Living in Poland since 2010 and I still don't have ID. Advice needed please.

Hi I been living in Poland since aug 2010 and still no I.D,every time we are stone walled by the main office in Rzeszow we live in nowy zmigrod were we own our house now for 7 years it took 18 months to buy it with no end of legal problems.My wife's father is a polish war hero the family were taken by the russians into siberia.The russians burnt down his farm with all his papers then after the war it was part of russia so he had to live in england(read the link) oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=359&t=7371 and see if you think he is polish. Our friends the polish judge for Krosno and the police commandant have tried and still no luck all down to the wife,s fathers ID ( he has english passport) so what do we do now Britain says i don't live there and Poland says not here !!!!

Start by writing what is your and your wife nationality. If she's British, then she has British passport. No need for Polish ID as long as GB is in EU. Foreigners who want to get Polish ID should WORK in Poland for over 5 years, not just own a house.

Sorry both have british passports, but to buy or own a car you need polish id card and for a mobile phone on contract,

No, you don't.

You need to have a certificate of residency, issued by the relevant Foreigners Office in Rzeszow and a valid zameldowanie issued by the local Urzad Miasta.

Like Delph said, all you need is a residency card (karta pobytu). Go to the Wydiał Spraw Obywatelskich i Cudzoziemćów at the Urząd Wojewódzki in Rzeszów, and they will give you a list of the paperwork you will need. You'll also need photos in the format that they want.

Polish ID cards are given only to Polish citizens. Non-citizens get a residency card, which is valid for all purposes. There is no point in becoming a Polish citizen if you are already a citizen of an EU country.

Done that will not issue zameldowanie or certificate of residency even took police commandant if you have a polish parent you first have to prove that he is polish that is the problem when they moved the border after ww2 all papers were lost,when you are forced to leave your house at gun point no chance to pick anything up !!

ok but that is not really the point here, harleybrit.

as an EU citizen you are entitled to a residency card.

No. You do not need either. You just need o register as Dominic B says.

BTW, if you own your home, you have no problem getting a zameldowanie.

Polish (or any other) parentage is an irrelevance. Your UK passport is the most important.

Dubious to the extreme. It is really easy to zameldować się. If there are problems zamelding at your own residence (which I highly doubt would be the case if you have clear title to the property), you can always zameld at the address of a friend who owns a house or apartment. You just need the owner's signature and a copy of their their wydruk z księgi wieczystej. Piece of cake.

Highly unlikely that the wojewoda is going to decline your request for residency. The only exception that I can think of is that you don't have a clean criminal record. More like is the fact that you are missing key paperwork (like the zameldowanie).

As I said, go to the Wydział Spraw Obywatelskich is Cudzoziemców, ask them exactly what papers you need (they usually give you a list), get the papers, fill out the application, and submit it with photos and the required fee, and voila!

The Police department has nothing to do with this process at all, except perhaps issuing a certificate that you have no criminal record in Poland. You meet with the dzielnicowy, and pick up the certificate a few days later where they tell you to.

You will also probably have to provide proof that you can support yourself while in Poland (they'll tell you how to do this), and proof of health insurance coverage.

They can't if you're from the UK


Even if you're Jack the Ripper they can't.

You most certainly don't; I have have both a car and a mobile on contract, I do not have Polish ID.

This whole thing doesn't add up. If they're British Citizens, what would their parentage have to do with anything? We're all in the EU now and Polish ancestry doesn't make one whit of difference - in fact most British people who register as resident and get the ID card don't have an ancestral connection. Many have stronger connections than ancestry (like living, marrying and working there for a long time) but equally many just turn up and register.

I'll take your word for that.


Apparently, they are trying to get Polish citizenship. Why, God only knows. There is nothing a Polish citizen can do that a resident foreigner can, except vote in national elections.

The only grounds for chucking out an EU citizen are that he is a clear and present threat to the national security of and/or public order within Poland (and the burden of proof is on Poland).

That would, as ever, be sensible.

Even a conviction for a serious crime while in PL isn't enough.


This suggests terrorism or politics and I've never heard of it being used.


Exactly. I wonder if they understand that you can live anywhere in the EU, The way the guy writes in English suggests he may be foreign though or not especially confident with paperwork.

They can, actually - there is a very little used clause within EU law that allows them to reject an application based on a danger to the public. I seem to recall that the Roma deported from France were deported using that provision.

But actually - maybe he isn't explaining himself properly. If he has a Polish father, then perhaps there's a problem in that the Polish authorities won't issue residency documents to someone perceived as a Polish citizen?

The problem is her father is polish by birth but we can not prove this,they want to give my wife the polish id card and not zameldowanie but without her fathers papers its a catch 22

Why do they want to give her polish id? How did they learn that her father is Polish?

Sorry but this just doesn't ring true. I appreciate there's a problem and it's a source of stress for you, but from your posts, something doesn't sound right.

Firstly. A zameldowanie is nothing to do with nationality or citizenship. If you have the deeds (Akt Notarialny) to your home, you just go to the office and get it. I don't think they can refuse. Even if you're a Martian.

Secondly. They may well want to give your wife a Polish ID card (dowod osobisty) but there's no reason why you should go along with this - your wife and yourself (if you're an EU citizen) are entitled to the normal cards for residency. Are you sure you've gone to the right office? You need to get this from the:


Neither of these things has anything to do with what nationality someone's father was. I think they are messing you about. Are you doing this in a small town by any chance?

When did he take British citizenship? If he took it before 1962, he lost his Polish citizenship and thus couldn't have passed it on to your wife (if she was born after he took British citizenship). It's also possible that he lost his Polish citizenship as a result of the 1951 Polish Citizenship Act.

My wife was born in 1956

This is odd too.

By the way, you do realise don't you that you need to do the paperwork at: rzeszow.uw.gov.pl/urzad-wojewodzki/wydzialy-puw/wydzial-sp raw-obywatelskich-i-cudzoziemcow.html (if you're in Krosno in Podkarpackie)

You don't say which Krosno - I listed the office for the biggest one.

No, I think this is actually the problem - remember the law that requires you to use Polish documents to identify yourself to the Poles if you can be claimed as such? As I recall, it's your obligation to prove that you aren't entitled to it rather than the other way round. They won't accept a foreign identity document - they'll demand that she gets a Polish ID.

The simple answer to this is to find out when he obtained British citizenship and go from there.

Yes, what used to be called the 'passport trap'.
The thing that makes me say 'Hmm' is why would they refuse to give a British citizen a 'confirmation of right to reside' (zaswiadczenie o zarejestrowaniu obywatela unii europejskiej if I remember rightly) just because his wife might or might not be a Polish citizen? Regardless of whether she is Polish or not, he clearly isn't Polish and his right to reside in Poland is in no way based on his wife's citizenship.

That part is dodgy, I agree - why would they know or care about who he's married to?

I suspect he hasn't even tried to obtain it - either that, or he's not entitled to it.

Because her father was not allowed to return to poland as he was in the 1st polish paratrooper brigade he was made a British citizen in 1949 but passport says born in poland, for the second question yes i have tried but the local office will not even give me a interview. The town we live in is nowy zmigrod 17 km from krosno even the mayor has phoned Rzeszów on our behalf and no joy as you say its the pessel we are after. We bought the house when poland joined the e.u and we had to go to warsaw to prove that her father was polish and took 18 months to buy.Yet he was awarded the Polish www2 medals in 2009 in London

There is no interview for EU citizens except the police coming to check that you live at the address you give. The fact you're talking about an interview tells us that you aren't an EU citizen - why have you kept that quiet?

It wouldn't even be legal to interview EU citizens - as others have told you, if you are an EU citizen, your wife has nothing to do with your residency status.

Doesn't matter: he lost his Polish citizenship under the then binding Polish law, specifically Article 11 of the Act on Polish citizenship dated January 20, 1920, Dziennik Ustaw - rok 1920, nr 7, poz. 44 (Journal of Laws, 1920 year, No 7, item 44):


cklawoffice/polish-citizenship-law.html#1


a) There is no interview involved, it can all be done by post if you want it to be.
b) They don't actually get to make any decisions on this: as an EU citizen you have the right to reside in Poland (unless you are a clear and present threat to the national security of or public order in Poland).

I'd suggest you write to the relevant office and ask them to specify the legal basis on which they refuse to issue you with confirmation of your right to reside in Poland.

From the looks of things, he's being refused because as an non-EU citizen, he has to apply on the basis of being married to an EU citizen. The EU citizen in this question is potentially Polish, therefore they won't issue him a karta pobytu unless he applies using her Polish ID.

Absolutely no other explanation for this situation, unless of course, his application was rejected for not having health insurance/stable employment/etc.

There's certainly something fishy here - the whole thing doesn't add up at all.


This is a total irrelevance. An EU citizen can buy a house without any of that stuff. My other half bought some land this year (in the same Powiat as the OP) without being an EU citizen and not having a Polish passport for similar reasons to those the OP mentions about his wife.

None of this is remotely relevant. Thousands of people are in that situation and ability to sort out paperwork has nothing to do with one's parents' life history.


This is very likely as is the possibility/probability we/they are not getting the whole story. Either the OP isn't mentioning something, or some local characters are taking advantage of their naivete and are holding out for the usual.