Love / What documentation do I need to marry a Polish girl in Poland? [28]


The marriage is not a problem. The two document that you have to provide is evidence of no impediment, a letter from your government stating hat you are not married in India.

Getting a visa to come to Poland is another matter. You will have to prove many things with ABUNDANT documentation, like that you have known each other for a substantial amount of time, that she has visited you and spent a substantial amount of time with you in India, or you with her in Poland or elsewhere, that you have a genuine serious romantic relationship, that you have significant ties to India like a steady job and owning property or a business, that you have sufficient funds in the bank to finance your stay in Poland, and anything else that indicates that you will definitely leave the EU after you get married.

Frankly, the embassy official handling your visa request is going to be very, very skeptical of your true motives, and start from the point of view that you are just yet another Indian trying to get into the EU until you can convince them otherwise. Again, frankly, you don't get the benefit of a doubt. The burden of proof that the marriage is not a marriage of convenience rests solely on you. If you and your future wife have never met in person, or cannot otherwise document a genuine serious long-term person-to-person relationship, forget about it. Also, if you cannot demonstrate very strong ties to India, forget about it.

Travel / Places of interest on route from Katowice - Lodz - Gdansk [7]

I know that the actual camp Auschwitz III no longer exists, but I see that small portions of the complex outside the camp survived and are still in use. Is this complex open to the public for tours?

Travel / Places of interest on route from Katowice - Lodz - Gdansk [7]


If you're interested in old industrial towns, the best preserved 19th century industrial town in Poland is Żyrardów, about 90 km east of £ódź on the main £ódź-Warsaw train line. It was a progressive planned industrial city built as a linen production center. The center of the town is a historical monument, and is quite interesting. It would be a shame to miss it if you were in the area. It's a must-see.

Another must-see is Opatówek right outside Kalisz, which was a textile center. There is a very interesting History of Industry Museum in a former textile factory in the town.

But perhaps the most impressive industrial must-see in all of Poland is the salt mine in Wieliczka, right outside Kraków. It's simply amazing. It's worth paying for a longer personal full tour, rather than the group tour. If you get a great guide, they will show you lots of stuff that the regular tourists never see, and will have time to explain it in detail and answer your questions. In Kraków, also visit the Ethnological Museum in the Old Town Hall in the Main Square of the Kazimierz quarter. There were some good pre-industrial-revolution industrial exhibits, like oil-pressing and the like. I really enjoyed it. Then it's just a short walk to the old Jewish quarter, which is also worth seeing. Then go out to nearby Nowa Huta, a planned industrial city built by the communists. There is a small, but interesting, museum, and it's pleasant to walk around the center of the town, especially in the spring time.

Unfortunately, there isn't much emphasis on industry at Auschwitz, which was actually a complex of about industrial slave-labor camps throughout south-central Poland and the Czech Republic. As far as I know, all traces of the subcamps have been obliterated, except for the extermination camp at Birkenau, and they are barely mentioned at the museum st the main camp. It's a shame because I find this one of the most interesting aspects of the camp system.

However, you might find Osówka interesting, near the Czech border just north of Kudowa Zdrój. It is an underground city/industrial.command complex that the Germans were building toward the end off the war (look up "Project Riese" on Wikipedia). You can take a tour of the tunnels, which are amazing, though there are only a few traces of the industrial plants that were built inside. Nearby is the center of the second-biggest coal-mining region in Poland, Wałbrzych, which is just what you're looking for if what your looking for is grimy industrial towns. You could stop off in Wrocław on the way (shameless plug). Not industrial, but it has the most beautiful town square in Poland, and it's not cram-packed with tourists like the one in Kraków.

Work / Is 6500PLN/month enough for 2 people from India to live on in Wroclaw? [40]


Her best, and probably only, chance to land a job in Poland is with her husband's company, and that is best arranged BEFORE they move to Poland. The chances of finding work for another company after she arrives are remote. She would be competing with Poles and other EU nationals. Very few employers would be willing to go through the hassle of hiring a non-EU citizen unless she has some serious qualifications and experience that are desperately sought after on the Polish job market, like SAP, HBase or high-level quantitative analysis skills, for example. "Ordinary" IT skills will probably not be enough. If she does have super-duper qualifications and experience, then I would question the rationale of moving to Poland at all in the first place, as she would be able to find higher-paying work elsewhere. Experienced SAP consultants make only $30 to $50 thousand a year in Poland, which is a great salary for Poland, but a lousy one on the global SAP market.


You right to feel concerned, It can be incredibly boring for her. To the point where it would put a strain on your relationship. I once taught English to the Swiss wife of a bank executive here in Wrocław, and she was bored out of her gourd because she didn't speak Polish, English or even proper German, so she could not make other friends. She lasted four months before going back to Switzerland. Also had a Korean student in the same situation because she didn't speak good English, and she didn't fit in with the local Korean ex-pat community, which is very cliquish and downright cruel to people who are not "in". In both cases, I was their only social contact whatsoever.

I assume your wife speaks English, so things won't be as desperate for her, but it will still be hard for her to fill her time with interesting activities with interesting people unless she is very outgoing, enterprising and adventurous. If she's shy or stand-offish, life will be very lonely indeed.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about the local Indian population. In any case, it's quite small, and there might not be many women like your wife to socialize with. I rarely see Indian ex-pat families in Wrocław.

However, when I was living in Chicago, I noticed that the wives of many of my Indian medical colleagues were horribly isolated and mal-adapted, and even arrogantly demonstrative of their unwillingness to assimilate or associate with the locals, even after many years of living in the States. It may be a good idea for her to occupy her time taking courses at the Wrocław Institute of Technology. Her chances of finding mental and social stimulation are higher there, and probably even better than in the workplace if she finds a job that doesn't pay very well. Most of the foreign ex-pat wives here in Poland are wives of high-level managers, administrators and executives, and they may not be very accepting of lowly employees.

Study / Vistula University in Poland. Any experience? Any student? [57]

It's a fake "university" for gullible foreign students. A diploma from there is worthless, both in Poland and abroad. If you aren't studying at one of the top ten Polish universities or serious schools, then studying in Poland is a total waste of time and money. It will not help you find work. Employers will laugh in your face. It also won't help you find work anywhere in the European Union.

Work / Is 6500PLN/month enough for 2 people from India to live on in Wroclaw? [40]


Housing prices in Wrocław are not appreciably cheaper than in Warsaw, if at all. EVERYBODY has a friend who got a real deal. Best not to count on it, though, especially if you're fresh off the plane with no useful contacts. Apparently, these companies do not offer any assistance with finding housing. If you've got to do it on your own, in a hurry, with zero knowledge of the local language and no one to help you, it's going to cost more.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

It's a co-op, so that's probably true.

Work / Is 6500PLN/month enough for 2 people from India to live on in Wroclaw? [40]

You'd be surprised how many young workers in the cities are "słoikarze", that is, living off jars of food they bring back to the city after spending the weekend in the village with mom and dad. Fortunately, they're a good source of high-quality wędliny!

Work / Is 6500PLN/month enough for 2 people from India to live on in Wroclaw? [40]


I agree, 6500 PLN brutto isn't particularly attractive, especially if the OP has aspirations of saving up a significant amount of money. He and his wife would have to live very, very frugally to save up anything resembling a rainy day fund, and it's highly unlikely that she will be able to work. Safest to assume that she will not.


Not with czynsz and utilities, he won't. It's about 2000 PLN for a basic one-bedroom apartment, all fees and bills included except telephone, internet and transit ticket. You're not going to find much cheaper than that unless you go out quite far from the center or live in substandard housing.

If he uses an estate agent to find the apartment, that will cost him about 1500 PLN.

It might be better finance-wise if he left the wife in India and came alone. Otherwise, it's not going to be a particularly comfortable life. Remember that foreigners can't live as cheaply as Poles do until they learn the language, or at least the ropes, and develop a circle of friends.

Work / Prospects for Finding a Job Teaching English in Poland or Elsewhere in Europe [17]


It takes time and hard work to build up a network, and even more to build up a reputation. Sitting on your duff expecting work to come to you "because word got around" is a recipe for disaster. Networking is hard work, and you can't let it slide. You have to be an ambitious and aggressive go-getter and self-promoter, and, of course, an extremely good teacher. One of the reasons it's so hard to find a good native speaker in big cities is because there are scads of incompetent ones that you have to eliminate first. That makes it harder for qualified teachers and students to connect.

Life / Cost of Living in Lodz [50]


That's so low, it would probably be unwise to accept it unless you are truly desperate. You would have no choice but to live in the apartment provided by the company, regardless of conditions. There are probably a lot better opportunities out there, and your time would be better spent exploring those.


That would be about the minimum for the job to be worth the move to Poland. No harm in asking, if you are going to turn down the job anyway if it paid less.


Really, at 300 PLN a month total, it would be a real deal, even if it's a shared room far from the workplace. The apartment would most definitely be shared, and it wouldn't surprise me if you had to share the room, too. The room would be furnished with basic furniture at least. I wouldn't expect "spacious". Cleanliness would depend on the people you are sharing the apartment with. That's about the price of a shared room in a student dormitory. Maybe even a little cheaper. All in all, it's a generous offer that you can ill afford to refuse, especially at 3800 PLN gross. A basic studio apartment with all bills included is going to cost you about 1500 PLN.

Work / Prospects for Finding a Job Teaching English in Poland or Elsewhere in Europe [17]


That's right. There are already more than enough Americans like this in the larger attractive cities to cover any eventual job openings. There isn't much incentive to hire someone who needs a work permit fresh off the plane on a real work contract basis when they can hire someone who doesn't need a work permit on a "garbage contract" basis.


I highly advise against Warsaw and Wrocław. They're swarming as it is with native speakers who will work for peanuts, and they are the two most expensive cities in Poland to live in, so that you pay won't go very far. The same is true for Kraków, and, to a large extent the other popular attractive cities like Poznań, Gdańsk and Toruń. All of these places have huge university populations that produce loads of unemployed English philology students who give private tutoring for peanuts, as well, so that further depresses the private tutoring market.

Rule of thumb: if you can find a place featured in a tourist guide, competition there is going to be fierce. I'm very happy that I spent the first four years in Poland out in the provinces. Better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond, especially at the beginning. If I had moved directly to Wrocław, I don't think I would have lasted, and that was in better times than now.

The big, attractive cities like Wrocław, Warsaw and Kraków are wonderful to live in if you have enough cash to take advantage of what they have to offer. Otherwise, they're just as gray and depressing as Katowice and £ódź.

Work / Prospects for Finding a Job Teaching English in Poland or Elsewhere in Europe [17]

On the whole, the market for English teachers from the US dried up substantially after these countries joined the EU ten years ago, which made it far more attractive to hire teachers from the UK and Ireland instead. The economic crisis has also not helped, and now there are few schools left that are willing to offer good contracts and go through the hassle and expense of hiring a non-EU teacher. On top of that, there are plenty of locals nowadays who have learned English and can teach. So the pickings are slim nowadays. Your law degree might help somewhat, perhaps, but don't count on it.

Especially in any of the big, popular cities, like Kraków, Budapest and, most especially, Prague, where native speakers are thick like flies on a dead possum. If your dream is to become an English teacher in an attractive touristy city, basically forget about it, as the competition is fierce, the wages are therefore lower, and the cost of living is high.

If there are any opportunities to be had for a non-EU citizen, they are in small towns off the beaten track, far from the tourist centers or university towns, where there are schools so desperate to attract native-speaking teachers that they will gladly hire an American. You'll have to do a lot of job searching and digging to find these positions, though.

By the way, I'm an American who came here twelve years ago and taught English to establish my residency. The market was much kinder to Americans then. I wouldn't bother in today's market.

My advice would be to forget about teaching English in Europe, find a good job in the States, and save up to take an extended vacation in Europe. That's much more practical. As an English teacher in Poland, for example, you'd be earning about $8-10k a year, $15k max under the best of circumstances, which I wouldn't count on. As a vacationer, you won't be tied down with school duties, and you can come or go wherever you want whenever you want. You'll actually get to see a lot more of the countries you're interested in. If you want the experience of living and working in Europe, then get a job for a large American or International company that does business in Europe and work your way up until you can apply for a transfer.

Either option is far better and safer than teaching. Really, at your age and stage of development, you should be focusing on solidifying your career and on maximizing future earnings and savings prospects, and not running away to in Europe for a year to basically goof off and do nothing that will add anything substantial to your resume.

If you want to take a year off to do something good for the world, try the Peace Corps or other international volunteer programs. If you want a socially-responsible career change, it would be best to do that in the States. Have you considered, for example, working for the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the Forestry Service or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, for example? Or for NGOs in the States or abroad? There are a lot of possibilities for someone of your educational background and experience.

Like I said, ten, fifteen years ago, teaching English in central Europe may have been an attractive option, but that ship has sailed.

Law / Starting a business in Poland ( English language services ) [11]


I agree. The big, popular cities, Kraków, Wrocław and Warsaw, are swarming with native English speakers that are desperate to give private lessons and proof-read for peanuts. Unless you have some very serious qualifications, which you don't ("no teaching experience, no diploma, no other work skills"), you don't stand a chance at all. You wouldn't be able to earn enough to pay the costs of running your business, never mind enough to live off.

Sorry, Abby, but Poland is definitely not the place for you, as I've told you before. You simply don't have what it takes to survive here, and you were foolish to come. It's time to cut your losses, go back to the States and further your education.

Work / A job offer in Wroclaw - will it possible to get a neat education for my kids? [6]

One more thing: the chances of your wife finding a decent job for decent pay are FAR, FAR higher in Western Europe or an English speaking country than in Poland. By several orders of magnitude. And the amount you will be able to save up in absolute dollars or Euros will be much higher.

Work / A job offer in Wroclaw - will it possible to get a neat education for my kids? [6]


That's great for a single person, pretty good for a couple, but really not very tempting for someone with two kids for whom they will have to pay for private English-language daycare and education. Taking into account travel and moving expenses and visa fees, it may not be worth the move, especially considering the fact that, even under the best of circumstances, you would not be able to save up a substantial amount of money in absolute dollars or Euros.


For doctors who do not own their own practice, wages in Poland are abysmally low. The wages for academics are also abysmally low. It is unlikely that going through the harrowing nostrification process would be worth the effort (that's the process of getting a certificate equivalence). It's safer to assume that your wife will not find work than to bet the farm on the odd chance that she might. Poland is a country that doctors leave in droves to earn better wages under better conditions elsewhere, not the other way around.

By the way, I'm a pathologist with a Ph.D., and I earn a lot more as a scientific translator and freelance academic advisor and mentor than I ever could as a physician or academic. After I arrived in Wrocław, I was interviewed for a position at the university here, and everything was just fine until I heard their offer, which was so low that I couldn't possibly accept it. There wasn't even any point in negotiating with such a low-ball offer. Wages for hospital staff doctors are so low that I wouldn't even bother getting out of bed for an interview in the first place, never mind go through the nostrification process.

Bottom line: you're better off either looking for a job in a Western European country like Norway or Sweden, in an English-speaking country, or biting the bullet and signing a five-year contract for a high-paying job in Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states, leaving your family behind. Sure, it's like going to jail for five years, except at the end you have a pretty nice wad of cash for your kids' college funds. Actually, I regret somewhat that I didn't do that myself.

Law / Any good ideas for setting up a business in Poland by a British investor? [5]

Sorry, but Poland is an extremely harsh and competitive business environment that doesn't treat unqualified dilettantes kindly, especially foreigners. Without the necessary education and experience, and without an excellent knowledge of the local language and business culture, there is very little chance that you will succeed.

Also, the British-boy-moves-to-Poland-so-that-his-girlfriend-can-be-with-he r-family story rarely has a happy ending. The guy gets frustrated soon enough because he's not able to bring in enough cash, and also because he can't quite fit in with the natives (Słupsk isn't exactly crawling with ex-pats). Tensions with the wife and in-laws escalate, and he goes back home beaten, broke and depressed, and usually separated from his wife and child.

You should seriously reconsider moving to Poland. Employment opportunities and earning potential are far higher there for you, and probably also for your girlfriend. Services and opportunities for your child are also more abundant.

If you have long-term plans of eventually moving to Poland, like in five or ten years, then learn the language, build up your qualifications, and get in some serious experience first. At this point,

however, with a baby on the way and without a clue in sight, you can ill afford to stake your fortune on an extremely risky, low-payout game.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


Zero. Without graduation, no Polish university will even consider your application, regardless of how many business related certificates you have.

Genealogy / Is Poland Germanic or Slavic? [58]


Chances are you have a lot more Ukrainian or Lithuanian in you. The local population is mostly descendants of Poles relocated to Gorzów after the war from the Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, as well as what is now eastern Poland. Few Germans remained after the war. Very few.

Genealogy / Is Poland Germanic or Slavic? [58]

theguythatstart

None. All Germanic languages originated in northernmost Germany, Denmark and southern Sweden, and spread out from there.

Genealogy / Is Poland Germanic or Slavic? [58]

No. All Geman dialects originated in areas than are now in German speaking countries.

Genealogy / Is Poland Germanic or Slavic? [58]

theguythatstart

No. It's native to Lower Saxony (Luebeck, Bremen and Hamburg), and spread with Saxon settlers and the Hansa to East Prussia and Pomerania. It's now extinct in Poland, although related dialects of Plattdeutsch are still spoken in the northern part of the former DDR. It contributed a modest number of words to the Polish vocabualry, chiefly in areas dealing with sailing, trade, city administration and technology. By the way, it's closely related to English more than it is to German, and not at all related to Polish except distantly as a fellow Indo-European language.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

It's just conspiracy theory blither.

Agricultural over-production is a problem that Europe has been struggling with for at least forty years, long before Poland joined the EU. Curtailing and directing Poland's agricultural output is a major goal of the EU, and will benefit Poland in the end, as well, as it forces the country to lessen its dependence on that sector.

The companies that went belly up hardly needed any "help" from the West to do so. As Jon said, they were simply not economically viable, and could not adapt to the free market.

There is no benefit to the Old EU countries to have in the EU countries that aren't pulling their fair share of the weight. They have a vested interest in helping Poland develop. Regional disparity is a drag on the EU, just as it is a drag on the UK, the US and Germany. The advances Poland has made in the twelve years I have been here are astounding. Joining the EU has brought enormous benefits, though there is still a lot of work to be done.

Love / Why should I support my partners sister and boyfriend? [23]


First of all, she's not his "Missus". Not even close. Nor does marriage seem remotely in the offing. A break-up is more likely, as he came between the girl and her family, and now she has to pick sides.

He's not even close to financial secure and seriously lacks maturity, and has an alcohol problem, to boot. She's not even close to financially secure and seriously lacks maturity. Hardly a good basis for a sound relationship, and it doesn't take much reading between the lines to conclude that the road was rocky even before the sister and her boyfriend appeared. They knew each other for about a year before he got her pregnant. Very, very unlikely that this was a planned or desired pregnancy. I feel sorry for any baby born under such circumstances.

Sorry, but I firmly believe that people who are not financially secure and mature enough to handle simple everyday situations have no reason bringing a child into the world. It's cruel beyond measure. If he were 20, I might be a little more sympathetic. But he's 30, far too old to be acting like a silly child.

Love / Why should I support my partners sister and boyfriend? [23]

They have you pegged as a sucker, and rightly so. You failed to address the problem in a timely manner, and when you did, you screwed it up. You also were extremely foolish to get someone pregnant. Now your stuck. Well, buddy, you made your mess, now it's time to man up and clean it up. If you don't know what to do at aqe 30, then you've really not learned much from life.

Kick the bums out. Now. And if your girlfriend objects, kick her out, too. Of course you'll have to pay child support, but that's better than wasting your time, and hers, in a relationship that neither of you is mature enough for and will go absolutely nowhere in the future. And get a vasectomy while you're at it.

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


Actually, you "verbalized" a lot more than you think you did. No embassy is going to grant you a visa to any EU country. Ever. Forget about it. There's nothing you can do.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


Have a good friend here in Wrocław in that very position. He's fed up with teaching, and especially by the fact that his income hasn't increased at all since the economic crisis started. He can't do anything but teach, and can't improve his qualifications because cash and time are too tight having to support a wife and two kids, and because he never bothered to learn Polish.

Really don't know a lot of Americans or other non-EU nationals among the long-term teachers here in Wrocław. I can only think of one, an American, who still teaches and makes a decent go of it. Perhaps it's because Americans are less likely to take the Polish poontang bait hook, line and sinker, and also because few Americans come here expecting to stay on a long-term basis, unless they're retired and can live off their savings.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


They're thick like cockroaches here in Wrocław. Warsaw and Kraków must be positively swarming with them.

And if I hear one more hard luck story from a British or Irish guy who came here in pursuit of Polish poontang and got burned bad, I'm going to shoot him and put him out of his misery, and remove him from the gene pool. Just got treated to yet another episode in this never-ending last Friday. same old story, over and over again. Seriously, I fail to see what is so fascinating about Polish women. It certainly isn't their talent for giving foot massages (a top criterion for me). They're high maintenance, and panic at the slightest sign of trouble, lashing out in vicious fury to anything within striking range. Perhaps I can't blame them, as their financial situation is not as secure as in the West, and they have bad childhood memories of living on the brink of poverty.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


They're going to be far too cheap to pay the fee required for a work permit for a non-EU citizen. Plenty of British and Irish jetsom and flotsam already on the ground, especially in a popular city like Wrocław. No need to import a clueless slacker from the other side of the planet.

Australia / Australian citizen wanting to go to Poland for as long as possible - needs Polish Visa [49]


At that age, you're not going to find any work. Teaching is flat out, as is just about anything else. The only possible option you have is a really, really lousy job in a call center, and that's not going to pay the bills. Nor is any call center going to go through the hassle of applying for a work permit for a lowly flunky. Sorry, but you're dreaming, and Poland does not treat dreamers kindly.

By the way, I live in Wrocław. It's a great city to live in if you have cash, but can be depressing as hell if you don't. Don't expect long-term hospitality from your partner's parents. They might put you up for a week, perhaps, maybe even two at the outside, but after that you will be expected to contribute your fair share of the bills. Otherwise, they will unceremoniously give you the old boot in the behind. It's always open season on moochers in Poland.

Your best option is to stay in your respective countries and pursue your education. At your age, you can little afford to waste time bumming off in Poland. You'll see in a few years that the ease of learning you now take for granted begins to dissipate, so do all you can to learn now while your brain is young. And give up silly dreams of long-distance love with someone on the other side of the planet until you have some real salable qualifications and experience under your belt.