Help Renouncing UK Citizenship and gaining Polish one

Hey everyone, first time poster and in need of help, I've tried to find an answer to my question on other threads similar to this but to no avail.

So here goes...

My dziadek was born in Lomza in 1923 and moved to England in 1946-47 as a displaced person. He married and settled in England and RENOUNCED HIS CITIZENSHIP.

I am now looking to move to Poland, (England has gone to the dogs) and I want to renounce my British citizenship, however due to the fact that my dziadek renounced his citizenship I am worried that I won't be able to gain a Polish passport. I know that I can gain one after living and working in Poland for 5 years but I'd rather have one sooner rather than later.

So, does his renouncement of Polish citizenship effectively end my ability to gain a Polish passport relatively easily. I still have a large family still residing in Poland.

Any input is welcome.

Dziekuje :)

You can not get a Polish passport: if your father (or mother) was not a Polish citizen at the time of your birth, you are not Polish. You will have to naturalise.

Although with that said, why would you want to renounce your British citizenship? You can get Polish citizenship without renouncing your British citizenship and it is impossible to have too many citizenships.

I may be getting my wires crossed here then, are citizenship/passport the same thing? As I didn't believe that it was possible to have dual nationality.

I thought being Polish by blood stood me in good stead, apparently not :(

I believe that in most cases, in order to have your citizenship revoked you have to officially apply for it. I was told that 99% (?) of aplications for having your Polish citizenship stripped are denied. I don't know what disadvantages Polish citizenship has, when you're not in Poland. I know American expats give up their US citizenship so they don't have to pay US taxes.

With my dziadek all he did was go to the Polish consulate and did some bits and bats and sure as eggs are eggs he gave up his citizenship.

God knows why.

If you plan to travel in the future, Polish citizens have more restrictions placed on them compared to British citizens. Its even difficult to get a holiday visa for the US, if you are Polish.

Maybe go down the dual-citizenship route? I wouldnt burn my bridges with the UK, if I was you.

Yes they are.


Different countries have different rules. Poland and the UK both allow dual nationality.


No it doesn't.

Not quite true as if you have a US passport but live in a different country the first $84,000 (or is it 89?) is tax free. Also, you don't have to be US citizen to be required to pay taxes in the US. Same applies to permanent residents (green card holders). So I doubt anyone would give up his/her US passport to avoid taxes. There are much easier ways to do it - move to another country and start paying taxes there. Notify the IRS of the aforementioned - done.


Probably because that's how things were done in the past. You could only have one citizenship (passport) and if you didn't many jobs weren't available to you (military, post office, government contracts, etc., etc.). I'd say what he did was logical and what most people did then and still do. You should always hold citizenship in the country you intend to live in for the long term. That way you can fully participate in the society.

Don't make any rush judgments - you can live in Poland as British citizen too. It's quite possible that a few years down the road your Polish grand children will be posting messages on the 3-D super-Internet asking why the hell their grandfather gave up his British passport and what do they need to do to get it back??? ;)

Apparently there was a nasty little ploy a few years ago for Polish citizens leaving Poland. When Poles who'd declared new nationality came to visit Poland they suddenly found they were not recognised as ex-Poles by the Polish government and still had to pay the tax.

Radek Sikorski was instrumental in it, according to wikipedia (so it must be true!):

During the latter appointment, Sikorski became notorious in the Polish expatriate community, Polonia, for designing and promoting a particularly strict policy regarding Polonia's citizenship status in Poland.[3][4] As a result of that policy, Poland refused to recognize the acquired citizenships of Polish emigrants, including hundreds of thousands of recent refugees from Communism and their children, and insisted that they be subject to all obligations of Polish citizenship, while at the same time making it impossible to renounce such citizenship because of an extremely cumbersome administrative procedure.

I remember one case where the police in Gdynia arrested a US navy sailor while several American boats were docked there and attempted to charge him with draft dodging! Apparently the guy had left Poland when six months old and the office monkeys here had never bothered to remove him from their records.

Really? I'm pretty sure IRS wants their taxes regardless where you are. They have a new law, that even if you succesfully give up the US citizenship, you still are subject to taxation for next 10 years. And with the new banking rules related to Patriot act, they will find the money.

Disclaimer: I have no money, just a general interest in the subject.

I'm confused. You want to needlessly give up British citizenship (something VERY useful) in favour of Polish citizenship (not so useful) so that you can move to Poland and live there, which you can already do due to your EU citizenship?

Matowy

Yes, I didn't think I was able to hold dual nationality so I wanted to have a Polish passport.

Now I know that I can have both, I'll have both.

Problem solved, happy days :)

Absolute nonsense, isn't it?

Mind you, I suspect the Polish would do more for their citizens these days than the British. The British have run down their foreign consulate service to the point where they're all but useless to ordinary citizens.

This was my line of thinking tbh. I didn't want to be treated like a second class citizen, (or feel as though I was)

Yeah right. If you gave up your citizenship then the previous country has zero legal standing to tax you. A lawyer would have a field day with that and it sounds like someone trying to stir up anti American sentiment more than anything.

The "new" law isn't really new, it's been renewed and many countries have it - It's not about you paying US taxes for 10 more years - that's nonsense - it's about them bring able to keep your records for 10 years after you move - they're desperately trying to fight tax evasion, that's all.

...but to answer you question, yes, really. For example until recently Fedex pilots had an option to be "based" in Subic Bay (Manila), Philippines (the domicile just closed and moved to Hong Kong instead). Anyways, each and everyone of them claimed the overseas living exemption. The article is a few years old, I think it's $86,000 now?

Also, there are some other ways. I know of several United pilots who fly out if Dulles, VA but live and pay taxes in Sweden. All legal and with IRS's approval - their wives are Swedish, have extended families and they all chose to live in Sweden. I talked to one of them who said his taxes are much higher now, his commute to work is looong but his wife won't budge (she especially hates Virgina/Washington, DC area - can't blame her there... He said he'll keep commuting for a few more years but then it's "his" turn to decide where they'll live. Yeah, right... ;)

businesstaxrecovery.com/foreign_income_tax_exemption

Thanks! Good to know - up to 86K one will not be double taxed!
Would you know if there is any such grace for money made from foreign investments?

I don't understand why u want to give up your English citizenship considering that England/UK is part of the EU, and you can work in Poland?. Also if you speak Polish well then that is good.

Tbh I had an idea of how hard it was to get a Polish passport, if I had children I would want them to have a Polish passport as the British government will hand passport to any Tom, Dick or Harry.

I want to have both to be honest but up until now I wasn't aware that I was able to.

Hi,

You wrote about giving up Polish Citizenship 'God knows why'.

Two possible reasons, my father, an ex-army officer became naturalised British in 1967 and gave up his Polish nationality so that he could visit his relatives in Poland. Without renouncing his Polish nationality he would have been imprisoned by the Communists.

I was born in Britain and had dual nationality. I gave up my Polish nationality in 1969 so that I could visit Poland. If I hadn't, I could have been called up for two years National Service when I arrived in Poland.

Richard.

Dear SzenkUK88,
I am pleased to hear that you wish to confirm your status as a Polish citizen. I was born a British citizen in the UK. Both my parents were Polish and British nationals.

Recently, I obtained confirmation of Polish citizenship and obtained a Polish passport.
Renouncement of Polish citiznship is relatively difficult and can only be granted with the sole permission of the President of Poland. It would seem unlikely that your grandfather had officially renounced his citizenship.

To start the process of checking your claim of Polish Nationality you need to get as many documents of your grandfather. For example: Passport, birth certificate, baptismal certificate (The church authorities can obtain duplicates), polish army documents etc. (Don't forget your own documents ie., birth cirtificate, British Passport) You then get these documents translated by a person approved by the Polish embassy. (Cost me £25). With these documents, visit the Polish Embassy. They should give you an answer fairly soon (1 month in my case).

To renounce your British nationality you must prove you have another nationality (Polish in your case). The process is fairly simple and costs about £200. Be warned, once you've done that, it's extreemly difficult to reverse the process.

Why renounce British Nationality? I'm proud to be a Polish and British national.
Both my parents fought against the NAZIS in WW2. Citizens of the two countries respect that.

pokusinski

Merged: Getting Polish citizenship

I'm a UK citizen. I'm probably moving to Poland next year. I think I can get EU funds to start a business there .

I want to get Polish citizenship in case the UK exits the EU. I understand it only takes 3 years.
I would be grateful to anyone who has been through the process who can give me some advice.

What is you nationality?