News / What Polish political party are you in favour of and why [6]


Another new one? He's going through parties like they're going to be banned again soon.


Same old, same old. Korwin-Mikke's been saying the same thing since 1989 and has never won a seat.


I'm enjoying the fact that you say "two possibilities" - then go on to mention 3 possibilities.

Incidentally, your post is utter nonsense. If you look back at the elections since 1991 - the only time that an election has been a true two-party race was in 2007. There's a clear division between post-Communist and post-Solidarity parties, this is true - but there are many parties who come under either side.

Shall we go over the election results, just so you don't bother to argue with me? All results based on the 460-member Sejm, and ignoring the guaranteed seats for the German minority.

1991 - 29 parties won seats - with the highest percentage being a miserable 13.5% of seats going to the Democratic Union.
1993 - 6 parties won seats - with the highest percentage being 37% to the SLD.
1997 - 5 parties won seats - with the highest percentage being 33% to AWS.
2001 - 6 parties won seats - with the highest percentage being 41% to the SLD. The other parties ranged from 12.7% to 7.9%.
2005 - 6 parties won seats - percentages ranged from 27% for PiS to 7% for the PSL.
2007 - 4 parties won seats - the only "two party" free election in modern times - resulted in 41% for PO and 32% for PiS.

Poland is notable for the fact that the strongest parties often don't enjoy huge support in percentage terms - in fact, it's only in the last 4 years that anything approaching a two-party system has emerged. If PiS implode as expected, things will rapidly return to the old way of things - especially with only PO and the SLD resembling anything like a modern European political party (with discipline, et al).

Law / Changing 'residency' from Wroclaw to Warsaw - Anything to watch out for [3]

I could be totally wrong here - but I think they'll expect you to go to Wroclaw to 'de-register' first :(

Real Estate / Foreign investor, properties in Poland, walk away from mortgages? [209]


You're right. However, in Poland - it's just not going to happen. The banks will demand a personal guarantee from the directors/shareholders in order to agree to the transfer of liability - meaning that you're in the same situation as when you started. The same practice is widespread in Europe.


A word of warning - if the bank manages to use the European Arrest Warrant system against you (as they have been doing!) - then you'll find yourself persona non grata not only in Poland, but in most of Europe too. They can and will use the system against you.

Do you own property elsewhere? If so, what about selling that to pay the bills in Poland?

News / Multi-culti (in Poland) -- roadmap to disaster? [344]


The II RP did plenty of terrorist activities towards the minorities - shall we start with how Poland refused to implement Galician autonomy, despite it being a core part of the agreement with the League of Nations?

Or perhaps we could talk about how the Jewish minority was essentially banned from higher education?

Pilsudski's vision was an incredibly brave and sensible one - but alas, not a popular one. Even before WW2, his vision was clearly rejected - by the same nationalist elements that led Poland to disaster.

Work / Back from the UK and working in Poland [23]

NO GO ELSEWHERE WESTERN EUROPE IS BETTER FOR YOU

News / Multi-culti (in Poland) -- roadmap to disaster? [344]


No. Poland is strongly centralised, with nothing in the way of autonomy.


History suggests otherwise - autonomy was revoked or never granted despite being agreed on.

History was certainly part of the motivation to make Poland a mono-ethnic state, given the II RP's intolerance for other minorities.

Law / Maintenance & Rights: Polish mother & child in Poland, Irish father in the UK [57]


Okay, I'll send you a PM containing details of both.

Anyone else willing to do the same with different companies?

Law / Maintenance & Rights: Polish mother & child in Poland, Irish father in the UK [57]

Okay - first thing you need to do is get yourself a good Polish lawyer on the case - we can recommend you one if you wish.

A DNA test is imperative - I'd say that it's almost certain that it's not your child (the circumstances add up nicely - woman gets pregnant, needs to find a father with cash, etc) - but anyway, the Polish court will order a DNA test to be done if you challenge the paternity.

If it turns out to be yours, then this is where a lawyer comes in - yes, you can be chased to the UK for your debts to the Polish court. The problem is that the Polish courts decide how much is 'right' - based not on any figures, but rather based on what the court thinks you should pay. Maniacal, but true. This is why it's so important to get a good lawyer on the case.

If you want, I can even give you the details of a reputable testing centre who are accredited to provide paternity tests to the court.

Work / No Stay Permit This Year in Poland [10]


It's nuts - I've seen them in the mountains near the Ukrainian border too, they had been wild camping there for a while from the looks of things. It's definitely not worth the risk, I think - I don't know what's brought on such strong measures (especially as countries like Spain and France appear not to give a ****) - I can only assume that Poland/Slovakia/Hungary are doing the dirty work for the Western EU countries.


Well - I suppose if he reports his passport as lost/stolen, then it shouldn't be a problem anyway (he'll have the police report to back this up). Mind you - the border guards in theory can check your passport anywhere in the country at any time. I've seen them quite a few times inland - never been stopped, though. The weirdest control I saw was a bunch of Ukrainians being stopped on their way to the border at Medyka - that didn't make any sense!


If he's got the papers, he'd be laughing. Even Thailand is a way to save some decent cash - I have a friend there that's getting about $400 a week and has living costs of about $120 - not a bad way to put away some cash.

Work / No Stay Permit This Year in Poland [10]


The problem is that he'll get picked up on at the Polish border on exit - they are doing such strong checks at the minute (I've crossed 5 times in the last year) that I'm not convinced that he'll actually manage to leave without being picked up on. If I was to recommend it at all, I'd suggest leaving on the sleeper train from Wrocław-Lwów - the exit check wasn't *very* thorough (though still - all passports got scanned in the little handheld reader they have) compared to the other ways I crossed.

Probably the best piece of advice I can think of would be to simply 'lose' his passport in Poland - and pray that he doesn't get picked up in the meantime. He should be able to exit Scbengen (not from Poland, though) on a fresh passport - and for safety sake, it would be best to stay out for 90 days (preferably in a non-EU country, to avoid suspicion).

The problem I can see is that they're going to ask questions when he applies for a new residence permit - and if he's been paying tax in the meantime, it could get very tricky for him.

I actually think it might be easiest to simply own up to what he's done - sure, he'll probably get deported for a year - but then he can come back to Poland with a clean-slate, rather than having to worry about what they might find out in the future.

But from the tone of his post - does he even want to stay here?

Work / No Stay Permit This Year in Poland [10]


My thoughts? Pretty simple - I can tell you that on both the Croatian (EU border) and Romanian borders, they're scrutinising passports very carefully at the minute. You're not going to be able to get away with a visa run there - the Hungarians are treating the Romanian border as if it's a non-EU border for passport control purposes. Likewise, the countries surrounding Croatia are being very strict at the minute - I was stuck in a 2 hour queue just to leave Slovenia a few weeks ago.

By making such a run, you've got no guarantee of success - in fact, the chance of failure is quite high. Despite what's said online, the national border police are making quite a concentrated effort to deny re-entry to obvious border-runners- and do you really want to be stuck on the Romanian/Croatian border with a refusal from the Schengen space?


First rule of business : do nothing without a contract. Applies everywhere in the world.

Sorry to say, but as a non-EU citizen, you have certain responsibilities - and no-one to blame but yourself for not applying for a residence permit. As Harry says - the best bet is to get out of the EU alltogether, stay out for 6 months, then get a new passport and come back in. Even then - there may be some questions asked about what you've been doing between your stays in Poland.

Language / GCSE Polish - the best way of learning the seven cases? [12]


And to think that you lot have the cheek to complain about phrasal verbs ;)

Law / Receiving a speeding fine (via camera) in Poland with a British licence [27]


It's actually muuuuch easier than that - because in Poland, the points are linked to the PESEL, rather than the licence - just go to the police station, own up and they'll deal with it there and then. How the hell did you manage to get caught by a camera in Poland, though? I mean, the big blue signs... :P

Shouldn't be a problem with the licence - the only issue is that the police might want to see the original licence. Actually - thinking about it - you might get an extra 50PLN fine if you aren't able to produce the licence. But - that, I'm really not sure about - there must be something allowing you to drive while in the process of exchanging a licence?

(bastard though - if you hadn't been in the process of exchanging the licence, your father-in-law could just blame some random "Christopher Bradbury" from the UK)

Life / Racism and for what? (story of Egyptian guy's living in Poland) [149]


I can believe it - you can see the same kind of thing with Arabs in France who despise recent immigrants.

Bet you're tempted to smack some of them in the face, especially if they act Polish to you and then pretend to be anything but Polish to other people - I wouldn't blame you!

Real Estate / Foreign investor, properties in Poland, walk away from mortgages? [209]


The Polish-qualified part is imperative, I'd say - a UK (okay, okay, I know there's no such thing, but let's use it as a catch-all) lawyer would have great difficulty understanding the Polish system - and more importantly - how to deal with it.

There are some Polish-qualified nationals working in law in the UK, I believe?

Real Estate / Foreign investor, properties in Poland, walk away from mortgages? [209]


I can give you the contact of a trustworthy lawyer if you wish? Several others on here can do the same.


Common story. A mortgage in CHF will be like a rope round your neck, I imagine.

Many foreign investors lost money with off-plan apartments. In Poland, like everywhere else, the money is in bricks-and-mortar.

News / Famous Pickup Artist in Poland now [75]


He's in exactly the same category as Benny (IrishPolygot) - another blog based bullshitter with an e-book to sell.

Law / Being taxed as an EU citizen (when working in Poland)? [7]


That's the 183-day residency rule. However - to avoid any potential hassle with the Polish tax office, I'd advise you to simply go through the Polish tax system - it makes life much easier and you won't fall foul of any tax law in the process.

In general though, if you're working here until June/July, then you want to go through the Polish, not the British system.

Work / Close Protection (Bodyguard) - popular line of work in Poland? [19]


Plenty of security companies around that aren't run by ex-SB types. The big ones might be, but the smaller local ones certainly aren't.

I know one guy who used to be in the business - no SB links, but had a habit of beating up drug dealers in his younger days.


In all honesty - if you have the money to start - then it won't be impossible. You might actually find that there's a demand for a reliable, non-Polish business which provides such services, especially for foreigners who might be loathe to trust Poles. I know that if I was dealing with something like this, I'd prefer to work with a British guy with experience than a Polish company.

The real difficulty will be attracting good clients - but if you target non-Polish clients, then you might just have a niche in the market.

UK, Ireland / Is UK the new cradle of antipolonism? [161]


What's funny - I have another friend who has a Dutch mother. We didn't know (she speaks flawless English) at all - she has an English name, and we only found out when we heard her on the phone speaking "a funny language". Of course, the question was "hey, what language was your mother speaking?" - for our friend to say "Dutch, she's from there". Yet - you'd never guess at all, and she never made a point of mentioning it.

(of course, she'd been in the UK since she was a student, but)

Genealogy / Komorowski clan-name Korczak [16]


Perhaps you might want to start by telling me what someone's parents have to do with them as a person?

I mean - no-one is suggesting that your children are influenced by the actions of an alcohol-fuelled father, are they?

Please keep to the topic and don't post smart-ass comments. Thank you.

Work / How to get a Poland visa for my Ukrainian wife? [12]

45 days by law, but often much quicker - 3-4 weeks seems to be about normal if there's no fuss.

Depends on nationality though - I know Africans have frequently far more trouble than Americans, for instance.

Law / Married to Polish Girl for 3 years do I have the right to apply for citzenship now ? [17]

When did they obtain Australian citizenship?

Work / How to get a Poland visa for my Ukrainian wife? [12]

As I recall - Poland doesn't allow the "upgrading" of the visa from within - she'll have to go back to Kyiv to upgrade it.

Work / Close Protection (Bodyguard) - popular line of work in Poland? [19]


Forget it - unless you're a well known international expert, there's no work here for you - you'll need to speak Polish as a bare minimum.

There's also the fact that in such an industry, Poles are unlikely to welcome outsiders - partially for fear of being shown up.

UK, Ireland / Is UK the new cradle of antipolonism? [161]


No - you're British.

Only people who are truly half-half will say it - and even then, many of them will identify with Britain, not the 'other' country. I know someone who holds an Irish passport, was born in Dublin - yet self identifies as British as she's lived there since she was 2. The Irish passport is just a minor note.

Where you come from is really of little interest to most people in the UK - even Poles get adopted as Brits quickly.

Work / How to get a Poland visa for my Ukrainian wife? [12]


Exactly.

You might be able to get a student visa for her, but it's by no means certain - I've heard word of bribes of up to 500 euro being demanded in Ukraine for a Polish student visa.

UK, Ireland / Is UK the new cradle of antipolonism? [161]


I don't think they understand at all that the black dude selling clothes is as British as the Asian guy working in the curryhouse, the Chinese guy selling imported goods is as British as the white guy washing windows. Heck, I don't think they realise at all that the grandchildren of Polish immigrants are British, not Polish.


That's all because it suits their dodgy right-wing agenda to claim that Brits are "against Poles". Usual scaremongering nonsense.

History / Warsaw Uprising - The Forgotten Soldiers [117]


What disgusts me is that they died in vain - they were sent into a battle which was unwinnable, on the whim of some very poor leadership. I remember when I first read about the Uprising - I couldn't believe the sheer stupidity of it all, and how children were essentially used to further the motives of some very questionable leadership.

Those children are heroes, but the leadership - well.


Wouldn't you be happier that your child wasn't sent to the slaughter needlessly?

I still think that Poland's greatest chance would have been to lie passive while the Soviets rushed on Berlin - only to then cut the Soviet supply lines. The Western Allies wouldn't have interfered (look at the reaction towards Finland - utter disinterest) - and the Soviets would've had huge problems with the AK. The Soviets would've already had to deal with a hell of a battle for Warsaw - would they really have done so well if they were suddenly faced with a rebellion from previously passive Poles?

Travel / Attractions in Wrocław: a Must-See List [117]


I've seen that exactly once - in your link.

If it was really so common, why is there only 255 results on Google for "wroctaw" - with most of them being obvious mistakes?