Poland has too much redtape

I have been here two months and am bogged down by endless paper work, Im wondering how does this place function.
To get simple information forget about it no one knows and sends you to another person who knows even less.
I have to say this is not what i imagined prior to coming here and some regret about my decision is creeping in.
i have been in other eurozone countries and have not found this problems to the extinct of here.

Once the paperwork's done it's done. A one off and provides work for myriad civil servants.


This is true. And the less they know, the more they swear they're right.


Poland isn't yet a Eurozone country.

thanks for the correction on that still i like it here people on the whole are ok i guess same as everywhere.
I was told all this redtape is one of the left overs of the comunist era.
I thought ireland was bad but this place takes the biscuit but on the whole I hope this was good move for me and my family

Yep. For example the number of addresses one can have!

Not really. Bureaucracy crosses all political, cultural and historical divides; it happily grows by pullulation.

Take a look at this series of pictures by Dutch photographer Jan Banning and think about Polish reality:

amusingplanet.com/2011/05/bureaucrats-around-world-photo-series.html

I have not had such a laughter for a long time. Enjoy!

lovely country except for the redtape and langers running it

It's going!

Apparently the whole zameldowanie system will be scrapped at the start of next year - though I can't figure out why they don't just move to the Finnish system where you're obliged to have an official address, but it's just a mere declaration (made online if you want) without any nonsense about rights to stay there and so on.

I don't know about you God damn foraigners in Poland but a Polish person does not have to be zameldowany/a anywhere.In fact I just became officially a homeless person ^wink^.Guess why...

Because you are on social welfare in the United States.

No.Because as a homeless person I have health insurance in Poland and I don't even have to sign up in unemployment office every month,but yeah I am going to visit welfare office on monday.Lets see what they can give me.

Nah, it's related to something sociologists call 'uncertainty avoidance' which is very strong in Poland. Countries with high overall levels of uncertainty avoidance have bigger and less transparent bureaucracies than lower level countries (like Ireland).

On the other hand, enforcement is hit or miss and everybody bends the rules, The regime is strict but implementation is restrained. Once you learn how to navigate the system you'll probably come to prefer it.


Partly this is about uncertainty avoidance (see above) and partly this really is a holdover from communist times and the infamous and decades long accute housing shortage (which impacted people's lives the way that natural disasters do in some places).

You're looking at it from a complete wrong angle. This is God's way of testing your patience. Just roll with it....

Where else in the world would you get as frustrated, tearing your hair out just standing there in total amazement at the different sometimes totally opposing bits of 'information' that the clerk behind the desk gives you.

One time, I remember when I was trying to get 'zameldowanie' the clerk told me.. "the fact that you were born in Poland does not mean that you're Polish"..Ok, this could be true, but then she said..."We have to first make sure that Krakow is in Poland"...- that's when I stood there mouth wide-open, while I composed myself.

Well, I was officially asked last year by the city of Poznań to "wymeldować się" from the cooperative apartment I "owned" ages ago. Apparently somebody bought it after I left the country and after my former wife gave it later back to the cooperative. However since I was still listed at that address the new owner could not trade it, I guess, or he just did not feel very comfortable with a ghost in his apartment. Consequently he commenced an official procedure and the city of Poznań went through a lot of trouble - first trying to find my address through official channels and then through my daughter. They finally solicited my email address from her (this was as far as she was going to give them) and this is what they sent me one day via email.

URZĄD MIASTA POZNAŃ
... address header with all the trimmings

Pan Boletus

In the context of an administrative proceeding, to which you are a party, we would like you to provide us with your mailing address in order to send you notification of the initiated proceeding and to give you the opportunity to participate in it. Due to the fact that you are staying outside the country, a photocopy of previously collected evidence will be sent to you upon reception of your correspondence address.

If you decide to check out from the permanent residence at the premises No. 1 at 9999 Pani Dulska Street in Poznan, please kindly complete the attached form "Notification of check out from permanent residence," and together with a brief cover letter and your mail address, send it to our Department by mail (referring to the case number xxxx).

We kindly explain that according to Article 15 of April 10, 1974 Act - regarding registry of the population and of identity cards (unified text: Gazette of 2006, No. 139, item. 993, with later amends) - paragraph 1 clearly specifies the responsibilities of the person who leaves the place of permanent or temporary residence for more than 3 months. It states: "A person who leaves the place of permanent or temporary residence for more than 3 months, is obliged to check out at the office of the municipality, not later than at the day of leaving." Paragraph 2 of Article 15 states that: "The office of the municipality shall grant the check out decision on request of a party or ex officio if a person left the place of permanent or temporary residence for more than 3 months and failed to check out."

If you have any doubts or questions, please contact this Office by phone or by e-mail. The case is handled by the specialist Hermenegilda Urzędas, Tel: 999 - 999-99-99

Sincerely yours
Hermenegilda Urzędas

I was laughing so much, but I finally obliged the Urząd - mostly because I did not want them to bother my daughter.

Very funny! Did you see all the pipes and bongs that narcotics agent had collected?