Polish citizen returning to Poland after 26 years - Zameldowanie Question?

Hi.

So my family and I left Poland in 1987. I was 5 at the time.

I am now in the process of coming back here for good.

I will need to get a number of things sorted, and it sounds like one of the first ones is to get Zameldowanie.

How does this work?

Here is what I have : Polish citizenship, polish passport and PESEL (The PESEL is in the polish Passport).

I also have my birth certificate from here in Poland (pink colored piece of paper with a stamp on it, stamp as in mailing stamp from many many years ago).

I also have a close friend in Poland who is willing to let me use his place to do Zameldowanie. He owns his home BTW.

How does the process to get Zamledowanie look for someone who has not been here in 25+ years? As far as I know I am not Zameldowany anywhere in Poland at the moment. Like I said, I was only 5 when we left.

Does doing Zameldowanie right away get myself issued a Polish ID card? Or do I get a polish ID card using my zameldowanie?

You get id from mayor of the city where you are registered. So logically registration is first. But Poles living abroad can get ID without zameldowanie (adres zameldowania field in ID will be empty) in the city where they were born i think. I don't think there are any special procedures for you. Don't forget to make health insurance.

Ah okey, thanks!

I will do the Zameldowanie first regardless as I will not be abroad for much longer. Since it sounds like a necessary step to get things like driving license, etc, might as well get it over with.

And I correct in assuming that it is OK to do zameldowanie at a home you do not actually live in?

I have a few friends in Warsaw that still have zameldowanie at their parents homes far away from Warsaw, but they live in Warsaw.

It's OK, but illegal and Warsaw is going to introduce incentives for citizens zameldowani in Warsaw (cheaper bus tickets, priority to Kindergartens) Also mind that you my be getting some letters to your adres zameldowania, like fines, law suits. So it's better to be able to receive them.

:(

Hehe, this zameldowanie thing is a bit of a pain in the ass... Getting the owner of a rental property to accept my zameldowanie will be difficult at best. I have read in a number of different places that once you are zameldowany at someone place, they cannot force you out (maybe without some sort of legal proceedings... who knows)... So yea, if I rent an apartment in Warsaw, I doubt the owner will want me zameldowany at their apartment.

As far as the mail and stuff, not really a problem. The friend is quite close, and there is no issue with making sure any and all mail sent to this address will make its way (quickly) to me.

Anyways this sounds like an acceptable way of getting things done. Dont really have any other options besides asking the owner of the apartment to allow me to do meldunek at his place... Which I'm not counting on.

Thanks again!

Merged: Zameldowanie for Polish citizen, is it necessary ?

I was born abroad and i came to Poland 2 years ago, I got a Polish ID with a temporary address (my current dorm address), and i have been submitting a zameldowanie each year (issued from the dorm), I would like to know if I will face problem if i don't submit a zameldowanie for next year , as i have found a nice flat but the landlord doesn't want to get involved in the zameldowanie for some reason, so what are the setbacks of not having a zameldowanie in my case ?

If you don't visa to stay in Poland you don't need it but you may need it to sort out some formal issues for example to register to local offices. Landlords don't have to give you zameldowanie and they don't want to as sometimes it's difficult to cancel it, but you can get it yourself, all you need is a copy of the rent agreement and go to local urzad miejski even without notifying the landlord.

Good luck