to keep getting mixed answers...can anyone offer help or offer advice?

Thanks very much in advance....

I know exactly what you mean. You get a different story every time. Hehe, I'm working on the approval of the Polish court as a Polish citizen to accept my US divorce. It is all messed up. Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. And each time you have to wait a month or two.

Does anyone know if marrying in a Polish consulate abroad changes anything? Like if we went to Germany...married in the consulate there...would it be a way to circumvent the waiting in Poland?

Regarding the Karta Pobytu...they said it takes longer than 3 months sometimes to process it...but I can only stay 3 months out of every 6...so if it isn't approved by this time do I just have to leave back to the US? They are very unclear....

I think you can get married wherever it is legal to get married. As for the consulate, not sure about the Polish one, but you could try the American one too. Heck, you could try if they have some kind of European Las Vegas, perhaps in Switzerland.

If you get married then it looks like karta pobytu is just a formality, albeit one that may take time.

There is some association for Poles married/intending to marry foreigners
see this link (in Polish): obcokrajowcy.republika.pl/karty_pobytu.html

hi guy i understand what you mean, anyway my advise to you is to take a train to romania or plane to london, infact there's many places you can go without visa and back to poland. of course if you have the money for the trip