Forum Poland

[littlerunaway]

hey everybody!
I want to ask about something I read over the internet and can't figure out what it means.
I read somewhere the if a person has parents or grandparents born in Belarus in a year between the 2 world wars, then this person is eligible for a Polish citizenship.
I feel like I'm missing here something. does anybody knows what I'm talking about? or maybe can direct me to a website that explains the whole thing?

my father and grandmother were born in Belarus. I was born in Russia and currently live in Israel.

thanx to anyone who replies.

[gjene]

Hi

I am not qualified to answer your concerns personally. But check under the POLAND forum and go through all 3 of the sections dealing with this type of concern that others are dealing with. Curious George had a posting dealing with the type of paperwork you no doubt would need to have in order to try and get citizenship. Harjeet had put together 3 postings dealing with the 1920, 1951 and 1962 citizenship acts.
Also, you will find references to a couple of lawyers that deal with this topic. One is Lukazs Piotrowski. Good luck. Hope this helps.

[marron]

"In Belarus" doesn't really tell us much.

What happened is that borders were re-drawn after the end of WW2. In Poland's case, they lost Eastern territory and gained territory in the West.

It's important to know what towns your ancestors were born in, and what country those towns belonged to at the time of their birth. Even that isn't enough because as a general rule for Poland (and many/most European countries) citizenship is derived not based on WHERE you are born, but on the citizenship of your parents. These two places are not always the same.

gjene's reply to you tells you where to look.