News / EU presidency to cost Poland 110 million euro [33]


The education system is a black hole - I wouldn't invest a thing without serious institutional reform. And it needs to be a real reform instead of cosmetic.

Travel / Is registration required upon arrival in Poland? [8]


The law says that you must register your place of residence within 4 days of entering the Republic of Poland. In practice, if you don't need a visa (this includes people who can enter on the tourist stamp) - you don't have to.

But you still have the 90 day limit to obey. I'm not sure why you're asking about registration when you can't register now anyway - you're illegally in the Schengen zone and cannot legalise your stay now.

Travel / Will I have a problem upon exiting Poland? (American visited Poland through Germany) [20]


The Polish tend to check in terminal stations like Zgorzelec, Kostrzyn and Szczecin - but they tend to leave true international trains alone like the Berlin-Warszawa-Express. I saw some Chinese people pulled in Szczecin - but they were ignoring anyone with a white face.


I think every day that you bury your head in the sand about the issue makes it more likely that you'll be banned upon leaving. Anyway, yes, you'll have even more problems leaving Germany - they check every passport thoroughly.


Nup, the only option is to apply for residency - but if you're already over the 90 day limit, that option ceases to be available too. As far as I'm aware, there's no way of legalising yourself if you're already illegal.

News / WHY IS POLAND STILL GIVEN THE COLD SHOULDER? [197]


That's because Poland isn't a major power in Europe, unlike the above four. It has potential to be a regional power, but Poland's diplomacy is rather...poor. In the case of Argentina, Saudi Arabia et al - they are regional powers.


Most people really couldn't care less about Poland and all things Polish. The days of the huge Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth are dead and gone - Poland is just a poor country to the east of Germany, where you can find cheap labour. Nothing more, nothing less.

(and to be quite honest, I'd have thought that Poles would prefer being non-descript for once)

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]

I was reviewing the results today, and some statistics were very interesting. For example, in Poznan -

Kaczynski lost overwhelmingly with prisoners.
Kaczynski won overwhelmingly with people in social help centres and hospitals.

News / Why is Poland developing so slowly or in the wrong direction? Who is responsible ? [317]


What good would a "patriotic elite" do? Pilsudski's great patriotic leadership caused Poland to be hated by virtually all her neighbours, to be woefully ill equipped for modern warfare and to be in an exceptionally vulnerable position, not helped by futile warmongering against Ukrainians and Lithuanians.

I suppose leading the country to yet more ruin would be the goal of the great Patriotic Elite that you envision, right?

Work / Need to migrate to Poland from an Arab Gulf country (logistics) [16]

Depends on how much money you have to invest.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


But they're not. I wouldn't call someone who didn't finish high school "educated".


Proud? The same people are the ones falsely claiming "renta", the ones who claim unemployment benefits while working on the side, they dodge taxes - yeah, so proud!


I assure you that plenty of non-Kaczynski supporters celebrate national holidays too.

Real Estate / Legal questions about dividing a property in Poland [19]


Yep, hence why I said that not getting involved is the best bet.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


Charisma and a fantastic ability to make things simple for his core electorate. His messages tend to be rather simple - Russia bad, Poland good, raise pensions, look after jobs, gays bad, Church good. Given the people that he appeals to (badly educated, nationalistic, a bit racist) - they lap it up.

Study / Are there any other school apart from the Bell doing the CELTA in Warsaw? [12]


Yes, I suspect his "TEFL" qualification would have taught him all he needs to know and more in regards to the CELTA.

After all, many Callan schools ask for the CELTA as a prerequisite, so with his experience, it wouldn't really be worth the time doing it.

Real Estate / Legal questions about dividing a property in Poland [19]


Worst advice?

Given that he could easily lose quite a lot of money in this venture, given that the family situation doesn't seem particularly stable and given that it's in a foreign country with very odd laws (compared to the UK system) - what's "worst advice" about it?

Or are you suggesting that investing in complicated property matters abroad is good business sense? Heck, even the inheritance issue seems to be incredibly murky and difficult to deal with. Would you really want to have the bottom floor of a property in a foreign country when the in-laws might not respect you? We already see on a regular basis where the family of a foreigner has taken advantage of them - what's to say that it'll be anything different here, especially if the family is unstable?

Really, I thought you were smarter than that...

News / Politician shot in Lodz - two assistants to lawmakers from Law and Justice (PiS) party [66]


When someone almost every day says something that's so unbelievable, they tend to get media attention - especially when it's the leader of the opposition. The man is a joy for the media - they get to constantly report his latest nonsense and he fills columns.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


We are celebrating - Kaczynski's leadership of PiS makes sure that Catholic-Socialism shall never win power in Poland!

Real Estate / Legal questions about dividing a property in Poland [19]

It sounds like the best advice here is simply to stay well clear of this whole situation. It hardly sounds like it's worth the effort - if you want somewhere to stay, buy a static caravan.

Study / Are there any other school apart from the Bell doing the CELTA in Warsaw? [12]


And to think this joker runs a "school" yet can't even use the language properly!

I can't imagine Bradbury would even pass the CELTA. It's a real course for real people, not for people who think that they are teachers because they can use book 2 of the Callan Method!

News / Why is Poland developing so slowly or in the wrong direction? Who is responsible ? [317]


Oh jesus. Don't even get me started on the professor thing - it is one of the worst aspects of Polish education that they expect a certain number of professors in universities. It's nonsense - there wasn't one person in my department at uni who was a professor, yet the quality of education was far higher than any "business" course in Poland.


Utter nonsense :( The same system is the reason why you get all these useless old gits with no modern knowledge whatsoever, just because they must have a certain amount of professors :(

Travel / Will I have a problem upon exiting Poland? (American visited Poland through Germany) [20]


That's not a bad idea - either way, getting out and staying out for a while is the only option.

I really can't figure out why Americans have such problems with understanding the 90/180 rule.

To the OP : if you want to get a residence permit, get out, stay out for 6 months (you can go to the UK for 6 months legally, or perhaps 3 months in Croatia and 3 months in Serbia) and then come back. You can't legalise yourself now - you're already illegal in the Schengen zone.

Work / Polish Residency Cards. Is there a Permanent ID card for Foreigners? [37]


Nope, it's not valid as an identity document. Even the non-EU Karta Pobytu (despite looking like it) isn't valid identification.

The lack of a proper ID card for permanent residents is one of the most stupid things about Poland.

Having said this, in practice, an EU driving licence is more than enough within Poland.

News / Can someone give a neutral overview of Polish politics? [27]


The PSL (farmers) could be described as Centrist - they have some policies from both political wings, but they tend to be rather middle of the road.

PO are much more complicated though - they are actually probably centrist because of having both liberal and conservative wings - because of the lack of a decent centre-left party (though Palikot might change this) - you tend to see a lot of the centre-left people supporting them through no other credible alternative. As Torq says, they have socialist policies, but they may be dropped in a hurry post-2011 if they win a decisive victory.

News / Why is Poland developing so slowly or in the wrong direction? Who is responsible ? [317]


Poland can't afford it, this is the thing. Constitutionally, Poland is riding extremely close to the edge - and if it reaches the edge, we'll see massive cuts made. Why should there be exceptions for people just because they choose to do a career that is physically demanding? Professional sports people don't get to retire early, so why should dancers?

As for the safety net for the poor and old - no-one wants to cut their net, but we want them to work for it. And we're exposing the sheer stupidity of using today's money to pay for pensions earnt in worthless Communist Zloty.


Well, if they are around until they're 40, I'd be all for giving them money to retrain. Many of them missed out on an education, so they should get funded to go to university/etc. They'll have a good 25 years of productivity left - why the hell should they get to retire at that age, only to end up (in most cases) working illegally anyway?


It's a huge burden and is almost certainly the reason why many Poles don't have ZUS paid as part of their employment.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]


I think it's all because he genuinely believes that he has been "wronged" and that he is the rightful leader of Poland, not Tusk and Komorowski. He does seem in his speeches to be on the verge of declaring himself King of Poland - and make no bones about it, if he could impose martial law tomorrow, he would.

I don't even notice the usual suspects defending him anymore - which sounds like even they accept that he's the wrong man to lead Poland.

News / Politician shot in Lodz - two assistants to lawmakers from Law and Justice (PiS) party [66]


And a Communist informer to boot - yet again, Kaczynski attacked PO (wrong move) when he could've attacked Communism (not a bad move) instead.

PO must be killing themselves with laughter - every time something happens that could hurt them in the polls, Kaczynski manages to turn it into an epic own goal.

News / Is Poland headed for a civil war? [30]


It tells me that the parents drank all the money intended to feed the child. Common social problem in Poland, not helped by ineffective social services. The child might be hungry, but only because of parental failure - not because they're lacking money.


How do you know they're hungry? Are you assuming that homeless people are hungry? Bear in mind that Poland is actually quite good when it comes to providing shelter for homeless people - provided they give up the booze.


Spot on. I was researching the social assistance available - and while it's hardly much money, it's still enough for people not to be going hungry. It might be a pretty crappy diet (potatoes and cabbage, anyone?) - but food is food. Of course, if the parents take the money and drink it all - then that's not hunger caused by a lack of money, but a social problem.

Law / Poland residency dilemma - illegal worker affecting my income [19]


Why not simply give a few private lessons and give them receipts? You could even give them 2x20zl receipts rather than 1x40zl to bump the hours up a bit, as well as getting the school to pay you (on paper) for twice the amount of hours worked for half the money.

Having said this, I'd tell the immigration people without hesitation. I've got absolutely no time for illegal immigrants - white, black or yellow, they're still illegal.

Study / Admitted To Warsaw University Of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) [69]


What, you don't think the cost of living in a European capital can exceed some arsehole towns/cities in the UK? Dream on.


Because the door is closing to them in Western Europe - and let's not forget the all important passport issue. There's a very good reason why many average students choose the EU over America - marriage gets you the residence permit, no questions asked.

Travel / Will I have a problem upon exiting Poland? (American visited Poland through Germany) [20]

You don't have a hope in getting a residence permit - you're over the 90/180 rule and they won't issue a residence permit to you if you're already illegal. In fact, it's more likely that they'll inform the Straz Graniczna to get you deported.

What the individual officer said in the airport means nothing - the law, as it stands, is that you have spent more than 90 days out of 180 in Schengen and are now currently illegal. The fact that you got a new stamp means nothing - you're still illegal, irrespective of what the stamps in the passport say. Unlike the UK and Ukraine for instance - Schengen stamps are not a right of residence, but rather for informational purposes only.

The best advice is to leave for 6 months, then come back and legalise yourself properly.

Study / Admitted To Warsaw University Of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) [69]


It's happening already - I see more and more non-EU students coming - and they are doing exactly the same thing they do in the UK - form close communities that aren't open to outsiders. And many of them try to find work too - yet they can't speak the language! Me and dnz on here once met someone who (we think) was a "student" - he was working in a kebab shop for 5zl an hour and was desperate to do something, anything else.

The restriction on working was the best thing the UK did - if you can't afford to live there without working, you shouldn't be studying there!


I was wondering the same actually. There's nothing in the Czech Republic that isn't here - in fact, given how Catholic Poland is, you'd think it would be an easier life there. Maybe there's more Indians in Warsaw? It would explain why he wants to go there, anyway. But - I dunno.

Study / Admitted To Warsaw University Of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) [69]

We hardly see eye-to-eye, but in this case, you're bang on the money.

The only purpose for most of them coming here is to try and find a Polish wife or find the means to stay in the EU. The quality of most academic studies is usually extremely low by European standards, especially in private universities - why would they waste the money if it wasn't for the chance of staying in the EU?

I still can't figure out why many of them think that they can work here.

News / Do Poles take Kaczynski seriously!? [199]

He won't get elected, that much is certain. PiS as a party are electable, but not with Kaczynski at the helm. He's done too much damage now to change - people were willing to give him a second chance after Smolensk, but with the latest display of hysteria from him, he's just hurt his own reputation even more.

People seem to be sick of "EVIL RUSSIA, EVIL GERMANY" and so on - they just want to make money.