Does having a Polish Father qualify for dual citizenship? He came from Poland to the UK in 1948

I have a Polish father who came to the UK in 1948 after the war. He married my mother and has worked and lived the ever since. He took out British citizenship in 1960 so he could return to Poland to visit his family. Now due to the issues regarding Brexit I was wondering if I could apply for dual citizenship as my father was born in Poland.

Joe

If he came as a refugee or served in the British army then yes you should be able to confirm your citizenship through your father.

From what I know an act of parliament automatically granted citizenship to Poles exiled after the war. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Resettlement_Act_1947

If your father served in the Polish/British army under General Anders you will get fast tracked.

It sounds like he renounced his Polish citizenship in 1960. Were you born before or after that? If before, then you have Polish citizenship

Yeah thats what worried me a bit, my father never applied for a British passport , When I applied for confirmation of citizenship I had to get a letter about his status from the British border force, they had no record of him so no problem for me.

Did you get your citizenship confirmed before Tusk's 2009 law went into effect?
I am aware of cases where documents from the country of residence stating "no record found" were not considered conclusive that another citizenship was not obtained, and even a presumption that a person must have become stateless somehow. It can be quite strange.

No After

Dads Army service and medal documentation was enough for them. I was asked by the lawyer handling my case to get a few bits and pieces from border force just to add a little weight to the case.

With regard to the OP, unless his father received permission from Plish authorities to renounce his citizenship, he remained a citizen under the 1951 law.

I guess that the big question here, something the OP needs to look into.

Thanks for all the replies. My father did not serve in the army. He was taken to Germany at the age of 16 by the Germans as forced labour and was in Germany when the war ended. He came to the UK and was in a transit camp due to go to the USA but decided to stay in the UK. This was about 1948. He married my mother in 1950 and I was born in 1951. He returned to Poland to visit his family in 1964 and thats when he took out British Citizenship as it was thought it was the safest thing to do due to the political situation at the time.

I have his certificate of Naturalisation which is dated 11th October 1963.
How do I apply for citizen ship? Are there forms I can download or do I need to go to the Polish Embassy?

Forms are available online:
mazowieckie.pl/en/for-foreigners-1/citizenship/confirmation-of-posses/332,Forms-and-official-letter-templates.html
The process is quite complicated, and subject to human error, and the laws have changed through the years. I highly recommend hiring an attorney in Poland who is familiar with the process. In the event that the initial decision is not favorable, the time for appeal is only 14 days.

Thanks for your reply. Would it be advisable to hire a Polish attorney now or if the application is rejected?

I highly recommend hiring an attorney now. The administrator processing the petition can summon you to attend a hearing demanding proof of certain things, and the attorney is better able to request a continuance, or make other objections, etc. Native born Poles dread dealing with the bureaucrats, and they can be far more problematic for those not accustomed to their byzantine ways.

Thanks for your reply. I will make inquiries.

You will need your birth certificate, and an exemplary copy of your parents' marriage record from a court. They will also want your father's naturalisation certificate. All of these will need apostilles, then they will need to be translated by an official Plish translator. They all charge by the word according to statute, and it isn't cheap. Good luck!

The most important document to get is your fathers birth certificate. When he was born in Poland he would have been registered. You need to obtain a copy of his birth certificate from the Urzad Stanu Cywilnego in the area. This document will prove that he was a Polish citizen at the time of birth and you are therefore entitled to Polish citizenship through your father. The question of your father becoming a British subject due to naturalization has nothing to do with it as he at that time would have simply become a dual citizenship, unless he renounced his Polish citizenship which is highly unlikely. Whether he had a British passport or not does not come into it. As long as he can prove his Polish nationality/citizenship that is what really matters. If he has any other papers from the time of war or after the war where his nationality is stated it will all help. Also any documents from the church (christening certificates), school certificates anything which proved that he lived in Poland as a Polish citizen.

You will need Polish documents in Polish (birth certificate) and British documents (your birth certificate, your parents marriage certificate) translated by a sworn translator. I have just had a marriage document translated and the price was 200 pln, so you have to factor all costs.. This process will cost you money and will probably take 9 months which will include document gathering, translation, completing all forms, submitting any other documents they may need.

You do not need to hire a lawyer or anyone else. This is a simple process, you are either entitled through your father or you are not. Your father was born in Poland from Polish parents and you are his son so the line of parentage is there. You will be able to complete the forms yourself as they are also in English. You need to get the right forms. Get advice from the Consulate. You should have no problems, but it will take some time.

Well, he should have been registered. That doesn't mean that he was, or that the records survived the war. Many records were destroyed from the wars. There is an entire church archive that the Soviets grabbed twice, which has been pieced back together. Yes, it is important to find the family records somewhere in Poland, but he may need more than just his birth record. He may also need his grandfather's records due to the presumptions of the present law, and because he left before he turned 21. The application form does inquire about the grandparents as well.


No, in cases like this it frequently isn't simple. The process under the 2009 law presumes that even if he had been born a citizen, that he somehow must have lost it. In this case the OP's father was removed from his native country by the Nazis, and therefore he became a displaced person who had no Plish passport. There is a recent post on this topic stating that Nazis records of such deportations aren't accepted as proof of citizenship. The fact that he returned with a British passport may mean that the Polish government had no record of him. The process can require the petitioner to appear and present evidence proving holes that the administrator finds with the claim. Continuances are permitted to search for more documentation of the claim, and appeals are permitted as well. The recent poster who had a similar situtation won on appeal when additional documents were found in an archive of a brief return after the war. There are also the constitutional challenges as well since a person was either born a citizen, or not, under previous applicable law at birth regardless if he/she had applied for a passport before the 2009 law. Under the constitution, a person cannot be stripped of citizenship. The 2009 law, (which is really about recognising the rights of citizenship, i.e., passports, rather than citizenship itself), attempts to do that because someone in the ancestry chain refused to recognise the communist regime and register with it. Nothing in this process is simple for many people. A lawyer is highly recommended and the process can drag on for years.

For grandparents records it may be simpler to get church records of their christening if no birth certificates exist.

Merged:

Polish citizenship question. Father was Polish, came to UK during WW2 and fought for British.

Live in UK, father was Polish, mother English. Father came to uk during WW2 and fought for British. Stayed in UK, naturalised in 1950. I was born 1959. Does this mean I could not apply for Polish citizenship/passport.?

HR60 : Probably. Especially if he was in 8th army and did not become a British citizen. If you are of means then it is best to contact the embassy and ask for the name of a lawyer. Will cost around 1k GBP but it will save you time. If your time is worth less than 1k then you will need to be prepared to do quite a bit of leg work.

Please read my post above. You need to find as many records as you can regarding your father, birth certificate and anything else (war records) that prove he was a Polish national. You must prove your line to his, i.e. your parents marriage, your birth certificate - all documents must be translated into Polish before submission. The rest should be plain sailing. You do not need to hire a lawyer.

The problem is that the law didn't change in until 1951, so he appears to have renounced Polish citizenship before your birth.
I suggest that you write President Duda, with copies of his military service, and request that his citizenship be restored retroactively. In the alternative, you may request that you be granted citizenship.

After you get a response, you may consider what other options exist for you.
Good luck!

Thank you all for your replies and advice.

I first applied for my citizenship in May 2018, but i applied to the wrong office, so had to reapply in Sept 2018. I had very few documents as my fathers birth certificate had been destroyed during the war. the only documents I had were granddads and dads war records that showed they were born in Poland. I was granted my citizenship Feb 2020 back dated to my application date. BUT only after I got a lawyer involved. I recommend any applying for there citizenship to get a lawyer.. PS I moved to Poland Sept. 2019..