Study / Bank Balance requirement for Bachelors Degree from India in Poland [7]

As I understand it, a Lakh is 100,000 Rupees? Indian or Pakistani? You have 700,000 Rupees in the bank account. At the present exchange rate that converts to:

Indian Rupee , 35,948 złotych

Pakistani Rupee, 20,523 złoytch

Apparently, a student entering Poland is required to have 543 zł per month for a stay of 15 months. You also have to have either a ticket home or an additional 2,500 zł to purchase one. So either way, Pakistani or Indian Rupee, you seem to have more than enough to meet the requirements.

Travel / Białowieża National Park in Poland [461]


For you to talk about migrants :))

Life / Air pollution in Wroclaw and Krakow [12]

With the kind of salary you can earn, you will have no trouble meeting your day to day living expenses and will probably be able to save something too.

Weather is not so bad in Poland. It depends on the region. The last couple of winters in Warsaw have been very mild with not much snow. Winter 2017/2018 the snow didn't really arrive until February and it wasn't heavy at all. All you need is a good pair of boots with a grip so you don't slip on icy patches and a warm jacket with a hood and woolly hat :)) Indoors you'll be nice and cosy as the central heating is efficient and the trams, buses etc are all heated. In fact it can be too hot and stuffy indoors!

There are tons of jobs available in Warsaw and hold out for a good salary as you have experience and can bring a lot to the job. The air in Warsaw is worst in the city centre but within 15 mins or so of the centre there are lots of nice places to live where the air is much better most of the time. Not so many jobs available in Gdańsk but if you are willing to take a bit longer to find something you can. The air there will be the best as it's by the sea.

Travel / Białowieża National Park in Poland [461]


I explained this to you before:

"Poland will still get funding and will be eligible for rebates. And very importantly the EUbudget only finances projects in policy areas where all EU countries have agreed that if they join forces at Union level, they can achieve better results at lower cost than if they acted at a national level. Consider it as a club where the benefits of membership are greater than than the cash value of the membership fee"


Earth to Dirk, come in Dirk - they've been going after him as you put it, for at least two years already. To paraphrase the Good Book, 'the mills of the EU grind slowly but they grind exceedingly small' :)

And why do you mention migrants in every thread?

Life / Air pollution in Wroclaw and Krakow [12]


Yes people wear smog masks, not everybody, but certainly anybody who's well informed about the heath risks of smog. The air quality in Kraków during the winter is simply appalling. It's not coal mines that cause the pollution. It's coal fired electricity and the burning of coal in commercial and domestic settings for example coal fired central heating or people burning poor quality coal and rubbish in their stoves at home.

Aren't you the guy who got a job in IT in Kraków? Have you considered Warsaw? The air quality there is better than Kraków though there are still very bad days in winter but it's not on the same scale. Plenty of IT jobs in Warsaw so you might want to think about it, also it has the highest salaries. Gdańsk has an IT sector too and the air is best there because it's by the sea.

Life / Air pollution in Wroclaw and Krakow [12]

Yes it's true. Air pollution in certain parts of Poland is as bad as Bejing, not all the time but quite frequently. It's worst in winter because of all the coal powered central heating boilers. You can get live updates regarding air quality here:

aqicn.org/city/poland/malopolska/krakow/aleja-krasinskiego/

As you can see, the air in Kraków today is quite good :)

Law / Polish child maintenance, possible Irish father, Polish mother [21]

I think you've picked up a bit of a Dublin accent. Does this sound familiar?

"Would yiz ever gerrrup the yeard missus,ya have me head melted so ya have. Spear me, bleedin' spear me. Oil box the bleedin' head off ya" etc etc and so on. Lovely people.

I don't think your English is that bad:


Almost perfect, you even used an article.


Perfect. Many Poles, even those with good English would say 'is it worth to go'? They have difficulty with gerunds and infinitives.


Vocabulary sounds promising, quite advanced, updates indeed, not just plain old news.

Your English is so good it's time to start learning Irish. You want your daughter to speak her other native tongue I would imagine. Maith an cailín, Agnieszka abú! :))

Law / Polish child maintenance, possible Irish father, Polish mother [21]

The usage of English sounds more like an irate Chinese woman...........be that as it may..........

Her Irish ex who got her pregnant and ran off sounds fascinating because although he is a lawyer, according to our kochana Agnieszka, in a previous post which she's obviously forgotten about:


These lawyers, they know all the tax dodges :))

Real Estate / Real Estate Lawyer costs in Poland [18]

It's a house Terri, so there won't be any czynsz. Don't alarm the poor guy even further!

Law / How to verify a lawyer is qualified in Poland [8]

They're roughly the equivalent of barrister and solicitor in the UK but there's less of a distinction in Poland.

You absolutely do not need a solicitor for signing documents etc for a basic house purchase. Total waste of money. You'd be better of coming over to Poland for a week and doing the necessary checks yourself. They're not that complicated and you speak some Polish. Is your wife Polish? Can she not help you?

Real Estate / Real Estate Lawyer costs in Poland [18]


I can vouch that this one is real:

notariusze.waw.pl/kancelaria-notarialna/kancelaria,kancelaria-notarialna-tomasz-babka

63 hours?? Balls to that. I never heard such nonsense.

Are you buying from a developer or a private owner?

It's a very basic, straightforward process in Poland. If it's a private owner, they should have a little scrap of paper which confirms their ownership. It has a reference number on it relating to the entry in the registration book. Trot along to the Land Registry which is located in the local court, inspect it and confirm that they're the owner. Any member of the public can do that. It'll also give details of any mortgage as far as I remember.

Ask to see up to date bills for utilities, property tax etc so you know there's nothing outstanding.

The main problem is that you can't be sure if the seller's ID is genuine but a lawyer won't do that anyway so it's just a chance you take.

Oh and you should check at the Urząd Gminy to confirm if anybody is registered as living at that address. You don't want that.

That's about it really. The Notary does sod all. They're just there to make the transaction legal by witnessing it. However he can confirm for you which checks you need to make

As a foreigner, you'll also need a sworn translator for the actual signing of the documents, even if you speak Polish. After the signing you'll get a copy of the contract and the Notary keeps the original. A few weeks (or months!) later the Land Registry will send you the little bit of paper to confirm the change of ownership has been recorded.

Classifieds / Hair stylist required with immediate start [3]

To be honest Cathy, you'd have a better chance of finding someone by just advertising in Ireland specifying a native Polish speaker required with fluent English. There are plenty of qualified Polish hairdressers living in Ireland.

Work / Can I get job in IT sector after finishing masters in Poland ? [6]


They don't Terri. They really don't, even in IT. There are plenty who have just a Bachelors. Also the old Magister degree is really only equivalent to an Hons BA. The system has come in line with the rest of Europe now, where you do a BA and then carry on to do a Masters if you want to. It's perfectly possible for a Polish person to find a job with only a BA.

As for work permits, judging by the number of affluent looking people I see in Warsaw who are clearly from the Indian subcontinent, I would say that if a Polish employer can't find somebody with the necessary experience, they will certainly hire somebody who requires a work permit.

It's one of the reasons why IT is such a multi-cultural profession pretty much all over the developed world. Any major company you go into in a European capital will have Russians, Chinese, Indians etc working there. But they're not new graduates, they usually have several years experience and a specific skill set that that the company needs.

Work / Can I get job in IT sector after finishing masters in Poland ? [6]

You have a much better chance of getting a job in Poland if you work for two or three years in India and get some professional experience in the industry. A masters makes no difference at all to your employment prospects but experience DOES. It's a complete waste of time and money coming to Poland to get a Masters. Get experience, that's what counts.

Real Estate / Starting an English building company in Warsaw. [24]

I suppose in the end it comes down to the size of the market. How many expats in Warsaw want to build, improve or renovate a house? Many of them are living in Poland temporarily and are in rented accommodation so they won't even need small jobs like a garden wall built. However there are also foreign investors. Having checked the stats, the top foreign buyers at the moment are apparently German and Ukrainian. Ukrainians are more likely to use a Polish builder or even bring their own team over the border.

While checking the stats I found that there are around 45,000 foreigners living in the whole of the Mazowieckie region so if you're prepared to do jobs outside Warsaw that's a fair number of potential customers but like I said, bear in mind, many of those don't need a builder. About 22,000 of them live in Warsaw and a quarter of those are Ukrainian, and of course many Warsaw expats are just there to work and not stay permanently. There probably is a big enough market to earn a modest living, but I would be wary about investing too much money in start-up costs. When you say you want to set up with a Polish partner, do you mean you already have one or you're looking for one? And do you mean a working partner or just an investor?

UK, Ireland / Buying a car in Poland from UK [16]


You're clearly neither a classic car owner nor a collector of anything of value, either monetary or aesthetic.

Those who own classic cars DRIVE them. Some people even drive them every day, as you would know if you'd ever lived in the UK where there are numerous old Morris Minors and Volvo 244 series, for example, still on the road and in regular use. There are people who intentionally buy classic cars which are not road-worthy with the intention of restoring them. However in general people who buy a car that's over twenty years old, still expect to be able to drive it, it's not just for looking at. How old are you? Twelve??


Surely THE cleverest?? And not merely here, but in the entire world :D

UK, Ireland / Buying a car in Poland from UK [16]

@Billym346, it's madness to buy an old classic car without seeing it and taking it for a test drive, especially from a foreign country. It's very easy to fake a full service history. They guy can just go to a mechanic and offer him a backhander for invoices/receipts etc.


Am baffled as to why anybody would buy a Jag from Poland when they actually live in England. However if it was originally registered in the UK, the OP may be able to do at least a partial check on it, in terms of how many owners etc.

Just a word of warning Billy, a few years back, in Ireland, my husband was looking at a low mileage VW Beetle. He did the vehicle history search which we have, same as UK and lo and behold, it had had nine previous owners!! It was low mileage because nobody kept it for more than a few months - alarm bells.

UK, Ireland / Buying a car in Poland from UK [16]

Why? What did you do that was so terrible??

UK, Ireland / Buying a car in Poland from UK [16]

Don't you mean right-hand drives? A left-hand drive is a car with the driver's side on the left which is what you have in mainland Europe.

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]

It's not to me, but to Dirk that you should be addressing that comment Sig. I agree with you. It's Dirk who is fantasizing about mixed raced children being treated as he clearly thinks they deserve to be - and he thinks they deserve to have their schooldays made a misery by their Polish peers, but that won't happen thankfully.

News / "It's too late for Germany" (but not for Poland) [1798]


Are you suggesting that a child of mixed race parents will be bullied and socially excluded in a Polish school?? And are you celebrating that? Sounds like it.

Stop and think for a minute, really think about what you're saying. It suggests that when you become a parent you will instruct your children to ostracize other children whose existence offends you, because, as a teacher I can tell you, that it's from their parents and home life that children pick up those values. Not very nice Dirk. A child doesn't choose their parents and shouldn't be 'punished' because of them.

Also, if you think that Polish children would behave that way, shunning a classmate and subjecting that child to abuse because they're not white and Christian, I believe you are very wrong. Certainly that's not what I saw in Ireland. I taught Polish children in classes that also had some children of middle Eastern, Indian and African origin and they all mixed and played together in a normal manner.

If you don't want to invite such children to your home or encourage friendships, that's a different matter. But hoping that mixed race children will be shunned, snubbed and taunted by their white Christian Polish peers, is really sick, quite frankly.

Law / Polish child maintenance, possible Irish father, Polish mother [21]


That's how it works under Polish law. The court can base their judgement not on what you earn but on what you COULD earn. I know, it's ludicrous. They also don't have to take into account income versus living expenses. Having said that as you live with your mother, they would consider that you have an income of over 3,000zł per month and don't pay rent so you can easily afford to pay 1,500 per month in child support.


You have two issues here, the money you already owe on foot of the previous judgement and the future payments. As you have the upcoming DNA test, I wouldn't worry about being arrested. Even in Poland where the law can be very weird and unfair compared to Ireland, they'll probably give you leeway until that's dealt with. But if paternity is established you will continue to owe that money plus interest. You're still not likely to be extradited as you're Irish, but at some point it will be put in the hands of a Bailiff for collection and in theory he could apply to the Irish courts to have the judgement enforced. But I would say cross that bridge if or when you come to it. As far as I know if it goes to the Bailiff, your ex who is the plaintiff in the case, states what she wants done : A) a lean on your salary B) property seized, or C) jail. She's not likely to want to see you in jail as that means there's no way she'll get any money.

As to the amount of future payments, they will probably expect you to pay around 1,000zł per month, so about 250 euros. But the most important thing is to get the DNA test. How much does it cost? You really need to get the money together for that somehow if you want to get your life back on track. To be honest, you should have had it done years ago when this all started.

You can overcome the drink problem. Others have done it. You can do it too. You have a good profession and can re-train, update your skills etc. There are loads of free back to education courses/opportunities in Ireland. You can get back in to the workforce and take control of your life again. You can't just give up and say ' I'll keep breathing for the next thirty or forty years, but my life is over, I'll just sit and stare at the four walls'. You're entitled to some happiness but you have to make it for yourself.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]

Justice Donnelly has finalized the wording of her queries to the ECJ and it's been sent off to Luxembourg. The case will probably be heard in two to three months time by a 17 panel Grand Chamber of judges. Representatives of the Polish embassy in Dublin were in court yesterday to hear the proceedings.

Interesting to see the waffle coming from Morawiecki now that PIS are having to back down over the judicial reforms. Kaczyński is a bit more blunt though, acknowledging that they're taking a leaf out of Orban's book and giving in when faced with unpleasant alternatives. He also acknowledges that it's a bitter pill to swallow. I'd like to think that Ireland bringing the case to the ECJ has helped to bring this about. At least two of the issues raised by Justice Donnelly have been addressed by the proposed concessions - not a coincidence I think. Clearly Poland would have lost the case in the ECJ if they hadn't done anything. They still might.

Genealogy / Slavs are descendants of Sarmatians? [600]


What I find very interesting is how Greece spiralled downward from being the cradle of Western European civilization (though of course Crow would deny that!) to the mess it is today. It's all the more strange when you consider that modern Greeks have a considerable proportion of the DNA of their impressive ancestors. So the raw material for greatness is there.


You can't really apply the normal rules when it comes to Crow, he's unique!

Genealogy / Slavs are descendants of Sarmatians? [600]

I think the forum members generally like Crow actually even if we don't agree with him. Modern day Serbia is a bit of travesty, I agree, but to say they have no history is not true. Serbia as a nation state is older than Poland and they became Christians before Poles too. That's even without taking into account their ancient history which goes back thousands of years. Everybody has a history, otherwise we wouldn't exist.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


Did you read the stuff about hooking himself up to a Vitamin C drip when he has a hangover?!! Dear God Almighty...........what's up with that as they'd say in New York :D


Well, as I say, they're very much like naughty children who think they've found some clever way around the rules and that 'teacher' won't notice, but like children, they lack the experience and judgement to know how obvious their efforts are. Also, they have a simplistic outlook on things and mistake the touchy, feely, let's be friends vibe of the Commission for weakness. The Commission has messed up badly by not dealing with this much more decisively and swiftly. They should have invoked Article 7 ages ago but in a way all this has been a good thing. It's a wake up call for the EU executive that part of EU reforms needs to include a mechanism for expelling members in the future and that you can't deal Winnie the Pooh style with the former Communist countries. They still like to feel the lash and that's a fact. That's what they respect. Poland is still a punitive culture based around the stick and not the carrot so deal with them on those terms if you want results.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]

Latest news is that a few cosmetic changes have been made to the judicial reforms as an attempt to placate the Commission and of course their colleagues in the European Parliament. Obviously PIS doesn't want to be completely out in the cold. They're just like naughty children pushing the boundaries to see how far they can go without consequences but...............I'd forgotten, as we all seem to have, about the business with Hungary a few years ago when the EU suspended funding to them and they came back into line pretty quickly - and that was under Orban. When it comes to the crunch he's all mouth and trousers as they say in the north of England. The thing is you see, that quite apart from Article 7, the Commission doesn't need the consent of Parliament, unanimous or otherwise, to suspend funding. Funding to Hungary was suspended under a violation of some part of the treaty of membership of which Poland is already in serious violation. So that's it basically. Once a legal precedent has been set, it can be used again. Obviously the EU would prefer not to do that as they don't like discord and prefer peaceful, diplomatic resolutions but needs must when the Devil drives.

Obviously this sudden back-tracking by PIS is in light of the forthcoming case at the European Court of Justice and also the upcoming meeting of the Commission in April when no doubt the next stage of Article 7 will be discussed.

Despite all their bluster and bravado, they know that they have to keep the electorate sweet for next year's elections. Getting Poland ostracized within the EU and losing the country money is not going to achieve that. So they're playing a stalling game. If they get re-elected, that's when the real horrors will unfold.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]

A British NGO, Fair Trials Europe has asked the Irish High Court if they can join in the extradition case being brought before the European Court of Justice. Justice Donnelly says she'll consider it and will make her decision by the end of the week, plus she'll have the wording of her queries to the ECJ ready by then also.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]

I'm referring to the fact that Kaczyński is presently running the country and Morawiecki and Duda are simply puppets. If there is to be any chance of Poland finding its way back from this mess, JK has to go.

News / EU confirms it will take action against Poland over court reforms [554]


You mean JK isn't. The only way out of the present mess is for him to be ousted. He probably will be eventually. But things will get worse before that happens.


In some countries, to some degree but not anything like as much as you believe, because you read rather biased reports which have a spin on them.