Polish Citizenship for a foreigner whose parents was born in Poland

And that law came into force when, exactly?

The law before 1962 was rather different.

Merged:Apostilles - authenticate my parent's citizenship and marriage certificates?

Hello to all,

I need to provide my lawyer with some documents as part of the application process for Polish citizenship. He specifically requires my Australian birth certificate to be authenticated by my local office in order for the Polish office to accept it as a true and original document of my birth. The birth certificate will not be returned to me.

He also needs me to provide my parent's Australian citizenship and marriage certificates which he holds onto just in case he the relevant authority needs to check them against the copies. Those documents are eventually returned to me.

It is going to cost me $60 to authenticate my birth certificate. I am wondering is it necessary to authenticate my parent's citizenship and marriage certificates or is it just a waste of money.

Btw I am waiting on a reply from my lawyer but I might not hear back if he has taken a family vacation. I only have a few days left to sort out my paperwork before I fly out to Poland.

Appreciate any thoughts and advice.

Cheers.

Louis

Update - I just spoke to my lawyer's aid and she advised it is not necessary to authenticate or stamp the documents.

Apparently they are getting many applications from Australia which is interesting.

Anyway all sorted.

Louis

Merged: I was born to Polish parents in Germany. Am I a Polish citizen?

Hello everybody.

I have a question regarding my Polish citizenship. I have posted a thread a few months ago, but I would like to add some information to see what options I have.

I was born to Polish parents in Germany. I currently hold German citizenship, so does my dad and my sisters. However, everyone in my family also holds Polish citizenship, except me. My mom is a Polish citizen, my dad, sister, grandparents (which are not alive anymore) are Polish citizens. Recently, I have tried to apply for my Polish citizenship. As I understand by Polish law, and as people have told me before, if one is born to at least one Polish citizen, he is automatically a Polish citizen (logically). However, when I went to the embassy in Cologne and to the Gmina in Poland with my dad (who is a Polish citizen), they told me that I have to proof that I'm a Polish citizen by filling out a 12 page form, where I have to write life stories about my parents, grandparents and great grandparents. My dad showed them that he is a Polish citizen which automatically should make me a citizen as well. At the embassy in Cologne they told me that I don't have a PESEL which when I went to the Gmina, they said that I do have PESEL and they gave it to me. When I was a child, my dad even had my name added into his Polish passport, but that was way back in the 90's.

I would fill this 12 page form out but the problem is, I have no clue about what my great grandparents did. I know they were Polish citizens, but that's about it. Does anyone have any suggestions or tipps regarding my situation? You can also answer po Polsku. I only wrote in English now, because its a bit easier for me and therefore faster.

Thank you.

You are definately considered a citizen. The 12 pages is standard polish beurocracy you must fill out. It will be painful, just do the best you can. In reality you cannot be denied only slowed. Fill out what you have, hand it in and wait.

Wow, that was a quick reply.

First of all, thank you for answering Marsupial. About filling this out, what do I write into the section about my grandparents or great-grandparents? The problem is that I don't know much about them. I don't think I can just leave it blank, right?

I think you should start from here:
malopolska.uw.gov.pl/default.aspx?page=potwierdzenie_posiadania_lub_utraty_obywatelstwa_polskiego

@milawi

Thank you for answering. This link just brings me to where I'm stuck at, the 12 page form. How do I fill it out if I don't know anything about my family members several generations ago? I can fill out the questions about my parents and grandparents, but I know jack **** about my great grandparents who have died in the 20's.

:) just leave this part of questionnaire blank

Ok, I will try that. Hopefully that won't be an issue for them.

I always thought that German bureaucracy is annoying and ridiculous, but good old Polska just topped that :D

Well if you dont have the info you cant put anything there or maybe 'unknown'?
Somebody could write a book...secrets of Polish beurocracy and how to survive. Best seller for sure.

Hey guys, I'm really confused and wondering if someone can help me out.

My mom is Polish, dad is Canadian. She immigrated in 1986 and I was born in Canada. I qualify for citizenship through my mom, I understand that I have to complete the confirmation of citizenship procedure.

However, Canada is not part of the Hague Convention, so verifying documents is a bit of a different process. Can someone explain to me which documents (also how many of each) I need to get verified and what the process is? I keep hearing something different and it's really frustrating.

I'm planning on going to Poland directly to get the citizenship done, but before I go I want to make sure I have everything needed.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi Bobert

I don't know if you are still watching the forum and this posting in particular. But a website that might be able to answer your questions is known as foreign expat in Poland. Click on forums and look for Poland and click on the main section labelled immigration. Ask for Polish guy and he can direct you to his posting about all the paperwork that may or will be needed. you can also ask there. But at the same time, try and find the nearest consulate or embassy nearest to you and send them a message to about verification for what you do have and where you can get the rest done after your arrival regarding the rest of the documents that you receive between your visit to the consulate and your trip.

I am looking for a brother born on 17th June 1086, adopted (most likely) by a family from the Netherlands (unconfirmed information). Please help, maybe you are in this forum. If so, please email me at: agaszymekg@wp.pl.

Please help, maybe there are some forums where adoptions looking their parents, parenthood.
Second think on facebook we do have forum, if you looking your parents you can put there your messege, maybe there is someone who looking for you.

The name of the forum:Adoptowani poszukujacy swoich bliskich", there some good people can help you!!!

He must be really really old

does anyone know if im a dual citizen. my grandma was born in poland and migrated to australia, she renounced he polish citizenship after my mum was born, im pretty sure that makes her a dual citizen but what about me?

Has your mother Polish citizenship?

im pretty sure she is

If she is, you'd be applicable for Polish citizenship as far as I know. You should check this.

My father was born in Poland in 1914 and moved to Scotland after the 2nd world war after being sent to Scotland by the British army 1945. He had been a soldier in the Polish army. I have applied to the Polish embassy for Polish citizenship. I had to give them details of my passport details and birth certificate. They are now asking if my father lived in Poland and i have to sent them proof of that such as documents from Poland that he was in the army, passport which he does not have as he was sent here and did not go back to Poland,voting list. The embassy also wants to know if he gain british citizenship which he never applied for so he was still Polish. Can you please help where i would get the information of the above.

Can I ask how you know he never applied for British citizenship?
If he was not a British citizen from 1945 to 2004 (when he would have gained the right to reside in the UK based on his Polish citizenship), on what basis did he live in the UK?


Which bit of what became Poland in 1918?

Just to clear something up. After the war, many Polish people who found themselves on British soil and who had been in the Polish Army became subject of the Displacement Persons Act. This allowed them to stay in England definitely without giving up their Polish citizenship. Many had become naturalized British citizens, but many did not. Those that did not, were entitled to the same treatment as British citizens.

Of course. But my understanding (based on what a Virtuti Militari holder who spent decades living in the UK told me) is that they needed to actively reject British citizenship.


That contrasts to what I've heard from multiple sources.

One of the witnesses at my wedding had a VM, served at Monte Cassino (originally came from Przemysl) and he never had to do anything to actively reject (and what does that mean anyway) his Polish citizenship. He had a Polish passport till the day he died. He lived permanently in England after the war.

Same treatment means: the right to reside and work, be entitled to benefits, pension - all things that a British citizen is entitled to.

@rabbits
You can get a letter from the National Archives at Kew, who keep records of naturalisations, to the effect that they can find no evidence that you father acquired British citizenship. Absence of proof isn't proof of absence, but in my case it was sufficient to persuade the Polish authorities that my father never gave up his Polish citizenship.