Work / First English teaching job in Poland (Katowice) [75]

Working outside the UK always broadens the mind and develops a much more circumspect view of others around you. Coming from a scouse background you should be a good mixer. So if you want to work in a country with a re-emerging market economy and the problems that this situation tends to attract, then do so. Keep your options open and look around for better opportunities, even your own business if you are brave enough and if you can find good quality advisers. So visit other satellite towns around Katowice and spend weekends in the city if you are able. Every major city has the same problems of winos and hobos in the similar type of areas as Mariacka. Even London can be pretty scary in the evening, and much more so than in the city here. However, I do agree that the 1,800zł per month is not very good, and basic food costs are a lot higher here that they were say seven to ten years ago when food was very good value. Enjoy!

Work / First English teaching job in Poland (Katowice) [75]

CMC, I really think yo need to read some contemporaneously written 'history' books that cover the period from 1933 to 1945, and then look into the 1946 to 1992 era. You can find many texts on-line on the websites of rare book sellers and shops. You will in time become better informed and you words "crap places which are full of folks who are uneducated, poor, and ignorant" will be rapidly withdrawn by you and such sentences re-drafted this time containing facts and educated statements. So be a little more willing to accept that not all the people in the EU share your opinions. However, you are totally entitled to hold these thoughts yourself.

not_Polish, may I suggest that you ask him openly why he wants to travel to and to work in Poland.

USA, Canada / Has anyone with a US or CDN passport recently been subjected to the "Passport Trap" in Poland? [29]

The simple answer to the situation is that if you are a dual national of Poland and another nation, be it perhaps Canada or Britain, when in Poland you cannot possess dual nationality at all. When you are inside Polish borders you are a Polish citizen. As such you must always carry at least your Polish I/D card with you, which, if you have done nothing illegal is actually quite useful, and when you leave Poland you can leave on either passport just so long as the guys at the desk do not check too carefully. It is not very likely that a non Polish citizen will have a Polish I/D card as it takes so long to get one without the proper Polish papers. I have dual nationality of English and Polish and I often change passports as I come in and out by accident. The only time I have ever been asked questions was recently at Luton Airport, nowhere near London, when I realised that I had completed my boarding card using my British passport and I was travelling on my Polish passport as my other was obtaining a visa. There was no problem, I just apologised for the error and I smiled nicely!

So, in Poland you are Polish; in Canada you may be either or both just as I can be both or either am in England or in any other country.

USA, Canada / Has anyone with a US or CDN passport recently been subjected to the "Passport Trap" in Poland? [29]

Passport in Poland was140zł and for a 28 to 30 day service.
Passport in England 128 GBP (715zł) and for a 4 hour same day service that is available.
in England "A standard adult first passport or renewal costs £72.50, or £82.25 if you use the Post Office's Passport Check and Send service. Child passports cost £46, or £55.75 using Check and Send. Passport for people born on or before 2 September 1929 Free" if you can take your Mother with you on the day of applying to verify your date of birth.

"You can get a passport using the 1 day Premium service or 1 week Fast Track service if you need one urgently and you're in the UK."

All quotations from the gov.uk passport pages of the website.

I stand corrected by my own words that it is not forbidden to be a dual national or to hold two passports, but the status of dual nationality cannot be used to gain advantage as might happen in other countries. So it might as well be forbidden.