Polonia / Poland tourist visa inquiry for Philippines? [8]

The short and quick answer is NO you cannot get married in Poland/Europe if you have a tourist visa.
To do so might have you returned to country of origin and a 10 year ban from trying to enter Europe.

Law / I want to move to Poland, but is it still difficult to obtain a visa for non EU nationals? [8]

For unrestricted movement within the Schengen area it depends on which Country you are applying from and the exact type of Visa granted to you.

Law / European Health Insurance Card - help with Poland's ZUS? [12]

You seem to be confused Squid, either you are working or not.
If you are working in Poland ( on line counts as work) you need to register there.
The health card is based on residency not citizenship, you are a resident of Poland right now (by your own admission) so your Swedish health card is invalid in Poland.

Travel / Good Hotels in Krakow? [6]

The only concistently good hotel is the Sheraton, if you are on a budget then the Batory has proved OK but stay in the hotel not in the annexe. IMO of course but we have stayed in most of the places on your list but wouldnt return to any of them for various reasons.

Real Estate / Any idea if any UK banks offer mortgage to buy a property in Poland? [17]

Funnily enough my wife worked for Midland Bank as a branch manager for some years, even worked for HSBC when they took over, so our main account is with them. HSBC in Poland said no straight away, same for the UK branch when we mentioned perhaps remortgaging our UK property.

The Polish banks main criteria appeared to be because we are UK residents and earn our wages in the UK they were not prepared to allow us a small Polish mortgage even though we had paid a substancial 80%+ cash deposit.

Real Estate / Any idea if any UK banks offer mortgage to buy a property in Poland? [17]

Quite!
but they do ask you what you want the money for. we of course were honest so were turned down. If we had said it was for a couple of new cars it would have been approved, 'go figure' as the Americans say.

What I really dont understand is how the 'average' Polish person can actually buy a property. if you take their wages against the cost of property it doesnt add up to me?

Real Estate / Any idea if any UK banks offer mortgage to buy a property in Poland? [17]

There are currently NO UK banks that lend for Polish property.
In Poland we found only 3 banks that were prepared to lend to us, we earn and live in the UK.
I think you will struggle if you want a Buy to Let mortgage...anywhere.
Re mortgaging a UK property to buy or help towards a Polish property was also turned down here in the UK.

USA, Canada / Indian citizen working in Poland want to apply for US student visa [3]

The general understanding is you can only apply for this type of visa from your home country.

UK, Ireland / EEA family permit from Poland to UK - time and process [60]

He needs to return home and apply for the relevant Visa from the U.S.

Life / Living in Poland since 2010 and I still don't have ID. Advice needed please. [50]


There are several routes to obtaining Polish citizenship and each route will have its own rules you have to follow.
I think you are misinterpretating what the office is saying to you, you think they are trying everything in their power to deny your wife citizenship whereas I think they are trying to help you. We were told the same as you have been told by the office we had to apply to (Katowice). They are not trying to trip you up they are trying to determine in law which route suits your wifes situation. In basic terms my understanding is you can be Polish by birth, Polish by descent or Polish by other than descent. Once they have made their ruling it cannot be overuled by any court in the land (as it says on the rather grand document my wife has). My wifes situation was maybe simpler than yours, her father had always kept his Polish citizenship and until recently had a Polish passport.

So Harleybrit has your wife actually had an official letter saying that her citizenship has been refused?

Life / Living in Poland since 2010 and I still don't have ID. Advice needed please. [50]

Have a read through this site perhaps. I believe that in your wifes situation her father didnt renounce his Polish citizenship by choice, it was removed due to circumstances at the time. I am sure I have read somewhere that this is understood by the authorities and can be overturned. Maybe a decent lawyer is required, someone who deals with these situations.

Life / Living in Poland since 2010 and I still don't have ID. Advice needed please. [50]


This is why we have had to wait for my wife to get her Citizenship we understand, as you say this should change in 2016.
Maybe this is why people are experiencing difficulties, if you are buying in/ near a city then the land is possibly zoned as construction whereas out in the countryside it would suggest that the land is zoned for agriculture or forest with just the building itself sitting on construction land.

The plot we have purchased would be concidered large for a city or big town, we have construction,forest and agriculture zones. I can look up the individual sizes if it helps anyone.

As to the utilities I agree, but what can you do? Every office was adamant that a copy of her ID card and showing of the actual card was required before they would proceed.

Yes I would say it is a small town, one of the moderators here I think has a connection nearby.
We were never asked for bribes nor did we offer them!

Life / Living in Poland since 2010 and I still don't have ID. Advice needed please. [50]

We were both born in the UK and still live here....for now.
The 'estate agency' had access to a lawyer friend, we also had all the documents at every step taken to an independant lawyer some distance away, we didnt meet with the Notary until the final day of signing the contracts. All of them said we could not proceed without the Polish ID card and Pessel number.

When transfering the gas, water, electric, internet, alarm etc. we were asked for a copy of said ID card every time.
So why are people having vastly different experiences/ difficulties?
Maybe different regions have their own interpretations of the law or indeed there are different laws?
I believe I am correct in saying that depending on how much land you are buying and what that land is zoned as has a reflection on the buying process.

Where we have purchased there used to be a minimum of 1600m2 of land required to build a new house, in the past year or so this has been reduced to 750m2. we were told this by a developer and it was confirmed by someone in the local town hall. I only mention this as maybe it has some bearing on the situation-what I dont know!

Life / Living in Poland since 2010 and I still don't have ID. Advice needed please. [50]

Our experience has been somewhat different. We could not proceed with the house buying process without a Polish ID card with Pessel number. We have held the temporary residence permit for 3 years previously, this is just a form that has to be renewed every 3 months, stamped and held by the local office.

On applying for the ID card we were informed it was not possible to obtain without PolishCitizenship.
Citizenship took 10 months in total, the ID card took 3 months extra.
We also could not not buy a new car without showing the Polish ID card, this has been put on hold for now.

Travel / How does wizz air compare with ryanair? [32]

Since BA stopped flying to our destinations we have used Wizz.
Of the 14 flights this year only 1 has had a delay of 2 hours so pretty good on that front.
We always pay extra and use priority boarding, if you have only hand luggage it does make it a fair bit quicker to get through passport/customs as you are at the front of the queue.

I have noticed that people travelling with kids do tend to try and push their way to the front of the priority lane, I dont let it get to me!

Have also noticed on our last flight that there were 3 fellas with one kid in the priority lane-thats some strange 'family'. They were spoken to by the cabin crew on boarding.

Lastly I do hope that the check in desk fiasco last Sunday was just a one off, only one check in desk open to accomodate two flights, we were at the airport over 2 hours before check in and waited 80 minutes in the queue to drop our bag, I wonder if any missed their flights.

Work / Moving to Poland from Iceland (salary of 6500 pln a month) - can I build a house? [25]

Well we finally completed our house purchase last week.
Everything went well and according to plan except we weren't warned that the tax etc. due had to paid in cash to the notarie. We expected to pay by bank transfer, most unusual but we had a friendly bank manager who with a little persuasion from the lawyer allowed us to take out the required amount from our account even though it was above their threshold limit.

Without revealing too much personal information I hope, we had approved our mortgage application and the money has been transfered to the sellers account.
To give a little hope to the original OP and prove that each situation is different;
We do not live or work in Poland.
We have had a bank account in Poland for under 18 months.
We intend to retire at age 60, so not long to go for us!
Our mortgage (if we want it to run for the full time) will finish when we are in our mid 70's.
We mortgaged about 20% of the purchase price, perhaps not relevant but ours was purely for tax reasons.

Now the fun starts trying to find a reputable builder to add the planned extension.

Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

The translation costs were purely for the bank. I have no idea why they drag there heels for so long.We have Polish relatives who speak/ understand English so in a similar situation as you perhaps.

I have just been reminded that the first 'official translator' that we used was absolute garbage so perhaps take about 5000PLN off that costing.
We since use a translator that we have absolute trust in that was reccomended by our lawyer in Poland locally to where we intend to retire.

The bank have required every 60 days the previous 6 months bank statements from our UK banks..every time translated in full, same for any c/card statements and credit reports.

Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

No the mortgage will be in PLN. I guess they can charge what they want as they have no competition.
If it was a GBP mortgage it would be around 2.7% but none want to lend for the Polish market.

Real Estate / Mortgages in Poland while living and working in the UK? [20]

We are in a similar situaton as in we both live and work in the UK. We have used a finance broker to help with a mortgage application, this has been very time consuming and frustrating at times.

In total it has taken 9 months since agreeing on buying a property.
The translation costs have been around 40,000PLN. As mentioned earlier the documents we supplied such as bank statements etc. have a limited life of 60 days before they request new ones.

The most frustrating was they insisted we had our credit card limits reduced to 1000GBP each.
We only have a mortgage for tax reasons as advised by our accountants, it will be payed off in full after the 4 years minimum agreement as required by the bank.

The interest rate is 4.7%
It is our understanding the only bank that still deals with 'foreigners' is Getin Bank. They also insist that you use their own house insurance which is VERY expensive.

If it was not for the tax implications we would on reflection just purchased the property outright 9 months ago.

USA, Canada / Polish married to a Dominican and want to Return to Europe. [13]

I have no idea what the Mail or any other paper writes but I do have to know and implement the governments current policies on immigration and visa issues-does that give you a clue as to my actual job. Each member state has its own policies they are not EU wide when it concerns someone not currently holding or likely to have an EU members passport.

If I have an opinion on a subject I will reply and make it known its my opinion. I will not state it as a fact unless that is so...............how about you try it sometime.

USA, Canada / Polish married to a Dominican and want to Return to Europe. [13]

and you are of course wrong on every count but once again don't let that stop you from giving your usual drivel that you think is sound advice.

USA, Canada / Polish married to a Dominican and want to Return to Europe. [13]

You need to speak with a reputable immigration lawyer, this will cost a reasonable amount of money.
You as an EU passport holder can travel and work within the EU so long as you obey that countrys immigration/ residency laws.
Your partner/husband does not have the same rights as yourself no matter what your marital status is.
This is a complicated issue and with the bare facts you have posted is the best answer available from me.

UK, Ireland / Renewal of British passport in Poland (how long does it take?) [27]

Your new passport should be with you within 3 days.
If you are able to sign for the packet so much the better if not it is entirely up to the delivery driver what they feel is appropriate. They are allowed to leave it with no signature so long as they feel it is safe to do so and cannot be picked up by someone else, otherwise you will be asked to collect from their depot.

Real Estate / Buying a flat in Krakow; prices are still falling? [200]

I can quite believe it as we have been through a similar scenario ourselves recently.
I have no idea how the banks in Poland actually lend money but from our experience I would suggest it must styffle new business/ growth in Poland.

Rough figures for comparison, all in PLN for simplicity.
Deposit 1m
Loan/mortgage applied for 300k
Joint income 428k gross
Pension forcast in 7 years 170k+state pension 70k
So far 3 banks have turned us down, one has agreed but we have to have a Polish resident on the application.

Real Estate / Day of exchange of contracts with property sellers in Poland [12]

O.K. I have a plan to put forward to the vendors so lets see if you good people would be happy with it first.

We both share the same bank and branch in Poland, we know this as when we transfered the deposit it was handled by the bank cashier in front of all partys involved.The vendors were there just in case we had any problems.

How about I suggest we do exactly the same with the final payment.
We all meet at the house and check all is as it should be, drive into town and do all the paperwork in the notaries office then walk 200m to the bank and transfer the money, they hand us the keys and everyone should be happy.

OR is it possible to get a bankers draft from the bank, this is as good as cash anywhere?

Real Estate / Day of exchange of contracts with property sellers in Poland [12]

Thanks again, you all have the correct understanding of the situation.
I did email the agent and said if the sellers want to exchange at a later date to give them time to organise their life then it makes no odds to us.

The reply just now is whatever date we exchange and pay them the balance of money etc. they still want to stay in the property for at least 2 further weeks, this is what is concerning me and in my experience has never happened previously.

In my mind that could give them 2 weeks to empty OUR property, trash it or whatever and leaves us with the problems to resolve. It also means I have to make an extra trip to make sure the house is as it should be when they do leave.

We are not intending to live in this house full time untill we retire, maybe I should have made that clearer to you earlier, everyone else involved is aware of it.

Law / Which bank in Poland offers the best interest for savings in Euro? [13]

I can't answer your question fully but ING bank give us 3.5% on our savings account, the money is also available to us immediately.

Real Estate / Day of exchange of contracts with property sellers in Poland [12]

Thanks for your replies so far.
Grzegorz to answer your points;
when the final transfer is done in the notaries office i.e. money exchanged and any taxes due are payed is when we would like to take poccession of the property, not several weeks later, does this seem unreasonable to you?

We have purchased appartments in 2 other European places as well as houses twice in England. On each occasion the transfer of funds was completed either electronically or with a bankers draft in either the notaire or solicitors office, this is when we have exchanged keys etc. It is quite usual in the UK for the sellers to have a removals van booked and loaded with their goods, as soon as the contracts etc are signed and exchanged the property is now ours. In Spain they had emptied their belongings beforehand, in France they took what they wanted and left us the rubbish to dispose off!

Before anyone thinks we are some kind of property moguls nothing could be further from the truth. We have both worked hard and chose to buy property where we liked to visit, they are for our own personal use.

Law / Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland [174]

'you will need to have YOUR birth registered in Poland as well as your parents marriage if your mother isn't Polish'

My wife needed neither of the above, perhaps it depends on where you apply or your current address.