Born in Poland came to Canada as Child -- Polish Passport questions

Cześć Everybody,

I was born in Poland and came to Canada as a baby. I would like to get a Polish (which I guess ultimately means EU paszport)

I do have a Polish birth certificate, only problem is, it is buried amongst a ton of other papers somewhere and finding it is going to be a challenge.

This leads me to two questions:

1. What would the process be if I can find my birth certificate?

2. If I can't find it, what is the process to get a replacement?
(I'm assuming I might as well not bother until I can produce a birth certificate)

Thanks,
--Kapuśniak

you defently will need your birth certificate and im not a 100% sure but i think you will get a polish passport but that could give you problem with staying in canada because you would be a polish not from canada

So you basically are a Polish citizen (unless your parents were foreigners living in Poland) and you have to contact the Polish embassy and ask them to issue you a passport, you will get It for sure but I'm sure there will be a lot of paper work, so finding the birth certificate will definately not be the most frustrating thing.


No.


Not sure but probably you should contact the local Urząd Stanu Cywilnego in the place you were born and ask them to send you a copy.

Exactly: call the USC in the place you were born and ask them what your options are for getting a copy of your birth certificate. Once you have it it's pretty simple to apply for a passport - ask your nearest consulate what the process is.

Thanks, everyone, for the responses. After doing a bit more reading both on these forums and on other pages linked from here, it seems that it may take less time to find my birth certificate than to go through the process of getting replacement paperwork.

So, this leads me to another question. But first, I should offer a bit more background...

I'm in Toronto and am a Canadian citizen. (Have been since the early 70s -- for most of my life) Both my parents (along with myself and my brothers) were born in Poland.

I speak Polish conversationally and can read it if I have to. (Thanks to the written language being so wonderfully phonetic.) My roots (employment, family, etc.) are firmly in Canada and realistically, (barring a sudden lottery win) I'm not going anywhere.

I have never been back to Poland, and seeing as I was a baby, I have no memories of it. But that doesn't mean I don't want to spend some time there some day -- maybe start with a nice long vacation. There are some distant family there but I think, when I go, I want to start by doing the tourist thing.

So, that leads me to my question:

Although it might be sexy to be the holder of a Polish passport, do I really need one? If I go on a visit with my Canadian passport, will the authorities give me grief when they discover that I am actually a Polish citizen? I have heard stories of visitors who are actually citizens being prevented from leaving or entering the country until they get the proper paperwork in order. (which of course, will cost a lot of money)

Hi Kapusniak

Another website to check into is the expat of poland website. Then check the forums for Polish Immigration. You will then find 2 out of 3 forums that are closed, but the information contained in them will be of some assistance. The 3rd will be of help as well and you will be able to leave a comment or question.

Once you can find your birth certificate, make copies and keep one that is on a usb stick for future reference. Having a scanned copy may make things easier to email or make extra copies. I can be reached through email here if you want more information. I will be in Toronto, hopefully, at the end of August. So I might see you there.

Gary

You don't have to worry about that nowadays - now that Poland has open borders I can't see how they can prevent you from leaving Poland.

no, you don't need one, but it will allow you to live and work in the EU with very few restrictions which might come in useful at some point for you or your kids...

As for the birth certificate, you'll need to get the new one anyway. The one you have is probably useless… now they have two kinds of birth certificate in PL; the full one and the short one. Make sure u request the full one. I didn't know that when I was doing my paperwork lately so it took me a while to get the proper thing… as far as I remember the full birth certificate costs 50PLN. I got it in less than two weeks. So it's not such a big deal to get it. Once you have that you can apply for a citizenship confirmation and a passport after… which can be done via Polish embassy here in TO.