Study / "English studies" - Questions about studying in Poland [5]


I think so. Very small percentage of applicants is rejected.

Study / "English studies" - Questions about studying in Poland [5]

No sense to study English in not English speaking country. They will inform you about the procedure. They will not refund you anything, but you have small chances of not getting visa.

but it seems that not getting visa is possible in the end:

On Friday, Nigerian Adedeji Sunday Akintay began the third day of protest in front of the Polonia University in Częstochowa. Today, joined by another - would-be college student - a citizen of Ghana. Calls for the return of 3,000 euro, which paid for the study , but the direction is not running .

What they write there, is that in case of not granting visa, money must be returned, but some universities make problems with that.

Work / Internship in Poland for an IT company? Do i need a work permit for a two-month internship? [5]

and if you want internship, then check AIESEC organization. For sure they have some IT positions in Warsaw or other Polish city.

Work / Internship programs in Warsaw? Informatics, Computer Engineering [14]

That's not really true about IT. But you are graduate, so you just "know" some technologies, but don't have experience. Work for at least 1 year in Turkey for some company in Android or Java, then you will have much bigger chances, that some company will do hassle of asking for visa for you. And when you apply for a job don't write "I know Android Java C C#", but "I have x years experience with ..." or "I know theory of ..." or "I did one project in", otherwise it doesn't sound serious.

Law / Is there a difference between karta pobytu and Europa card? [15]

what is this "europa card"? Could you give link to wikipedia?

Food / Polish equivalent of Parmesan cheese? [6]

It should be in Tesco:

ezakupy.tesco.pl/pl-PL/ProductDetail/ProductDetail/2003011928804

Law / Need urgent help applying for temporary residence in Poland ( I got married last weekend ) [7]

Yes, you should ask for advice to embassy or some other place. If they tell you, that that illegal staying can cause some problem with residence permit, then just go for this 2 months to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine. You should be able to go to one or more of this places without Visa. Kaliningrad is close, they must have some cheap hostels there and you can make yourself vacation.

Genealogy / Is Poland Germanic or Slavic? [58]


You can check your gens. There are some that are more common for Germans. Otherwise ask yourself if your parents were speaking German to you. If none of that is true, then answer is no.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


No, Ukraine has double amount, not to mention Russia.


You're right that recently many small innovative companies were created, but few of them should grow big in order to make noticeable difference in country R&D investments.


I think it is one of indicators, because effectiveness of road system is taken into consideration when a company chooses place to invest. (like Amazon recently). So if there was no good roads, then future growth prospects would be lower.


Export, import it's all economic activity. It's good when growing (and one cannot grow in long term without another).


I think there are prognosis for oil price drop, because USA extracts more and more oil from local sources. And as for long term (because in the end oil price must go up) Poland should have renovated rail network. This is where most of EU money is going to flow in next years.

Life / Cost of Living in Lodz [50]


Salary is relevant to what competitors pay, not some cost of living.


You will not find cheaper room than that.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


No sense to discus with her. She knows all better and who disagree has hidden "agenda" :)

Life / Cost of Living in Lodz [50]


nut much changed in 3 years

Study / AGH UST: Master in Biomedical Engineering: Emerging Health Care Technologies [4]

Here: forum.biolog.pl/in-ynieria-biomedyczna-vt14626-90.htm somebody says that after these studies (Biomedical Engineering) in Poland you can service medical software and hardware. (which is not badly payed job, but mostly out of home). Graduate can also be constructor or programmer, but for that it's better to study electronics or computer science. Graduate can work also as technologist, but for that position it's better to graduate chemistry.

So it's seems as mixture of few engineering specialties + chemistry and biology, after which you know a little of each. Not very useful studies in the world demanding specialists and not people with general knowledge.

Study / AGH UST: Master in Biomedical Engineering: Emerging Health Care Technologies [4]

AGH belongs to top 3 best technical schools in Poland, but it's reputation doesn't reach out of country borders. I am not sure if there are any biomedical, engineering companies in Poland. And weather you can find a job with this diploma abroad depends on demand for graduates of this specialty. If it's not big, then you may loose competition with holders of western school diploma.

Work / Is 104000 PLN (yearly) a fair salary for a Software Architect in Wroclaw? [12]

Ha! first poster who could find this link by himself. Congratulation. Every IT company must have somebody designing applications, so what unusual about it?
This report says that in Woj. Dolnośląskie (where Wrocław is) "Architekt / Application designer" was earning in 2011 between 7000pln and 12000pln gross per month and the most offered is 8000.

You have 8667 per month + bonus, which is exactly what report calls median salary + little more for salaries increase between 2011 and 2014.

You can read there also that in capital salaries are substantially higher: 18 000 14 000 25 000

Work / Is 104000 PLN (yearly) a fair salary for a Software Architect in Wroclaw? [12]

InWroclaw is correct. It's average salary for this much experience in Wrocław. So I think it's a good offer, because the company will not pay more except if you're cheaper than locals or posses unique skills. Senior Java programmer sounds ordinary (of course there may be technologies you specialize and haven't mentioned here). Other thing is that people who earn above this level usually work as independent contractors in order to pay less tax. But because of Visa it's not an option for you.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


But we talked about economy development, not human development. The title is "Poland's economic future?". And I hope that in next years Poland will join club of Advanced Economies. We were discussing reasons of Poland avoiding economic crisis which started in 2008. It was 6 years ago. Then Poland economy was substantially lower by GDP than now. And as people here mention, how can you call Poland "highly developed country", when it doesn't have consistent fast road network. Something what many western countries had over half a century ago.

And even if you call Poland developed economy, what matters is GDP per capita. And then in 2008 it was lower than half of German level (even PPP). It means that comparing to Germany, Poland was underdeveloped and still can copy a lot to gain the same level. I think, that you haven't read my link about convergence. It basically says that less productive economies can grow fast, by copying technology from more advanced economies, while leading economies cannot do that so they grow slower on average. No magic here.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


No, it says about your idealistic view of Poland. The country is still called "Developing Country"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developing_country

In recent years following countries moved from Developing to Advanced economies group:

Czech Republic (before 2009)
Slovakia (before 2009)
Estonia (before 2011)
San Marino (before 2012)

Poland is still not there, not to mention where it was 20 years ago.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


It's easier for underdeveloped country to grow, so your comparison with Germany growing 1% has no sense. Check
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence_%28economics%29


Main reasons for Poland avoiding stagnation are:
- fast speed of growing just before 2008.
- relatively small international exposure of Poland (small export and import)
- relatively big economy, so it has big inertia, meaning it's not so easy to go from fast growth to stagnation (and other way around too)

- "backwarded" banking system without modern structured lendings which started crisis.

All that says nothing about future speed of economic growth of Poland. Or maybe says that Poland was relatively closed economy and now it's opening itself (by increasing export), so next time may be hit harder by European crisis. It doesn't make Poland special as you try to suggest it here.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

I looked at this pdf you linked and it says also that in 2050 GDP per capita will be:

Belarus: 117357
USA: 61657
Poland: 60719
Estonia: 104418
Lithuania: 94435

So Poles will be substantially poorer than Belorussians. I don't want to read details but I wonder what stays behind success of Belarus. Dictator?

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


Economy is not hard science. There are still disputes about consequences of various economic actions. Moreover forecasting is something very hard. And I would paraphrase your sentence into "It's very unlikely that any scientific committee was able to predict economic well being of any country after 36 years". They usually extrapolate current trend with adjustment to demographics and lowering growth ratio with time (the most productive countries have harder to grow than less advanced).

And to show you that there are disputes between economists, take a look at World Bank estimates (published and edited by PWc). They don't think that Poland will catch up to German GDP per capita until 2050.


pwc.pl/pl/publikacje/assets/world_in_2050.pdf

It's normal that they cannot predict future. There are too many variables. (as with weather). Who predicted world crisis 2008? Few guys not taken seriously, not scientific committees.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]


Nostradamus? No, he was not Polish. Basically it's very unlikely, because other countries which managed to grew fast up to western level, like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, have had a policy of protecting some sectors in their home markets from outside competition, so they could grow in incubator for some time in order to compete on the same level later. No country except of tax paradises (Ireland) or tiny countries (Hongkong, Singapore) could overtake western level of GDP per capita with open market economy. Portugal, Spain, Greece could only come close to German or USA GDP per capita level, but not exceed it while having similar economic policy as Poland now has (free trade agreements with EU).

After saying that, I know that many would be very happy even with Spanish or pre-crisis Greek salaries here in Poland. Unfortunately in the future demographics will start being problem for economic growth in Poland and I am not sure if EU will let us import many immigrants to fight with it. Also previously mentioned Mediterranean countries didn't have to meet CO2 lowering agreements which some say could kill economic growth in Poland.

USA, Canada / Moving back to Poland after 7 years in Canada [22]


So except you have few years of good experience in your field or/and your CV can impress HR of international companies present in Poland (for Polish companies local diploma is worth usually more than foreign), you have low chances for the job in Business Management, because competition is huge and because of that for a good job connections are needed.

If you have learned programming during your studies, then you could try searching for a job in this direction. Otherwise some call center jobs are available, but for that you need to know some foreign european language (not English).

In summary. Management diploma is worthless in Poland. You should have chosen mathematics, computer science, medicine or few others specialties which give jobs.

Life / What are my best options for buying a car? ( I am coming to Warsaw to study ) [7]


That's stereotype. Poland has the lowest number of car robberies per capita in Europe. Meaning - the safest country. According to:

But indeed to other countries of the Old Continent Poland stands out in a negative way ?

Over the years, a trip to the Polish spent awake at night even the Germans , who never ever want to visit our country by car. The situation is , thankfully, improved the organization of Euro 2012 in Poland - many Western supporters for yourself convinced that the streets do not run with us polar bears and park new Volkswagen in the center of Warsaw and Wroclaw is not at all synonymous with back home by train .


That means that each 241st citizen of Denmark lost his car and only each 2303rd citizen of Poland his in 2010.
One could think that it's because of low or high car ownership in Poland, but number of cars per capita in Poland is similar to other western countries.

I guess above ranking is eurostat data converted into per capita values.

Below is a map showing number of stolen cars in Poland per voivodship. As you see the more east the safer and capital is the most dangerous.

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

Are you sure? Here somebody asked such question:
https://polishforums.com/law/type-cel-wydania-visa-countries-visit-69540/
I've thought that Visa Krajowa = National Visa means that one cannot go to Germany with it. And I am sure that there is Visa for Poland only, because I've heard about student intern coming to work in Poland for summer, being cached by German border guards for illegal crossing of the border.

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

Contrary I don't understand why it's hard to get Polish Visa. I would understand different treatment for Schengen Visa, but Polish Visa? Would so many Polish Visa holders illegally crossed the border to Germany? To answer your question, I think that every applicant for student visa gets it. So apply for master level studies and you will get visa.

Law / Can my American wife stay in Poland with me? I have citizenship of Poland. [12]

You can live together in any EU country.

Life / Eating out in Poland, is it expensive? [28]

why not stay in each place for some time

Life / Is 10500 monthly is enough for a family to live in Warsaw Poland [136]


probably (depending which visa you will get) you will be able to travel to other Schengen Area countries, but your work permit will be restricted to Poland only. If you get fired you will have 1 month to find new job, otherwise your visa will be revoked. It's very nice salary. Could I know what's your specialty?

Life / Eating out in Poland, is it expensive? [28]

I would agree that If you don't want to choose always unhealthy kebab or the cheapest option from the menu in bar mleczny, then comfortable minimum is 15zł. However Greece is not cheaper. In Greece you should count minimum 4 eur in the cheapest restaurant in the city. (In Poland you have much bigger choice for 15zł). And 6 - 7 eur would be comfortable amount for eating out during lunch time there.