Polish citizen with expired Polish passport, flying to Poland on British passport via NL

Background: My wife and daughter are both Polish citizens but have expired Polish passports.Getting an appointment at the London consulate is a nightmare. They do both have valid British passports.

Situation: We would like to visit my wife's parents in Poland, and renew their passports once we arrive.

We are thinking of flying via Amsterdam so we clear the border in NL on British passports and avoid the inevitable questions at the Polish border around Polish citizenship etc.

Question 1: Will we encounter any passport checks on the NL -> PL leg? I would think not, since Schengen?

Question 2: Will we encounter any difficulties on the return leg from PL -> NL? Will my wife be challenged for presenting a British passport to the Wizzair check-in agent?

My wife is concerned about needing a Polish passport even to fly within the Schengen zone. I think we can get around this via the above method but I'm wondering if anyone else has done it.

And yes, the situation at the Polish consulate in London is THAT BAD that we would prefer to do it this way if possible.

Thank you / Dziękuję

No; passport checks within Schengen are only allowed to happen to verify your ID and nothing else. At the moment due to the pandemic they glance at the passport and your NHS Vaccine Pass (purely to be sure the NHS Pass is yours) on the way to the baggage hall at Okęcie. They don't scan it (they were just standing in a corridor looking relaxed) and it all took 5 seconds max.


No.


I came back here about a week ago. I came via Vienna rather than the (slightly) cheaper Amsterdam because Amsterdam wanted a PCR covid test but Vienna is fine with just the NHS Vaccine Pass. I went Manchester-Vienna Warsaw, was there by about 8.30 pm and it wasn't dear booking direct on Austrian Airlines' website.