Confirmation of Polish Citizenship - how to obtain required documents?

I am a UK citizen applying for confirmation of Polish citizenship on the basis that my father, who is now deceased, was Polish. I have received today a letter asking for the following supplementary information:

1) a document confirming possession or non-possession of British citizenship by my father, issued by the relevant British authority.
2) a statement by the relevant authority as to whether he did military service.

I know for a fact that the answer to these questions is that he neither had citizenship nor did military service, but the question is which are relevant authorities that I should apply to to confirm this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

The first - I have no idea. I would ask the Polish Embassy for who normally issues such certificates.

The second - I suppose the MoD will be able to help. There's a website here about it - gov.uk/get-copy-military-service-records/overview

@delphiandomine
Thanks. I'll ring the MOD tomorrow and see if they can help. The problem with the record locating service, though, is that it doesn't confirm that someone didn't serve.

I've also found this
gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/261392/form_nq.pdf
which for £198 will confirm that someone didn't gain UK citizenship after 1986, which isn't going to help me much because my dad was born in 1921.

Perhaps the record locating service will at least confirm that there is no record of him serving there? But this is Polish bureaucracy we're talking about, which once refused to accept a document from me because they didn't agree with the sworn translation. In the end, the translation had to be made gramatically incorrect in English so that it would translate into Polish correctly (don't ask...).

I wouldn't be convinced that the PDF will be accepted by the Poles too - probably, the best thing to do is to contact the embassy and ask them specifically what they want and from who. However, they are notoriously useless :(

To be honest, I've been pleasantly surprised by the polish officials I've met so far, but perhaps that is because I'm dealing with the urząd wojewódzki in Gdańsk rather than an embassy. But I think you are right, asking exactly what they want before I spend a fortune with the Home Office and MOD is probably a sensible move.

Thanks for the help anyway.

Merged:

Polish citizenship confirmation - How can I obtain old passports?

One of the required documents for this is the passport my parents had used when leaving Poland to immigrate into the new country. That was 30 years ago and my mum doesn't have her's and I don't have contact with my dad. How can I obtain old passports? Thank you

It might be easier for you to obtain birth certificates or marriage certificate for this purpose. Your Mum may have other documents or if not perhaps someone in Poland might have some documents which prove her and your dad's nationality.

Hello @terri , thank you for responding.

My parents' birth and marriage certificates are already a requirement, I also have a more recent passport (now expired) but it states I need to prove my parents were polish citizens at the time of leaving.

Hi Ewa. I'm going through this process at the moment. The necessary and sufficient condition for you to confirm your citizenship is that one of your parents was Polish when you were born. What this means in practice is that a) they had it before you were born. b) they didn't lose it/renounce it at least until after you were born. a) is proven by the birth certificate. If the passport you have is dated after your birth, you will also have proof of b). Who is telling you that you need the passports they emigrated with?

Hello @Ziutek
I am getting this information from: forums.immigration.com/threads/polish-citizenship-polish-passport-through-polish-parents-ancestors.222605/
Thank you for your insight. How can I prove that my parents had a citizenship before my birth? Is there anywhere I can obtain old passports? My mum only has her last one which was issued after my birth.

That's quite a long list of required documents they've got there. However, the list on the website of the Polish Embassy is shorter:

london.mfa.gov.pl/en/consular_information/citizenship/confirmation and only mentions parents' passports as an example
of "other documents confirming Polish ancestry"

Your parents' birth certificates prove that they had citizenship before your birth. I don't know if countries keep records of passports issued.