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Posts by DominicB  

Joined: 28 Sep 2012 / Male ♂
Warnings: 1 - O
Last Post: 23 Sep 2020
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Posts: Total: 2706 / In This Archive: 2159
From: Chicago
Speaks Polish?: Yes

Displayed posts: 2159 / page 24 of 72
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DominicB   
12 May 2017
Law / Poland's Citizenship Requirements - Is a permanent resident card necessary ? [26]

you're approaching somebody who hasn't dealt with this kind of thing

When clerks find themselves in this position, in order not to lose face and maintain superiority, they will often just make $hit up rather than admit that they don't know and consult their boss. Then if you ask to speak to the boss, they will dig their heels in and block access in any way they can. The trick is to bypass the lower levels from the very beginning and go directly to the top. That's a lot easier than trying to jump over all the hurdles they will put in your way.
DominicB   
12 May 2017
Real Estate / Renting a room or apartment in Krakow without visiting first [4]

@c0mmon

My advice is to rent for a month or so by Airbnb while you search for an apartment with the help of an OLDER experienced Polish colleague. Having a Pole help you find and apartment and do the talking will save you a great deal of time and trouble. They also know what to look for in terms of location and the condition of the apartment. For example, an apartment may seem cheap, but located in such a way that you will require an inconvenient commute. Standing at cold tram or bus stations during the winter can sap your energy even before you get to work.

The other two biggies are the kitchen and the windows. A lot of Polish apartments have a kitchen that is so small that it is near impossible to use for everyday cooking (they are called "kitchen annexes"). You're going to find that you will be cooking at home less and less and eating out more and more, which is going to cost you.

As for windows, this is why you need and OLDER experienced person. A lot of Polish apartments have windows that were improperly installed. Slipshod work was the rule rather than the exception during the 1990s, when most Polish apartments were refitted with new windows. The problem is not only are the rooms cold in winter, but cold air can enter through the gaps and dramatically increase your heating bill.

Make sure your apartment has a washing machine, because laundromats (laundrettes) are practically non-existent in Poland, and those that exist are very expensive.

Walking distance to the grocery store is also a great plus and timesaver, You wont have to schlepp bags all over the city, and you can just pop down and get any ingredients you forgot to buy while you are cooking.

And don't forget to fairly compensate your colleague for their time and trouble. They are saving you a heap of cash.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Law / Poland's Citizenship Requirements - Is a permanent resident card necessary ? [26]

@MarkC

Sorry, bud, but that doesn't change the fact that the best place to get the information you seek is at the wydział do spraw cudzoziemskich, and not on some internet forum, where you will only get more conflicting information, as you indeed did.

I will give you one great tip though. If you're living in Dolnośląskie, then the definitive person to talk to is Tomasz Bruder, the director at the WdSC. He treated me splendidly and professionally. Furthermore, he's the only one whose opinion and decision matter in that wojewódzstwo. If you live elsewhere, make an appointment to talk to the director of your WdSC.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Studies In Poland, is it easy to survive on part-time jobs? [259]

Actually, the rules have changed.

Thanks for filling me in. I was wondering why all the questions from prospective students have recently been devoid of any mention of academics, and been almost entirely about jobs. It's been a dog's age since I saw a serious question from a real student on this forum.

The universities and recruiting scammers must be raking it in, ripping off these kids of their parent's life savings. It's disgusting.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Studies In Poland, is it easy to survive on part-time jobs? [259]

UberEats in Wroclaw was essentially employing an army of Indian students

Let me guess: not a single one ever got paid a single penny. And the poor students can't do anything because they have violated the terms of their visa and will get deported. That scam has been making the rounds. It's much easier for a foreign student to get scammed like this than to land a real job.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Law / Can I have Polish passport with Poland's pobytu karta (residence card)? [9]

Is it true?

No, it's not true, and that's not what the document you linked to says.

You can only apply for citizenship two years after you receive permission to settle. You can only get permission to settle only once you get permanent residency. To get permanent residency, you need to spend five full-time years in Poland. Studies count as half-time residence, so each year as a student counts as only one half year for that purpose. So right now, you have only one year of full time residency (your two years as a student), and you need at least seven. So you have at least six more years to go, and probably longer if you are still studying.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Food / Making American cheeses (Polish and EU ones are terrible!) [100]

Does Poland produce any outstanding cheeses ?

I only encountered one commercial cheese that was of rather good quality while I was in Poland. It's called Bursztyn. The same company that makes it makes at least two other cheeses that I never had the chance to try: Safir and Rubin. I doubt that any would get exported to the States, though. All the rest of the commercially available cheeses I ever tried in Poland were bland and lifeless knock-offs of western European cheeses that all basically taste the same.

Once in a while, there will be a stand at a fair that has artisan cheeses that are pretty good. This movement is in its infancy, though, and again I don't think any would be exported.

As explained above, the one thing holding it back is consumer tastes. Most Poles will not even try any cheese that has any aroma, and strongly dislike sharp aged cheeses. The neighbor lady from the apartment downstairs even came apoundin' at my door once when I made cheesy melts with a rather mildly aromatic Czech cheese once. I probably would have put her in the hospital had I done so with a fully aromatic Danish cheese like Gamle Ole or Sorte Per Far. Their concept of cheese needs to be expanded a great deal. It's going to be quite a marketing challenge to increase demand for quality cheeses.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Is 12500 Gross is a good salary to relocate Krakow, Poland [15]

A very different sort of city. Much more expensive to live in too.

Which is more than offset by the higher wages he will earn there. Cost of living in Kraków is staggeringly high compared to wages. In any case, he will be able to put much more in his savings account at the end of the month even in London that he could in Kraków.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Is 12500 Gross is a good salary to relocate Krakow, Poland [15]

Kraków as a city has a huge overseas population

No, it doesn't. Nothing much in comparison to London, Amsterdam or most any mid-sized city in the west. And what there is is almost entirely transient.

My goal is to help these engineers and students make the best informed choices they can. and it so happens that Poland is rarely even close to the best option.

I'm being VERY positive about their ability to find much better jobs in much richer locations.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
News / Poland 2050? What will happen? [60]

A lot of bangladeshis, indians

Very few of those stay longer than a year or two, and precious few settle. The richer countries to the west are too much of a draw for them to view Poland as anything else but a stepping stone.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Is 12500 Gross is a good salary to relocate Krakow, Poland [15]

you'll have more free time here

Makes little difference to an IP professional with a wife and kid when he realizes that his savings plan is going to take a major hit. And as for their quality of life, it is going to take a huge drop. Winter, isolation, being away from her family, being unable to communicate with people in everyday life, all that is going to get on her nerves.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Is 12500 Gross is a good salary to relocate Krakow, Poland [15]

The median salary in Kraków is around 4000zl per month.

Which is totally irrelevant because the OP is not an average Pole.

This is untrue, when the poster is asking about quality of life.

Is quality of life is going to be a lot better in India if he is making the same amount of money, and a lot better in a richer country where he can earn substantially more.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Is 12500 Gross is a good salary to relocate Krakow, Poland [15]

it's three times the median salary

That is patently false. It is significantly below the median wage for experienced SAP consultants in Kraków, and very much below the median wage for SAP consultants in richer countries.

If you want to help this person, give them useful and relevant information instead of the nonsense you provided. The median wage of the local general population is completely irrelevant for an ex-pat professional.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Is 12500 Gross is a good salary to relocate Krakow, Poland [15]

Can i get a Studio or 1 BHK for 1000PLN to 1200 PLN ?

No. You'll need double that.

My Current Package is almost similar to what was offered.

Then there is no point in coming to Poland. The cost of living for you as a foreigner in Kraków would be substantially higher than for you as an Indian in your own city. Giving up your home field advantage is going to cost you. And that's not to mention the cost of your relocation, travel, visas and permits, which has to be deducted from your wages.

As for quality of life, you do realize that there is very little in the way of an Indian community in Poland, and that the local language is Polish, not English. Your wife will have a difficult time making friends to socialize with and with simple things like shopping. You are going to have to spend a significant amount of money to prevent her from going stir-crazy from isolation.

As for the pay, it is a bit low for a SAP administrator in Poland, and very low on a global scale. I suggest that you concentrate your efforts on finding a job in a richer country. See my answer to this question I answered for one of your countrymen here:

https://polishforums.com/work/poland-find-employer-willing-process-81216/
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Law / Poland's Citizenship Requirements - Is a permanent resident card necessary ? [26]

you seem to be good at weeding out the duffers

Usually, it's not what they say that's important, but what they fail to say. Just ask yourself if you were a person in the position they claim they are, how would you go about asking your question? What information would you include? Someone who dances around clearly important information and tries hard to steer you away when you ask about it is obviously being less than honest. They think that they are not lying, but they are certainly not telling the truth. It's basically little different than common trolling.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Law / Poland's Citizenship Requirements - Is a permanent resident card necessary ? [26]

If you are married to a Polish citizen

This is precisely what baffles me about a lot of the posters here. They are supposedly married to Polish citizens, and rather than having their spouses simply go to the relevant offices to get first-hand reliable information straight from the horse's mouth, they ask their questions on some anonymous internet forum.

I can't imagine why anyone in a genuine marriage would do that.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Studies In Poland, is it easy to survive on part-time jobs? [259]

@cms

Those were certainly not recently arrived students who did not speak Polish. Without Polish, no one will hire them, and precious few Indian students studying in Poland learn any Polish at all, as they have little motivation to.

Lobsters to lentils, the OP is not one of them.

Also, you forget that there are many more Indian-looking Poles in Poland than there are Indians in Poland. Again, I think you made a false assumption that the people you saw were foreigners, when indeed they are much more likely to be native Poles. If they were Indian, they were much more likely to be family-members or friends of the business owners than ordinary students.

To the OP. Polish takes years of hard study to master to the point where you could get a job. Even a pizza delivery boy needs to know decent Polish.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Studies In Poland, is it easy to survive on part-time jobs? [259]

@Ajay Chauhan

Practically zero. Poland is a country with rather high youth unemployment, and you have nothing to offer on the job market that thousands of Polish students don't have. Even call centers will not be interested in you because there are plenty of non-native English speakers that can do the job just as well, and they speak Polish as well, which makes them much more attractive job candidates than you.

If you need to earn money to finance your studies, then Poland is not the country for you. Nor or any of the other countries in the EU with high youth unemployment. Very, very few foreign students are able to find work in Poland. Make your plans on the very safe assumption that you will never be able to earn even a single penny in Poland.

If anyone has told you that it is easy for foreign students to find work in Poland, they are lying. Your chances of getting struck by lightning, eaten by a shark or winning the lottery are astronomically higher.
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / Salary for a senior software engineer in Poland [195]

@mechprabu

Read the answer I just gave to one of your countrymen in the thread entitled "how to find an employer in poland, willing to process work permit".
DominicB   
11 May 2017
Work / How to find an employer in Poland, willing to process work permit [3]

@a012sharma

All the best jobs in the world are advertised solely by word of mouth, friend to friend in the real world. Recruiters and internet sites get only the table scraps. So the key to finding a good job anywhere is to diligently build your network of real-world contacts, and use them to expand that network outward like layers of an onion. Don't waste time relying on recruiters and internet sites, and be proactive. Your golden ticket is not going to just fall in your lap; you've got to get out there and hunt it down yourself.

If you get that through your head, you will be light years ahead of most other engineers from India, at least the ones that post on this forum, few of whom ever conduct a proper job search and just sit around and wait until some recruiter contacts them, or limit their job search to the internet.

The second thing you have to know is that human resource departments are your enemy unless you already have the hiring manager on your side. A successful job search depends on bypassing the HR department, and getting to the hiring manager directly. And the way you do that is by real world networking.

The third thing is that Poland is of little interest to experienced engineers from India because much better jobs exist in much richer countries. Poland is not attractive because the low wages and the high cost of living relative to wages collude to make saving potential abysmal. As an expat, the most important number for you is the number of dollars you are able to put into your savings account at the end of the month.

If you want an exciting and fulfilling life as an engineer, then go where the money is, particularly the R&D money. Poland has very little R&D. Most of its IT engineering, at least the stuff that Indians would be hired to do, is outsourced grunt work that nobody in the source countries could be bothered to waste time on because there are so many other interesting things to do. Outsourced jobs are boring, underpaid and, most importantly, are not of much value in advancing yourself in the profession. Find yourself a good job in a richer country where R&D money flows in broad rivers instead of frittering away valuable years of your time in a grunt job in a poor country like Poland where there is only a trickle of R&D funding.

Ignore any hype you get from recruiters or internet sites. Poland is not the land of milk and honey for Indian engineers. Nor are any of the poorer countries of the EU.

Last of all, never give a penny to any "agent" or "consultant" who promises to help you find a job. Any person who asks money from you for that is a fraud and con artist. Genuine headhunters NEVER take money from job seekers. Apparently, India is crawling with con artists eager to defraud naive, gullible and desperate job seekers, and also crawling with engineers who are too clueless to see through the scam.

Be patient and build your network. Find some senior engineers to mentor you, especially ones who work or have worked in great jobs in richer countries.

Good luck with your job search!
DominicB   
9 May 2017
Law / Poland's visit visa refused; "intention to leave the country is not determined". [35]

which proves my ties with my family

You don't have a job that ties you to Pakistan, and you don't have property or investments that do, either. I take it you do not have a public or private career that depends on you're staying in Pakistan.

The most significant family tie you have is with your wife, who is in Poland, not Pakistan. Your other family ties in Pakistan do not outweigh that.

So you really have no significant ties to Pakistan at all.

As Cardo says, it is little wonder that a consul would be very skeptical of your intentions to return to Pakistan. Nothing in your posts so far indicates that you would except your say-so, which is obviously not going to satisfy a consul. You could swear and promise that you are going to return to Pakistan until you are blue in the face, but without well documented evidence that returning to Pakistan will clearly be more advantageous to you than staying in the EU, you are wasting your time.

As for the appeal. the burden is on you to prove that the consul acted not in accordance with the law. There is nothing in your posts that indicate that this is the case.

I'm sorry, but based on the information that you did not give in your posts, it is very difficult for me not to come to the conclusion that you entered into a sham marriage with the intention of entering and remaining in the EU. And you shouldn't be at all surprised that the consul apparently came to the same conclusion.
DominicB   
9 May 2017
Law / Poland's visit visa refused; "intention to leave the country is not determined". [35]

Actually, you're mixing apples and oranges. To apply for that residence permit, the applicant has to apply in person at the Urząd Wojewódzki. To do that, they have to enter the country first, for which they need an entry visa. Apparently, Poland does not have anything like the EEA family permit. so they do have to apply for a normal entry visa.
DominicB   
9 May 2017
Law / Poland's visit visa refused; "intention to leave the country is not determined". [35]

The OP seems not to understand that the burden is not on the consul to provide a reason for not issuing a visa, but on himself to provide solid reasons why the consul should issue the visa. It's a case of "why", not "why not". The OP's posts are all written with the latter in mind, and in finding an end run around the consul's decision. A strategy that is doomed to fail.

Wasting time and money on an appeal is futile without being able to show that the consul's decision was not in accordance with the law. There is nothing in the OP's posts to indicate that the consul acted improperly.

I also get the impression that the OP is engaging in very selective, one-sided storytelling.
DominicB   
9 May 2017
Law / Poland's visit visa refused; "intention to leave the country is not determined". [35]

@Arsalan Zafar

Any discussion you will have with a consul is eventually going to come around to your intentions of leaving the EU when your visa expires. "Emergency" is not a viable strategy for evading that condition. There is a formal process of getting residency rights in a EU country for foreign spouses of EU citizens. I suggest you embark upon that process. It is called an EEA family permit.
DominicB   
9 May 2017
Law / Poland's visit visa refused; "intention to leave the country is not determined". [35]

which steps we should take

Getting the marriage registered in Poland would be the first step, but only the first step, of a long and complicated process. The easier and more sure way for you to have unhindered access to your wife in case of emergency is to have her move to Pakistan to live with you.
DominicB   
9 May 2017
Law / Poland's visit visa refused; "intention to leave the country is not determined". [35]

i am settled here in Pakistan and work online

That's a contradiction, of sorts. If you work online, then you are settled not only in Pakistan, but in any other country where you have access to the internet, including Poland. Your reasons for returning to and staying in Pakistan are therefore not convincing.

how can we overcome this objection

You would have to clearly demonstrate, with abundant documentation, that you have abundant reasons to stay in Pakistan, of course, and that you would lose out by failing to return to Pakistan when your visa runs out. You would have to demonstrate that you have very strong ties to Pakistan that, if severed, would pose severe hardship that is greater than any possible benefits of staying in the EU. And, as I said, those ties would have to be backed up by abundant solid official documentation.

This is not a court of law, where you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Quite the opposite. The burden is solely on you to prove that you have every reason to honor the terms of your visa. From what you have written here, that's going to be difficult, because one of the most important reasons for returning home, your source of income, is not dependent on your physically being in Pakistan.

You would also have to prove that your marriage to an EU citizen is genuine and was not entered into with the intention of entering and staying in the EU. Again, it's a case of guilty until proven innocent.

Frankly, nothing in your post that indicates that you have strong ties to Pakistan and intend to leave the EU when your visa expires, or that your marriage is genuine.