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Posts by slee  

Joined: 24 Nov 2009 / Male ♂
Last Post: 24 Nov 2009
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From: USA, Florida
Speaks Polish?: no

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slee   
24 Nov 2009
USA, Canada / Renewal of Polish passport from the USA [44]

I thought I would provide info for those trying to renew their Polish passport. My wife living in FL had to fly to DC to visit the Polish consulate on Wyoming Ave to renew her passport. Hours of the office are 9-1 only. You are required to present the expired passport and to fill out an application in person. She ended up getting a temporary passport which lasts for a year and which they will send to you in the mail within one week. You are required to provide two approved photo's which you can obtain at a local photographer within walking distance of the consulate. The consulate will provide the name and address of this business. Photos are $28 and took ten minutes and the temporary passport costs $58 (cash only). This fee is broken out as $14 for the temporary passport and a filing fee. We went on a Monday morning at 9:00am and did not have to wait to be seen.

The reason she went with a temporary passport was because she wanted her new married name on her ten year passport and the marriage certificate apparently needs to be registered in Poland before the consulate will change the name on a passport. This process takes about three months and has a fee of $75 I believe. The consulate legal department staff will provide the necessary paperwork and help if you need it. The temporary passport provides the time necessary to get all this done before reapplying for the full ten year document. The marriage certificate we showed them did not apparently have enough detail on it and we were advised to also attach copies of both husband and wife's birth certificates to make sure the Polish registrar has all the necessary details.

The current price of the full ten year passport is $114.00 (cash only). You may also have to pay the filing fee as documented in paragraph one above. If ordering both temporary and full term you only pay the filing fee once. We could have applied for both the temporary and full ten year at the same time if we had wanted but again we needed to deal with the married name. The full term ten year passport takes a couple of months to get. You will have finger prints taken at the consulate is choosing the ten year passport but not with the one year.

She did not need any other documents including birth certificate, visas, or proof of residency in order to apply.
I hope this is helpful as there is a lot of misinformation on the web.