For all Americans worried about Schengen in Poland, dont worry about it.

Poland wants the visa waiver from the State Department. If they start hassling Ameircans, it wont happen. Poland is fine, and a nice place to visit. Overun with drunken Brits, but I lived there for 6 years. Im not worried about Schengen, and they are not going to put you in the SIS. They will let you leave and wont say a word. Anyway, if you want legal status, start some sort of business. Any sort of business, and just stay. I am returning and that is my plan.

Screw Schengen. Its a stupid idea anyway.

Damn right you shouldn’t be, as US does not recognize it as a single territory for which a universal visa law applies but neither should Poland when dealing with US since the change in visa requirement would not affect the Schengen region only the outsiders. Time to seriously rethink our options here and act on it.

Poland will enter the visa waver program just not yet, in a few years, those other "new" Europe countries got it because they have a much smaller population. Schengen is under threat, The Italians, French, Danes are worried too many North Africans and others moving around.

Schengen under review: building 'Fortress Europe'?

france24.com/en/20110521-europe-refugees-european-union-european-parliament

I would say the same thing about the yanks in Lublin, so much so that we used to avoid the pubs they were in... and TBH that was quite easy because all you could hear from the pub was USA, USA, USA, usa <----- the last one is lower-case, because it was from the quieter one who was puking in the gutter, but he was still able to mutter away with his mates lol

Also, if it wasn't the drunken ones it was the religious ones, bloody Mormons who made it their mission to convert you once they found out that you had a wife and child. *double points see*

I am not kidding you, as the Jehovah Witness groups and Mormons in Saski park Lublin, were like swarms of flies buzzing around you.

Hmmm Mormons, that reminds of this great video:
..

upolska wrote:


haha, this is just too funny. I lived in Wroclaw where there was an American population of 50, GORA.

Lublin is overrun with what....the 4 yanks you actually saw that night?

come on. put the bull$hit away and bring out the real stuff, partner.

Straight up, this is back in 2003 and there must have been at least 20 or so in the City and they used to congregate in a pub in Chopina Street off Lipowa Street. ;0)

I would hardly say that Poland is over run by drunken Brits, in order for you to even say something like that you must have been in the bars quite a bit yourself. If there is a any truth in that satement it only proves that brits spend money in bars, in a similar fashion as to what we do in the UK, the UK public house is an institution only normal for Brits abroad to do the same thing - right. Come on dude be honest with yourself.


Its great if your within the area or an EU citizen, it serves its purpose, alas granted it sucks for US citizens.

I mean different parts of the world, different issues, schengen isnt in place specifically to p1ss off us citizens, although it obviously will affect them.


I dont know about you mate but when i lived in Wroclaw most of the guys i drank with were Yanks. They may have made up only a small portion of the population in terms of Brits vs Yanks but you guys were always in the bars.

I don't know how many Americans live in Lublin right now but when we lived there, there where maybe 3 or 4 (not counting the India-Americans at the Medical Academy). Ain't really worth mentioning ukpolska :-)

That's fine - they'll catch you, ban you (and put you in SIS along with a big fat red stamp in your passport) and you'll find it difficult to get any sort of residency in the EU in future. :)


Only an American would see borderless travel as "a stupid idea".

Something which more and more Americans are learning every month!


Largely because they consider borders as something which apply to other people. How many times have you heard "I don't need a residency permit, I'm American."?

How well do you know Lublin?

Ever heard of the FELBERG British & American English School in Lublin, we there were at least six Americans working in this school when I was in Lublin and I lived there for six years.

And I knew personally of another five - two in the New English School, where I worked and I cannot remember where the others worked.

Lublin has a population of around 350,000, and had at one time over 50 language schools of some description, and I know this I was involved in indexing these schools and making a rating system so new students at University didn't get ripped off.

Also, if Wroclaw has a population of around 600,000 and according to our friend above has 50 Americans it is perfectly feasible for Lublin to have 20. ;0)

And more importantly, I don't bullzhit ;0)

This is the arrogance I speak of. Why should americans not worry. They will get kicked out just the same.

If thats the case which it clearly isnt i knew at least 15 of them at any one time.

Speaking of that school, Pawel Felberg is the biggest clown I've ever encountered. His empire is collapsing around him - he can't pay the bills, teachers are unpaid (some from last year!) - generally, not going well at all. He owed me quite a bit of cash, and actually only paid up after he received court documents. Idiot.

Apparently the cause of all his woes was having signed some very unfavourable contracts with big name companies.


Quite a lot of them are learning a nasty lesson in Prague - and I know a couple here that were similarly caught.


A few times. Amusingly, several students were kicked out of Poland after not bothering with a residence permit - all of them American medical students who believed that they could buy their way out of trouble.

Do these Americans have Polish ancestry and do some of them speak Polish? .... or are they the usual mongrel Americans; (part German, Irish, Polish, Italian, Greek, etc)

pretty well actually, I even still remember where this school was located. I lived in Lublin in 2004-2005.

That's not nice to say, people of mixed European ancestry come out nice looking.


With that i agree, the law is the law and a country's rules should be respected.


Yea but Wroclaw appears to be a much more attractive town for foreign visitors and residents then Lublin.

Harry. Schengen is ridiculous and it wont hold and is not strictly inforced. it is up to each country how they inforce it. Im not worried about Schengen. They don't enter your name in the system when you come in. They count the days. If you lose your passport, you get a new start. That will cost you about $75 USD. Poland the USA are great allies. The USA needs to issue a visa waiver to Poles. If they did, the Poles, would come and go as they pleased and wouldnt overstay in the USA. Lots if illegal Poles in the USA anyway. I know some been here for 10 to 15 years.

Yeah coming to agree with this.. It's insulting to the Poles and they are good allies like you say.

I disagree. And anyway it depends. If you have close relations with a country, you should have a bilateral agreement. Obama needs to tell Clinton. Hey, they are in the UE, they are Poles, which means they come running when we need help, they can work anywhere in Europe and dont need or really want USD's. Give them the waiver. That or tender your resignation, honey.

You're talking about the "Alternatywa" (correct me if I'm wrong) pub, right? Well, in 2004, there were at the very most 4 of us there. It was "Alternatywa" on Wednesdays and "U Szewca" on Fridays and on Saturdays.

upolska wrote:


and it could have just as well been a sports team doing some training there or something for a short while and then they were off to new horizons.

20 is hardly "overrun" in any case.

back to reality, folks.

Wroclaw Boy:


In 4 years, I could count the number of yanks I met in bars on one hand. just sayin'.

guesswho wrote:


3 or 4??? It's an endemic!!!

WroclawBoy wrote:


Because you were finding fish in a very small barrel.

You're a native speaker and you worked in an industry that, if any americans existed in Wroclaw, were also in aside from the random american or 2 working at Google or the middle aged guy doing a 2-3 year contract at some other American firm like HP. You knew 15. How many Americans do you think the avg. Pole knows that lived in Wroclaw for 3-4 years? I'd pose this question to all the poles on this forum but people would lie about it out of spite.

With all that said, ukpolska, if you got beef with the USA, fine, just make sure that when you decide to talk smack, you got your facts straight.

michaelmansun wrote:


Is anyone else out there not completely and utterly amazed at these two sentences!!!!!!!!!!

They didn't need a residency visa. They needed a student visa, and anyway, please. If they are in the university, they just need to go down and apply. You can generally attend any sort of school in Poland and get a student visa. It doesnt even have to be a university. Take Polish classes and stay as long as you like.

If a Polish official came up to me and threatened to throw me out, I'd tell him to get his auntie out of CHicago first, who has been sitting there for 23 years illegal as anything.

Is anyone else out there not completely and utterly amazed at these two sentences!!!!!!!!!!

I am amazed that you are amazed...and that you used exactly 10 exclamation points, probably without even counting.

Arent you the dude that created an incredibly biased account of Yanks in Poland, didnt you even write a failed book about it at some point?

Quit with the agenda mate just view tings from an unbiased point of view and its all good. Thats a pearl of wisdom right there.

I love the arrogance - I can just imagine several guys, in army clothes and with guns, being told by some insolent yank "get your aunt out of Chicago first!".

Haha, the border guard I know would love to encounter this - she has some rather nice jail cells for such people ;)

So you were there for one semester then?

What? i just used to hit the bars every now and then and more often that not it would be Americans i ended up drinking with, hell if i wanted a drinking buddy i had phone numbers of several yanks i could always count on. For what its worth i never met a yank that stayed in Poland longer than two years. Good drinking buddys though.


Seriously! just head into the Guiness Bar and i guarantee that would have changed within one night. When i started drinking there in 2006 there was a group of at least 6 that i used to chat with frequently.

I was there with my parents.

Yes, your dad was an English teacher wasnt he?

yes he was but it wasn't really why we went to Poland. It's just turned out to be that way.