From UK to Krakow with my GF and daughter - registration to live/see a doctor?

I have just moved to krakow in Poland ' I am currently living in my girlfriends house witch is owned by the family we have the place to ourself with are new born daughter who was born in the uk ' my daughter is only 5 months old an we have been living in poland since november '

I do not speak polish and i am learning from my wife '

Have a few things that i am worried about '

Do i need to be registered whilst i am living in Poland at this address ' i had some minor health problems in the UK nothing serious but if i do need to see a doctor i understand i have to be registerd ' can anyone give me any advice on what i should do first and in what order '

We also would like to be married sometime this year and has been living in the Uk with myself for over 7 years ' are daughter needs her final health injection but neither my daughter or my wife to be or myself are registerd here in Poland as of yet ' please could anyone point me or give me some idea of what i should do or where i should start ' i am more worried about my daughters health than mine if she gets sic then it seems i can not take her to a doctor unless i am registerd or she is registerd ' it seems like a huge headache unlike being in the uk 'the one person who we seem to be able to trust is not giving me any advice on what we should be doing ' could anyone please help .. Thank u for any response .

Yes you do need to register. You need to get yourself a maldunek (done at the gmina office, your girlfriend also needs one and so does your daughter) and you also need a certificate of right to reside in Poland (which you get from the local foreigners office).

However, none of that entitles you to free health care. To qualify for free health care in Poland you need to pay ZUS (basically the Polish version of National Insurance) and then get the paperwork sorted out. It's a severe pain in the arse.

Thanks Harry the wife is Polish an has a polish passport '

My daughter has a british passport ' and is only 5 months old so how can she pay ZUS

I have a EU medical card will that help me in anyway if i was to become sick myself '

The one minor positive side i will pm u as it's private if thats ok .

You can get one for your daughter and she will be entitled to medical care in Poland as if it were in the UK. That will cover her last injection. Then you can take your time getting registered with doctors, NIP, ZUS and all that.

I may be wrong, but that seems the easiest way for me.

[by the way, you can apply for a EHIC (EU Card) online and get someone in the UK to post it to you]

or he can just apply here! Same thing, only it says on the card that it was issued in PL not the UK - it does not matter. Mine is from the UK for instance and I used it in Sweden and Norway too, and now in Poland. Just go to Polish national health fund website - the NFZ

He'd need to be paying ZUS though, surely?


Not quite - it's only really for treatment at the short term level. If she was to get seriously long term sick (but not to the point of needing to be in hospital), there could be problems - the EHIC isn't intended to be used for that kind of thing (your home country is).

Using the EHIC is fine for casual visits to the doctor and emergency care, but not for long term care. On the good side - if either the original poster or his wife pays ZUS, then the whole family is covered.

Oh, yes, maybe I skipped it. Definitely he needs to pay somewhere the health insurance, wheteher in his home country or Poland. And he can get the EHIC in the country where the insurance is paid.

Yep, that's what we did as a bridging solution when we moved.

Pragmatically though if you want a job done, go private. You won't regret the cost, especially where a child is concerned.

That's right, private doctors (Luxmed/CM LIM, Medicover) are more efficient, I can only add that EHIC is still useful in case of hospitalization (which most private can't cover) where you'd still go to public hospital.

^ What he said.

Yeah, you still will need this for emergency cover. The good news is that it's not like in the States where they wouldn't treat you without first looking at your insurance status, but you will get slaughtered for costs after the fact if you have no policy.

And where you have to get mandatory TB jabs for kids (only available via the national health, LuxMed won't do this for you) which is unnecessary in the UK it can still be a nightmare if the ward sister or whoever is laying hardball and refuses to proceed. Yup, that did happen to us. Fackin' nightmare.