Travel / Where are the best pierogies in Krakow and Wroclaw [8]


Well, you could start with spelling the plural of "pieróg" properly.

UK, Ireland / Irish Student Locating to Lodz - Can I bring Irish Car? [9]


Not so simple - he'll need a valid zameldowanie (registration of address) to do so. Not so straightforward if your landlord refuses permission!

Law / Poland driving licence, non EU, non resident (Poland) [20]


The reason for this is simple - the instructions are given in Polish, and thus must be translated into English. I suspect that it may also be because it avoids doubt - where instructions are in Polish, it must be translated by a sworn translator. No different to the (insane) need for a sworn translator to be present at a notary. Either way, it's daft, but there's nothing we can do except petition for them to change the law.


From what I've heard, it's nearly impossible for someone without at least B2/C1 level of Polish to attempt. And yes, as you say - mastery of the material means nothing, so you might as well take it in English to begin with.

UK, Ireland / Are the working class in the UK now shunned in the 'new' Poland? [53]


It's been going on for years. Zero hour contracts are nothing new in the UK.

Incidentally, they're illegal in Poland.

UK, Ireland / Nursing staff from Eastern Europe about to 'flood' into UK ? [45]


It was fascinating to read, cheers for that :)

It's pretty obvious that he doesn't know anything about the subject matter - sounds like someone has had an unpleasant experience with a Polish girl who took all his money and now he's taking it out on them ;)

His constant referrals to mystery "no tax" agreements do interest me, I've asked a lawyer today and he's never heard of it, except the usual dodges associated with shipping that Brits benefit from as well.

UK, Ireland / Nursing staff from Eastern Europe about to 'flood' into UK ? [45]


Try bribing a police officer in Poland and see what happens? They're absolutely terrified of accepting bribes these days at the ordinary officer level - and while high level bribes obviously exist, it's exactly the same case in the UK.

May I remind you about Thomas McGraw? He wasn't called the Licensee because he owned pubs!


To troll?


Can be easily done. It's actually rather easy to get a police check done in Poland, and certainly much easier than the time and hassle spent obtaining an enhanced disclosure.


It's painfully obvious that you know little to nothing about Poland apart from hearsay. The Cambridge examinations are rigorously scrutinised, and while there was known to be huge problems with cheating in Greece - Poland hasn't had anything like the same level of problems. I know a few Cambridge examiners personally, and all of them have the same no-nonsense attitude - if you're caught cheating, you're out of the entire exam.

As for sitting exams in someone else's name - unlike the UK, it is standard practice in Poland for identification cards to be placed on the desk in front of the student.

Sorry, but your "common knowledge" is very much just nonsense heard in the pub ;)

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]


The most helpful advice I can give you as someone fairly knowledgeable about the subject is that you simply don't have a chance of getting the decision overturned. Polish law is very...how to say - black and white. You broke the law, you were punished - end of story. Serve your time, get a visa when you intend to return and there should be no problems.

Ultimately, you broke the law and you've been let off lightly. They could quite easily have banned you for longer!

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]


Bear in mind that an appeal could go against you and they could increase your ban. The fact that your first appeal was already rejected suggests that you're going to have to take this much higher - and it's not cheap.

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


After WW2, Britain was bankrupt. Then into the 60's, Britain was very poor indeed - one of the reasons De Gaulle vetoed UK entry into the EEC was because of how poor the country actually was compared to the original 6 countries that founded it. Then you had UK entry in 1973 - and the UK was still exceptionally poor compared to the others (except Ireland). Then you had the mess of strikes, the Winter of Discontent and more - really, it was only as late as the mid 80's that the UK started to catch up (and overtake) some of the original six EEC countries.

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]

I'll bet you 50zl that the lawyer is going to take a lot of money from you for nothing.

The Straz Graniczna simply doesn't negotiate with these things - once they've deported you, that's it. You can spend a lot of money trying to overturn it, but it's not worth the time or hassle.

Travel / Hostel in Kraków (clean, inexpensive, central location, fast commute, quiet) [18]


Hostel Orange is quite nice, can't fault it :) Free internet too, and friendly receptionists. It's in a good location, and the nice part is that it's near an English bookshop that's apparently quite well known.

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


What's your point? Poland is a poor country by EU standards. We know this, everyone knows this, nothing new here, move on. The UK used to be a **** poor country (the sick man of Europe, as it was called) by EEC standards, Portugal used to be so poor that the EFTA countries had their own special fund to help her after the restart of democracy, the list goes on...

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


To be brutally honest, the system does the job that it's supposed to do - discourage people from hiring non-EU citizens unless they really bring something that can't be found within the EU. The process is actually rather straightforward - but complex and time consuming, thus ensuring that people only bother for the best.


The reason for that is simple - there's huge demand and not enough teachers. In Poland, natives aren't really massively in demand, and there's an oversupply in places like Krakow.


It's all about encouraging people to hire within the EU rather than outside it. I'm actually surprised that they grant work permits in the first place for non-EU teachers in major cities!

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


True - but bear in mind that the vast majority are very small schools without the resources to commit to a non-EU teacher. For instance, as part of the work permit application process, you must tell them explicitly how much you intend to pay them and what kind of contract they'll have. Sounds great, huh? But schools don't want to commit to anything, especially with the proposal to stick VAT onto education too.

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]


Got it in one. As far as I know, they couldn't care less as to the immigration status of the students. Given that they pay so much money, I'm not surprised!

Personally, I'd like to see the Straż Graniczna strip them of what they've passed so far - essentially returning them to 1st year again. Much more devastatingly effective and much more of a deterrent!

Law / Poland driving licence, non EU, non resident (Poland) [20]


I heard of one person who tried this and failed badly - I wouldn't recommend it. There's just no point, when the exam is available in English anyway.


Sure - I don't have it to hand right now, but I'll send you a message when I do. It's published by a company in Piła (I think...) - though they haven't released a book this year for some bizzare reason. There are some printed materials available though, so it's not all doom and gloom - and the CD is comprehensive enough.

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


You're right - I should have said that anyone earning less than 1600zl netto in a big city with a degree from a public institution is a failure.


Yeah, it's about that. But it's worth bearing in mind that what we consider to be minimum wage jobs in Western Europe are often not minimum wage here - such as working in a supermarket.


Common problem, it seems - they have qualifications but not the ability!

You should throw me a job/person specification - might be able to send some people your way.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]

Program-Bell and Empik. Some other schools do get work permits for their teachers, but these jobs go to people "on the ground and in the know".

Work / Information about jobs for Indian students in Poland [286]

No, it's not easy to get a Polish visa.

You can work as much as you can, however, you'll struggle to find any sort of employment. No-one is going to hire Indians who don't speak Polish - apart from possibly your fellow countrymen, though even they tend to hire Poles too.

No, you can't get a work permit without a valid offer of work.

In short : find somewhere else, because Poland is not for you.

Work / Advice on Teaching English in Poland [709]


Non-EU teachers are very undesirable at the minute to be honest - too much hassle and paperwork to hire them. I only know two schools in Poznan willing to bother with it!


Warsaw - 50zl/hour. Other major cities - 40zl/hour. Small places - 25zl/hour.


Nope. You will find that you can negotiate up to a set point (for instance, in Poznan, 70zl an hour is the most you'll get from any school whatsoever, and all but two schools don't pay anything near that) and no more. I've got exactly this problem at the minute - I keep being offered work, but nothing over 60zl an hour from schools. It's not bad money at all, but apart from rises for inflation, you can hit this very quickly. It's why most people here long term tend to go completely freelance.


People do, but they tend to gravitate towards public institutions. It depends really - but if you're looking for the serious money, Europe in general isn't the place to go.


You starve. I have work all through the summer (ah, the joys of being freelance) - but many teachers don't.


In all honesty, if they consider you Polish, then you'll struggle without a Masters degree. Any decent job will require it as a de facto standard for a Pole. Of course, you can find other things - but it's very difficult to do so.


Generally, it's best to be on the ground.


Schools that do that tend to be located in backwater places. As for the second part of your question - it's all up for negotiation. Very often, school directors simply have the use of a flat from friends. But don't expect accommodation to be included at all.


Most schools won't pay for it.


In Poznan a week -

food - 100zl
rent - 250zl (for a studio apartment about 20-30sqm)
internet - 60zl
public transport - 20zl
utilities - hmm...maybe 50-75zl a week?


I'd actually say the opposite - it's often very easy to find work in small cities. Natives are few and far between, and while you won't get paid much (25-35zl an hour), living costs are laughably low.

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


Perhaps so, but when you consider the quality of many graduates going into teaching (ie, many of them are only doing teaching because they can't do anything else), it's no surprise.

Poland doesn't care about education, and this can be seen from the early years right through to the highest levels of universities. Yes, they pay lip service to it, but people simply don't want to invest the money needed to radically reform the system.


Kasia can't get a good job, then?

Let's be realistic - anyone earning less than 1600 a month with a degree has failed badly if they live in a big city.


Life is hard? No, people here can afford to eat, and there's plenty of work for people who want to do it. Compare this to Spain - where people can't work, even if they want to.

Poland isn't rich, but it's stable.

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


What are you talking about? The taxation rates really have no correlation between employed and self employed people. Of course, it depends how savvy you and your accountant are - but we pay flat rates of ZUS, whereas they pay percentages. Not the same thing at all.


It's all relative. Of course, being 33 and only earning 2000 netto is very much on the low side, unless they live in the arse end of nowhere and living costs are next to nothing. But really, you'd have to have done rather badly in life to end up with such a low salary in a city.

Life / As EuroPride visits Warsaw - is it the start of overdue social change in Poland? (homosexuality promotion) [144]


Given that they can't even teach sex and drug education on a consistent basis in schools, there's no hope for that!

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


Uh...you do realise that most people pay ZUS and tax as an employee, and not as a self employed person? And for those people, they pay 466zl in ZUS and around 500zl in tax. Or 2434zl netto.

Anyway, anyone registered as a sole trader who pays 1445zl a month on 3390 a month is doing something badly wrong!


You have some very strange friends - they all seem to be underachievers and don't seem to be doing much with themselves. I really wonder what's wrong with a 33 year old English speaking graphic designer if he can't make more than 2000zl a month - unless of course, he's not a graphic designer at all and instead learnt Photoshop in his bedroom.


Or Poznan/Wroclaw for that matter? There's plenty of money flying around here.


Well, given that you seem to know failures - I'm not surprised it's too high. 3300 a month for someone qualified and with a decent amount of experience is about normal here, perhaps even on the low side. Let's not forget that many people here are working quite happily on the black market.

Travel / TLK trains (IC travel in Poland) [2]


It really depends. Right now, EIC makes sense because you're guaranteed air conditioning and a lack of overcrowding, whereas TLK will always have that "uh oh, what if it's rammed?" factor combined with older rolling stock. The journey is usually a bit more comfortable as well...BUT - sometimes they use EIC stock on TLK services too.

It's worth noting that you can pick up EIC tickets for peanuts if you're willing to plan ahead/take a chance.

Journey times are almost the same really, it's all about comfort. I'd say - at non peak travel times outside of summer, there's no difference.

The other thing is that EIC trains tend to be...how to say - free from students and the lower part of society. And this is worth paying for ;)

(really, it just depends on the route, time of day and time of year)

InterRegio trains can also be worth a shout on certain routes.

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]


No? What part of "I knew I was on a 3 month tourist stamp, but instead of leaving as per the law requires, I decided to go and try and get a new stamp rather than obeying Schengen law" isn't intentional?

Incidentally, for anyone else considering this - the presence of a stamp doesn't override Schengen law. It's also worth noting that if you go to the UK on day 89 and hope to come back straight away, a refusal from the UK is quite possible if it looks like you're only doing the trip for the stamp. And a refusal from the UK is as good as the big red Schengen stamp.

It's also worth noting that anyone deported from the Schengen zone will have their details recorded on computer - so no sneaking back in hoping they won't realise that you were banned!


Telling porkies, I see - there hasn't been any control on the German border for over 2 years now.

Food / WHY IN POLAND PEOPLE DON'T USE ICE? [142]


Nothing like free refills of supersized drinks, is there?

Work / Wage and Salary rates in Poland [37]


It's six years out of date. Poland's also experienced phenomenal growth during that time.

Come back with some upto date stats and we can talk.

Work / Information about jobs for Indian students in Poland [286]


I echo this. It's not going to happen :)

USA, Canada / A Canadian citizen overstayed Visa in Poland [35]


Yes you did. In fact, if I understand you correctly, you didn't even have the correct visa for studying in Poland - are you actually surprised that you were banned from Schengen for a year?

You do realise that since December 2007, without a valid visa, you can only spend 90 days out of every 180 in the Schengen zone?