Classifieds / Someone help me with the Polish visa appointment! [203]

Nobody can help you get an appointment. If anyone says they can help you, they are a thief and a fraud who will steal your money.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

Non-EU citizens are not allowed to enter Poland to seek employment. It is specifically forbidden for anyone on a tourist or visitors visa to seek employment during their stay. Just like in the US or Canada. Are you sure that Germany allows non-EU citizens to enter Germany to seek work? That does not sound right.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

@Braveheart16

I see. I was thrown by the word "run".

As far as the government is concerned, it doesn't matter how you learn Polish, or where you take lessons, or even if you take lessons at all. All they care about is the result of the actual proficiency test. Whether any private schools offer lessons specifically geared to the government exam, I don't know. There is nothing to stop them from doing so, or anyone else for that matter. I doubt that there are any "government approved" courses, though.

As far as I know, there is no "accreditation" for schools to teach language lessons preparing for the FCE or similar exams, either. Any school or individual can provide that service. Again, the testing authorities do not require any course to take the exam. They just perform the competency test. How you became competent is no concern of theirs.


There is a bit of a scam element to these tests. But the main element is to discourage people who are unwilling or unable to pass the exam to apply for citizenship. It is another hoop to jump through to weed out what they consider the non-serious applicants. The approximately 1000 PLN price tag is more designed to scare them off rather than make serious money for the government. It's not like Poland is inundated with applicants for citizenship.

The British tests are a bit more scammy, especially the FCE, which was marketed really hard in the early 2000s. There is no real value in examining students at that level. Certainly none that would justify the rather hefty price tag. I always discouraged anyone from wasting their time and money on these exams unless they were specifically required by an employer or academic institution, a situation that I never encountered. Neither of my students who went on to study at LSE and Kings were required to take any language exam beyond matura, and the same for my students who went to study in the States.

The bigger fleecing is done by the language schools, who prolong the learning process to maximize their profits. You could easily prepare someone to take the FCE in a year, but they stretch it out over four or five years by discouraging independent study and focusing solely on in-class time. Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg before it's time. I also discourage anyone from taking lessons at a private language school. Why pay big bucks for something you can do a lot better and faster for little cost on your own at home?

Life / Poland safe for a Greek? [93]


Not really. He is at greater risk in tourist areas because of pickpockets. Poles rarely go looking for trouble unless they are drunk.


I took one of my Polish students to Kraków for the weekend. We were in Nowy Targ, a small square off the main square, and there was a troupe of acrobats performing. My student was rather short, so he climbed up a lamp post to get a better view over the crowd of spectators. After a while, he jumped down and whispered to me, "I think I'm the only Polish person here".

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

@Dirk diggler

It's a hoax, silly boy.

News / Poland's economic future? [294]

At the bottom of the article you linked to is this update:

"Update:

According to a thorough investigation conducted by Moroccan news website Ledesk, the incident, which was widely reported by Moroccan and international media, turned out to be a hoax."

The article on Sweden also sounds like a hoax. The pictures are from the Daily Mail, and probably the rest of the story, too.

You need to be more judicious in your choice of news sources.

Life / Poland safe for a Greek? [93]

No, you won't have any problem. As long as you stay away from drunk people, you'll be fine. In Poland, trouble, especially physical violence, almost always comes from drunk people. I guess it's the same in Greece. Avoid them like the plague. A bigger problem is thieves and pickpockets, so be on your guard and keep your money and valuables in a safe place that is hard for them to get to. In short, behave like you would in a touristy area in Greece, and you'll be fine.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

@Braveheart16

That doesn't help the OP, who wanted to be able to use a certificate from a private language school instead of the one issued by the government.. The schedule for exams would still be the same. It's not like he can walk into any language school and take the exam when he wants. He has to take it on the dates dictated by the government, and under the watchful eye of a government examiner, not a school employee. And no, it is not possible, as you said, to find a school that is able to "run" the state exam. The school's role would be strictly limited to providing a physical space, and school employees would not be allowed to participate in the process.

I think your under the impression that private language schools are authorized to administer tests like the FCE, CPE or IELTS. They are not. They just provide the space, and the British Council arranges for their own certified examiners to administer the test. The same for tests in German or French. The examiners are not school employees.

Also, you have to take these exams on certain dates, two or four times a year or so, and not whenever you like. The school plays no role in the exam except for providing the physical space.

Law / Help regarding Poland's National 'D' Visa Appointment at Mumbai Consulate! [719]

@Nightrider

An appeal would be pointless. The consul was convinced that you are an economic refugee that just wants to enter Poland to stay in the EU forever. In an appeal, you would have to prove that he was wrong, and that's practically impossible.

Genealogy / Searching for Winskowski genealogy [6]

Also, there is a high probability that all living and recently living Winskowski's are direct descendants of Julius, and a good probability that he was the first person to use that surname with that spelling, which is almost certainly a Germanified spelling of the far more common Polish surname Więckowski.

If not, then there is an extremely high probability that they are direct descendants of Julius's father, and a high probability that he was the first to use that surname.

If not, then it is an extremely high probability that they are direct descendants of Julius's grandfather, and that he was the first to use that surname.

Also, some may have emigrated to Germany, especially after the war. There is a Henrik Winskowski that worked on the Russian rocket team after the war, and his nationality is listed as German on this site:

astronautix.com/w/winskowski.html

Chances are he was a grandson or grandnephew of Julius. Chances are that he was forcibly deported to Russia after the war to work on the rocket team, like so many others. Chances are also, unfortunately, high that he disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace, again, like so may others like him. There is a chance, however, that he might have been repatriated to Poland or East Germany, or that he might have settled in Russia.

Genealogy / Searching for Winskowski genealogy [6]


It's just a very, very rare surname, with only about two dozen people in Poland bearing that name. On the good side, it belongs to only a single family, so anyone with that surname is related to you within four or five generations at the most. Also, it almost certainly originated in a single concrete place near Ruda Ślaska in southern Poland. People with that surname still live there today, and finding the parish where records on the family are kept will be easy.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

@delphiandomine

What does your post have to do with anything I wrote?

What does your post have to do with anything I wrote? Or with anything the OP asked? Private language schools do not have the authority to issue state certificates, and never will be granted that authority. Any certificate issued by a private language school is completely worthless for this purpose. And no, there hasn't been, and never will be, any change in the law regarding this.

Whether private institutions can serve as testing centers is another matter entirely.

Law / Moving back to Poland - Healthcare [29]

Why don't they call or write the NFZ office in the town to which they will be living to get a definitive answer? Straight from the horse's mouth.

I don't know what you expect from this forum. You are obviously withholding important information and framing the question in a way so that you get the answer you want to hear, so any answer you get would be worthless. Your in-law's are obvious an exceptional case, so any general answer would not apply to them.

Classifieds / Moving to Krakow from London - Can anyone help to move my stuff? [5]

Post an ad for a man-with-a-van on your local advertising sites. Or browse the ads for men-with-vans and call around to see whether they are willing to haul to Poland.

Or you can rent a van and drive it yourselves. Call around for best rates.

Work / Sikh coming to Poland with over 14 years experience in Customer Service and running operations [30]

The OP is not a graduate of a Polish school. He's still in India and would need a work permit. Chances of him getting one for an entry level position are nil.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

It's still not going to happen. Private language schools do not have the authority to issue state certificates, and never will be granted that authority.

Work / What are job opportunities in Poland for a pharmacist from India? [16]

@pratik_pratik

Chances are absolutely zero of your wife finding work of any kind. There is no shortage of pharmacists in Poland. In fact, many Polish pharmacists go abroad to work because they can't find jobs at home. Likewise with pharmaceutical companies, any needs they have are more than adequately filled by native Poles and Ukrainians. There is no need to hire anyone from outside of the EU. The same for all other fields. Your wife has zero qualifications that are worth anything on the Polish job market, and does not speak the language (and it would take her YEARS just to learn the basics). No one would hire her for anything.

Make your plans on the very safe assumption that your wife will never be able to earn even a single penny in Poland. If your plans depend on her finding work, forget about it. It's not going to happen.

There is no point in her getting her qualifications recognized in Poland. That would be a total waste of time and money because no one would ever hire her.

Sorry, but there isn't even the slightest hint of hope here. When I said zero chance, I mean exactly zero. Not one in a million or one in a billion. Zero point zero zero...........

Real Estate / Inheritance law in Poland - My brother refuses to share profit from apartment sale [8]

Sounds like a question for an attorney, not for a bunch of anonymous bozos on some random internet forum. Don't forget: free advice is worth every penny you pay for it. In other words, nothing at all.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

That's not going to happen. The potential for fraud is far too high.

Work / Sikh coming to Poland with over 14 years experience in Customer Service and running operations [30]


And you have to have a well-thought-out, concrete plan of action that is firmly grounded in cold, hard reality, and a viable Plan B as well. Rose-tinted optimism is the second leading cause of failure among expats who come to Poland. Right behind "love".

Work / Sikh coming to Poland with over 14 years experience in Customer Service and running operations [30]


Then it will be hard for you to find any job. Job opportunities for Indians in Poland are very scarce indeed outside of the IT field. Unless you have some serious higher level qualifications and lots of experience in the quantitative aspects of high finance, you basically have no chance.


Poland is not the sort of country that treats sentimental people well at all. It has a way of chewing them up and spitting them out. Poland will slap you in the face with cold, hard reality. There is nothing romantic or sentimental about living in Poland. It's not for dreamers.

If you mean you want to be with some "girlfriend" that you met online, then grow up. Bull$hit like that is for silly teenagers, not for responsible adults. Take a cold shower.

Work / What is the average accounting/auditing salary in Poland? [42]


Indeed. You should ask yourself why, if you are more valuable to them in Warsaw, they want to pay you less, rather than more.

Law / Polish certificate exam level B1 and institution / few questions about the Polish language [39]

It's a state exam. A certificate from a private language school would be worthless.

Law / 'Karta Pobytu' & long-term visa [27]

No. You have to find a job BEFORE you come to Poland. You can get a karta pobytu only AFTER you come to Poland. There is no visa for Indians that allows them to come to Poland first and then look for a job. You have to have a job BEFORE you come.

Work / What is the average accounting/auditing salary in Poland? [42]

It's not the pay cut per say that will hurt you. The thing that is going to seal or sour the deal for you is the rise or drop in savings potential, or how much you can put away at the end of the month into your savings/retirement/kids' college fund or how much is available to pay of debts, including mortgage fees and college loans.

Since, at the moment, you do have any information about how much you can expect to earn, you will need to get that sorted out before you sit down and do the math to calculate your saving potential. Beware of anyone who tells you that the cost of living is very low in Warsaw, and remember that your cost of living will be substantially higher than that of a native Pole. You don't speak the language, you don't know the culture, and you don't have a network of family and friends.

Do the math, but my guess is that a 30% pay raise is going to have a negative impact on your bottom-line savings potential, in spite of the lower cost of living. But you are going to have to do the math yourself.

Work / Sikh coming to Poland with over 14 years experience in Customer Service and running operations [30]


Also bear in mind that any jobs of this sort would be snapped up by Ukrainians. The chances of an Indian or Pakistani landing an entry-level IT job in Poland are nil.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [400]

Joking around, you could say it derives from the Polish word "gofr", which means "waffle". If that were the case, you could say that it pertained to someone who made waffles or ate a lot of them, or was so pockmarked that his face looked like a waffle.

On a more serious note, though, it looks like an Austrian clerks attempt to write the Polish word "gawron", which is a type of raven-like bird called a "rook" in English.

When Poland was divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria in the late 1700s, most Poles did not have surnames and the occupying authorities made them choose one.

The surname almost certainly started in or near a town called Brzeszko in southeastern Poland, which was in the part occupied by Austria.

moikrewni.pl/mapa/kompletny/gofron.html

It is probable that the Austrian clerk charged with recording surnames spelt it this way in the official record, and the spelling stuck.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [400]

Then that spelling would be German, and not Polish. "I" cannot come after "D" in Polish. To determine what the original Polish name was, you would have to do some research.

Travel / Non-EU citizens coming to Poland for 2 weeks. Do they need tourist invitations? [10]

A non-permanent resident cannot get an official invitation for you.

Genealogy / What does my Polish name mean? [400]

That spelling is not possible in Polish. There are four possible names that could have give rise to it: Wodziński, Wodziński, Włodziński and Włodyński, the last two being rather rare. You will have to do some digging to figure out which was the correct original spelling.