Love /
Married to a Polish girl in The Netherlands and residing with her here as well [9]
My wife and I registered our marriage in Poland by mailing our papers directly to the registration office. We called them on the phone and got all the details from them. The papers had to be translated and attested by the Polish embassy. However, we chose to keep the same name because changing the name while you are not in Poland is seemingly a "cumbersome" process.
The papers we sent to the registration office were:
1. Marriage certificate, translated to Polish and attested by Polish embassy.
2. Application form for registration of marriage. Tell your registration office that you need this and they will email you a blank one.
3. Additional application form declaring the names will not change (in our case), and also declaring which last name your future children will have. Again, ask the registration office for this.
NOTE: Both this form and the form mentioned in # 2 above need to be signed by both of you at the Polish embassy or consulate and in the presence of the Consul, who will also sign these applications and attest them making them legal declarations in Poland. Also, it is worth knowing:
they will refuse to hyphenate a Polish last name with a non-Polish last name, regardless of whether you ask for name hyphenation for the spouses or the children.
4. Translated and attested birth certificate or civic record of the non-Polish spouse, clearly stating their marital status and the name of their spouse (if the marriage has been registered in their country) or stating that they are single if the marriage is not yet registered.
5. The Polish spouse's birth certificate, which does not need to be translated nor attested.
6. Copies of both of your passports or identity cards, attested by Polish embassy. The passports or ID cards must be current and valid.
Furthermore, and as per our experience:
Once they receive all the papers, they should complete the registration process and issue a Polish marriage certificate within no more than a week.
If you don't want to go to Poland to collect the papers, then you can ask them to send the papers to the Polish embassy in your country. This will take about 6-8 weeks (!)
They will provide 3 documents in 2 sets of copies, first is the short form marriage certificate, second is the long form marriage certificate, and third is the decision with regards to approval of marriage registration. All you will ever need is the short form marriage certificate as far as we have experienced.
We paid all applicable fees at the Polish embassy.
