Work / Job opportunities for experienced US Civil Engineer in Poland - any hope? [30]

That's my point Grzegorz. But on the other hand Jardinero writes "not to mention lower costs associated with raising children in the long run, which virtually is what ruins us here." So he really believes that it can be cheaper to rise children in Poland.

That's only true when he earns here American wages, as DominibB writes.

Work / average age of starting undergraduate studies in poland? [9]

There are graduate studies for people with bachelor or master, called "studia podyplomowe", but it's usually similar specialty and don't give another BSc or MSc diploma. Also some worse schools offer master studies for people with not necessarily the same specialty bachelor.

Work / Job opportunities for experienced US Civil Engineer in Poland - any hope? [30]

"we would need a net monthly income of 10k PLN", "we really have modest and reasonable expectations"

98% of people in Poland earn less than 4711PLN net

Study / Gdansk / Tricity; university - information [30]

As far as I know when university doesn't have special agreement with other university, then it's hard to transfer credit. Especially when it's uni from out of EU. Some professors may be so kind to let you not attend classes and copy mark from your previous course.

USA, Canada / General differences between Poland and the USA? [184]

Poland:
consume 77.47% less oil
use 73.07% less electricity
make 61.42% less money
spend 86.32% less money on health care
have 27.4% less babies
experience 22.44% less of a class divide
die 2.39 years sooner
have 8.47% more chance of dying in infancy
be 83.33% less likely to have HIV/AIDS
work 7.96% more hours each year
have 4.3% more chance at being employed

ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/PL

Consumer Prices in United States are 48.75% higher than in Poland
Consumer Prices Including Rent in United States are 59.51% higher than in Poland
Rent Prices in United States are 91.91% higher than in Poland
Restaurant Prices in United States are 60.23% higher than in Poland
Groceries Prices in United States are 79.89% higher than in Poland
Local Purchasing Power in United States is 151.57% higher than in Poland

numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=Poland&country2=United+States

is it a joke ?

Work / Krakow: possible job offer: 6.500 PLN [20]

With 4500 net you are in 3% richest people living in Poland. It's enough, but maybe you will have to lower standard of restaurants, pubs and apartment to live as you described.

Australia / Quick money transfer to australia? [6]

paypal works everywhere

Work / Job in Poland Bydgoszcz - Is there an Indian community here? [26]

similar topic:

https://polishforums.com/life/poland-new-bydgoszcz-cost-living-65488/

Your husband should get dependent visa, but I am not sure how fast is the process. I think that you apply for depended visa personally and not through the company employing you.

Unemployment in Bydgoszcz is ~10% It's less than over 14% for the whole country, but it's not very low.
If he's not IT professional like you then chances of finding job without speaking polish are very low and even if he finds something then shouldn't expect higher pay then minimum 1180 PLN net.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

You can use service like walutomat.pl to exchange your currencies. SEPA transfer fee is up to bank. Maybe they don't pay for it, but their clients can. Many banks in Europe charge for that.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

" as it charges for domestic credit transfers in euros" - they are also charging people for domestic EUR transfers and it's according to the law.

In the past banks kept high spreads for EUR and CHF to PLN, because they were used to pay back mortgages taken in EUR of CHF. Since few years law was changed that they must accept EUR and CHF directly, so many people started using online kantory and spreads went little down, but maybe they're still high for those people who are too lazy to do that. Just use kantory like everybody and accept premium fee when you don't have time to do that.

Work / average age of starting undergraduate studies in poland? [9]

No it's not too late to start new studies, but I was explaining faster options as you've asked. You forgot to mention what do you want to study. Yes in Poland you can study daily, on weekends and during evenings. And that's also order of popularity of studying forms. Doesn't matter how you did your bachelor, you can do master as long as marks were good. If you are from out of EU mind that only daily students get Visa. (correct me somebody if I am wrong here)

Australia / Quick money transfer to australia? [6]

you create 2 paypal account on your name: 1 in Poland , 1 in Australia. Transfer between them is free. Money withdrawal too.

Work / Krakow: possible job offer: 6.500 PLN [20]

You can see prices of food in polish tesco online (not big choice available online):

tesco.pl/produkty/mieso-i-drob
tesco.pl/produkty/ryby

use google translate to read in english.
ZUS is tax. It's for unemployment benefits or retirement etc.

USA, Canada / General differences between Poland and the USA? [184]

then the most important is that Poland is poorer, so infrastructure and houses are not so good quality, people go less to restaurants. 2nd most important difference is the same as USA vs Europe. Poland as European country has more expensive gasoline, less people commute to work by car and more people use public transport in the cities. Cities are designed for pedestrian not for cars. 3rd most important is that people are more closed. We don't speak to strangers, we don't say "How are you" every time we see acquaintance. But when you become part of group then we are honest in sense that we say what we think and don't keep political correctness. We also tend to complain about stuff for entertainment. 4th would be less foreigners and more homogenous race in Poland. We don't have many people from Africa or southern America. 5th would be lower tolerance of especially older people. ( don't tolerate different people, not Catholics, not straight )

I don't see any other important differences, but there must be some

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

SEPA eur:
BZWBK: 5PLN both in and out.
Alrior Bank: 5PLN out 0PLN in.

USA, Canada / Sea freight to US from Poland [7]

Maybe there is no company shipping packages from Poland to USA in real ship. In this topic they also couldn't find any way:
forum.usa.info.pl/topic/17993-paczka-z-polski-do-usa

You can try from Germany if you live not far from the border.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

but it's pre SEPA time list.

History / What do Polish people think about Greeks ? [18]

In 2004 we thought that you are one of rich western countries (maybe not rich as Germany, but still way above us) with nice weather superb sea and ancient monuments. Substantial number of Pols even illegally emigrated there. We didn't know much about people.

After 2008 we know that you're shouting, demonstrating, lazy southerns who are having big economic problems and high unemployment thanks to your tax chiting, but still you must be better well off than Poles, because you have nice weather and those who work still do have nominally much higher salaries than we here. Also since 2004 many Poles got reach enough to have vacation there, so most of people know somebody who visited Athens and learned that ancient monuments are in reality just ruins.

We have nothing against you. You are Christian, cradle of European civilization, have never invaded us, so Greeks in Poland are welcomed.

History / What do Polish people think about Greeks ? [18]

"You do know of the existence of the Greek Communist minority in Poland, especially near Zgorzelec and Kroscienko?"

Nobody knows that. Some people have heard that some Greeks escaped to Poland from Hunta in communistic times but it's not advertised that anybody except of singer Eleni has stayed here until now. Ok maybe people next to Zgorzelec know about it, but not in the north.

History / What do Polish people think about Greeks ? [18]

Polish is considered one of the hardest languages to learn. At least to learn conjugation of verbs is pain in ass, because it's mostly plain memorizing. But it's not necessary to conjugate properly in order to be understood and without it, it is same difficult as any other language. Good thing for you is that Greeks can learn perfect pronunciation of polish words. I mean they don't have problems properly pronouncing polish cz ź sz ć and other after a little bit of exercise.

Study / For a student in Poland - how do they do internship? [26]

If you're not in Poland then how Polish people do internship is not the same as you can do. Only option to try luck through AIESEC. If you were from EU you would know that there are no jobs in Poland.

USA, Canada / Sea freight to US from Poland [7]

No they write that it costs much more than 700USD, because up to 4 pallets majority of costs is fixed. And it's just analysis, not the company doing actual transport service.

Law / Foreign currency accounts in Poland [49]

"I dont see the point u are trying to make." The point is that the list only shows non SEPA money transfers which are much more expensive than SEPA.

Life / Drink driving a bike and losing your driving license in Poland [27]

few months ago, before the law has changed he could go to prison for that. seriously many prisoners in Poland were sentenced because of this reason.

USA, Canada / General differences between Poland and the USA? [184]

Studies here are free in Polish for EU citizens in public schools. Courses in English are mostly not free.
Prices of studies in private schools usually differers for EU citizens and not.
They range from 1000 to 15000 eur per year. Average is around 2000 probably. above 10000 costs only medical studies.
Here some example:
eng.vistula.edu.pl/Admissions/Bachelor-s-Degree-Programs/Tuition-and-scholarships

Polonia / Polish people in Greece [2]

Poles mostly left Greece, because there is no Job for them. Even the biggest Polish - Greek forum stopped to exist few years ago. But you can try your chance here:

facebook.com/groups/404202302934115/ (Facebook group "POLACY W GRECJI")

forum.gazeta.pl/forum/f,37196,Grecja_i_wyspy_greckie.html?t=1368054130940 (Polish forum about Greece)

couchsurfing.org (maybe there are some couchsurfers in Thessaloniki speaking in Polish or you can host Polish tourists)

In Catholic church in Thessaloníki you will see probably only older people with they small children perhaps.

Study / How hard is it to get accepted to Wroclaw University of Technology? / Unis in general? [37]

@Grzegorz For some employers in the world it's also important from which country somebody graduated. For example Ukraine is famous for corrupted Professors, so many people out of Ukraine would not care that someone graduated best University there, knowing that he could simply buy his way through, and would prefer 2nd league British university graduate. And somehow Ukraine doesn't have any top 300 university. Also most of top 100 world universities are the best in their country. And people know them.

USA, Canada / General differences between Poland and the USA? [184]

In USA prices usually cover food and accommodation? Here not. You should expect so pend from 1000zł in smaller city to 2000zł in biggest for all basic needs ( accommodation, food, transport, cheap beer in pub ).

In Europe we have en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Credit_Transfer_and_Accumulation_System and there is 60 points per year to gain. University gives you list how many points you need to have each year to pass to next one. The list shows also value of each class. If you don't gain enough than you have to ask the dean for repeating last year (although you don't repeat classes which you passed). In my public politechnika there was only 1 free course to repeat per whole bachelor. For the rest you had to pay according to price per hour. (if course had more hours then it was more expensive). But it could change now and could vary from school to school.

If you've ever had Polish passport, then technically you are citizen, so you can look at lower prices for EU/Polish citizens. Another difference Poland vs America is that here public universities are better than private. Are you planing to study in Polish or English? There is bigger choice of courses in Polish and many English courses in public schools are lower quality as in Polish (easier to pass).

or maybe you're only asking theoretically and not planning to move here ?

USA, Canada / General differences between Poland and the USA? [184]

I don't know if Europe has more credit frauds. We use debit/credit cards here, but there are places where cards are not accepted: small convenient stores when shopping for less than 10zł, bazaar, small hairdresser, bus driver.

Universities and polytechnics do have dorms, but nobody is forced to live there. Actually in biggest cities it's hard to get place in one, because they have cheaper prices than free market rooms. When there is less space than applicants, then priority is given for students who are poor and have farther to home.

I don't know if it's possible to transfer your credits, because America doesn't have European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System.

Application deadline for new year will be soon. For example Jagielloński has earlier deadline for students in English:
( 13th of May )


rekrutacja.uj.edu.pl/start?p_p_id=56_INSTANCE_1c3Nc8bwnKc0&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-3&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&groupId=1458734&articleId=19193780

For polish students it will until end of September I think.
And new ranking if you are interested: static.presspublica.pl/red/rp/pdf/kraj/ranking/Ranking-Uczelni-Akademickich-2013.pdf

USA, Canada / General differences between Poland and the USA? [184]

@Meathead: according to Eurostat Germany has 6% and Poland 10% unemployment. 14% is according to Polish measuring system which not comparable with German. For comparisons use Eurostat data.

To answer question, there is always space for good business. In Poland knowledge of Polish language is required to work, except of IT maybe. And university degree in Poland has lower value than in USA, because close to 50% people are studying, so to get graduate job it must be wanted specialty. On one side we have more graduates than European average and on the other less advanced economy, so less jobs for specialists.