The NVC (National Visa Center) here in the US sent me a request to send them a copy of my Green Card. They needed it to reply to a request made by the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service) which (they stated) was initiated by me to confirm my status in the United States. I never initiated such a request, and since te request was so convenietely timely during the Polish citizenship process, I can only assume that it was the Polish authorities that initiated the request with my name on it.

 

Another Update:
My son's case has been approved! It only took 2 weeks.

 

Polish grandmother immigrated in 1919

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all of the useful info you've all contributed to this forum. I've read through everything and am still a bit confused...

I've seen people mention laws for Polish citizens who immigrated BEFORE 1918 or AFTER 1920. My grandmother immigrated to the States in 1919 -- so does anyone know whether that affects my ability to claim Polish citizenship through her?

Also -- if I do manage to get Polish citizenship, how does this affect my U.S. citizenship?

Thanks in advance for any help!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hello again,

I need to add some info to my post. The village where my grandmother was born is now part of Poland, but at the time of her birth (1909) it was Russian. So she had a Russian passport. I'm guessing this complicates things quite a bit...?

 

Fropie,
In 1918, Poland became a country. In 1920, Poland created thier first immigration and citizenship laws.

The Statute on Polish Citizenship, as amended in 2000, permits the descendants of Poles who lost their nationality involuntarily between 1920 and 1989 to take up Polish citizenship without regard to ordinary naturalization criteria. In latin this is called "Lex sanguinis"

Since your grandmother left after 1918 from an area that was repatriated back to Poland she should be able to benefit from this law enacted by Poland that allows people born in such areas to get Polish citizenship. But I'm not sure how that law works if the people born in these areas, left before the law was enacted (such as your grandmother).

If you can find a document, that states that she is a Polish citizen, this will help your case a lot more. The document can even be an entry record / receipt from the time when when she landed in the United States.

The United States has a very similar view on dual citizenship when compared to Poland. They do not recognise foreign citizenships, but they also do not explicitly prohibit you from gaining other citizenships either.

The laws in the United States would cause you to lose your US citizenship, if:
1) You join a political party in that foriegn country
2) You join the army of a foreign country currently at war with the United States
3) You become an officer in the army of the foreign state regardless of whether they are at war or not with the United States.
4) Accept a government job with the foreign country
5) Formally renounce U.S. citizenship before a U.S. consular officer outside the United States
6) Formally renounce U.S. citizenship within the U.S. in time of war
7) Convicted of an act of treason

My son has triple citizenship:
He has US citizneship because of "jus soli" (Latin for "right of soil").
He has Canadian citizenship because of "Jus sanguinis" (Latin for "right of blood")
And he now has Polish citizneship as of last week because of "Jus sanguinis" as well
Of the three, Canada is the only one that recognizes other citizenships. The others do not prohibit them, but they do not recognize them either.

 

Thanks!

Thanks curiousgeorge... My mother's trying to locate my grandmother's immigration papers. I'm pretty sure I saw them once upon a time in the house... For now all we have is a letter from the U.S. Social Security that refers to her Russian passport, unfortunately...

 

Hi,
I need help to determine if I am eligible for Polish citizenship. I am Australian born. My grandfather was born in Poland in 1920 and my grandmother born in Czech in 1925. My grandfathers family owned alot of land in Poland but unfortunately it was taken over/destroyed in the war. My Grandparents both moved to Germary post WWII. My mother and uncle were born in Germany. My family migrated to Australia in 1959 and applied for Australia citizenship.

I am not sure if I can apply for Polish citizenship and have dual citizenship Australia/Poland based on my families european heritage. My grandmother has since passed, but I will ask my grandfather if I can get a copy of his birth certificate if I decide to submit an application.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you

Melissa

 

Does your mother have German citizenship and if so, have you checked into applying for that? If it's possibile I think that's really the best way of getting an EU passport.

You might be eligible for Polish citizenship based on your grandfather, but it's best to check with your local Polish consulate to see if he immigrated during any of the time periods that might affect your eligibility (I think it's different from counrty to country; sorry I don't know more about Polish/Australian relations )

 

Best place to issue out a birth certificate

Hello -
I also have a grandparent from Poland (who has now passed), but with no birth certificate of any kind. A lawyer has agreed to help me grant citizenship (with includes him finding the necessary papers) for a total price of 2,500E. No need to be a pro in the biz to see this is an exorbitant price. Is there a way I might do all of this on my own? How can I locate my grandfather's birth certificate and have it sent here?

Help would be muchly appreciated

 

Have you tried asking the consulate if they can get a copy of his birth certificate? I know they do this, but I'm not sure if they will do this if the request is not for YOUR birth certificate.

Personally I think, in a case where one's link to Polish citizenship is a grandparent, or where certain papers cannot be located, that if you don't have a contact in Poland, the only alternative is to get a lawyer. Based on my case, which is relatively straight forward, since I had all the papers already for both my parents, lawyers have quoted me in the 1000 Euro range. Based on the amount of work and research my contact had to do ..... just to submit the papers ..... that money seems well warrented had I hired a professional. My contact got the run-around so many times, his head almost spun off in the beginning. Since you don't have your grandfather's documentation, I don't think it would be unreasonable to charge 2500 Euro for your case. Remember, that most of the civil institutions in Poland are still based on paper, and not yet computerized, or even close to it. Digging for one's information can be very involved, and in addition, every clerk you meet along the way gives you a different problem to resolve, sometimes they even give you conflicting guidance, because the law is very open to interpretation. This just makes the process ever more challenging.

If you really want this done, get the lawyer. It will be a lot simpler if you have someone who's done this before. If you're just curious, and you don't care one way or another, then contact the consulate first, and see what they can do for you.

 

Just an update. I applied thru the Chicago consulate in October 2006 to register my U.S. birth in Poland. This week I received three copies of my Polish birth certificate, so it took about 5 months. I have now received 1) my citizenship decree and 2) my birth registration. As I understand it, I could now request a Polish passport, but since I have no need for one at the moment, I don't plan to apply right now.

 

Since your great-grandfather was born in the U.S. and did not naturalize as a U.S. citizen, he would not have lost his Polish citizenship. However, Poland was not a country in 1911, so Polish citizenship doesn't enter the picture at that time anyway. When he returned to Poland, I'm sure he was accepted as a Polish citizen and may well have travelled back to the U.S. on a Polish passport. If you could find that passport, you'd have an excellent chance of claiming Polish citizenship for yourself. Without it, or some other official record of your great-grandfather having been a Polish citizen, it would be more difficult. If you have no proof, I would suggest hiring a lawyer (Charsky, etc.) to help you. Your great-grandfather's mother, by the way, would have lost her Polish citizenship in the 30s when she became a U.S. citizen. And yes, you're out of luck regarding UK & Irish citizenship. If it had been a grandparent, you could have gotten Irish, but it has to be a parent (specifically a father up until rather recently) to get UK.

 

Alphazip,
I have no need for a passport right away either, but I've noticed in recent years that Poland has been changing thier citizenship laws quite rapidly, requirig more and more steps and proof, and who knows what lies ahead. I plan on getting the passport as soon as I can so that at least I have it. Here in my city Even though we have a documne that says we are Polish citizens, its possible that Poland may increase the requrements one day, and this paper may not be sufficient to prove Polish citizenship, at which time you would need to go through hoops again to prove that your a Polish citizen. i figure its only a matter of time that the EU starts to impose more stringent citizenship rules on the member countries.

I figure it would be much more difficult to lose your citizenship if you already have a passport, and just keep the passport current before it expires, rather than relying on the requirements for a passport as they stand today.

Am I just being paranoid?

 

[quote="MMassey]I will def. have to look into the matter. If anyone else has any thought, please feel free to comment.[/quote]
I agree with Alphazip. You need to get a paper showing Polish citizenship for your ancestor linking you back to Poland.

 

I agree with Alphazip. You need to get a paper showing Polish citizenship for your ancestor linking you back to Poland.

 

An immigration or emmigration record or receipt might show his nationality as Polish.
His national ID from Poland might work as well. I think in the old days, this looked like a little booklet, similar to a passport. I'm not sure if it was called a "Dowód Osobisty" back then as it is today.

 

Update on my case, this is what my father was reporting from Warsaw:

"Today I have been visiting the citizenship office once again. It is quite stressful experience. They seem to be fully overloaded with foreigners asking for citizenship.
First I asked for information and they told me again that there is a legal problem of recognition within one year after the birth of child to qualify for quick path managed by President of Voivodship (instead of long path of President of Poland).
I have asked to talk to the superior and in the meantime I prepared all the application forms. When I went there (to the office of superior) it turned out (after almost 2 hours waiting time) that she/he is absent today and instead I was dealing with a young person who pretty smoothly took all the documents for further procedure. I did not ask the additional questions submitting all the documents he was preparing for further proceeding. He told me that it will take at least 2 months and if there is any problem I will be sent an information letter. He told me also that if nothing happens I should contact them not earlier but in the end of May for "picking up their decision" as they have delay in proceedings caused by overload of applications."

On icharsky.com they say that there is only a 14 days period of submitting and appeal to a decision. So I would like to ask in advantage what to do if they come up with some obstacles in handling the application and give a "final decision" about it?

 

adamsson,
I am so glad to hear that your father was successful the second time around by being a little more forceful. For anyone else that will attempt this in person, make sure your contact in Poland is well prepared, thick skinned and confident of what they need to do. If they are not sure of the process, than a few "inquiry" trips may be needed, just to get confidence in the process. Remeber to ask for a supervisor, if the first person wants to dismiss you too quickly, and even if the second person is not a supervisor, they will probalb yhave more experience in the matter, and be more willing to help you.

By the way my contact in Poland said the supervisor told him it would be about 2 months as well. Its been 7 months now. When he went to submit the papers for my son, they told him my case was still pending, and no additional information was available, and just to wait.

My contact also said they showed him shelves full of small suitcases which contained multiple requests for proof of citizenship from all over the world. It seems they feel compelled to share this information to "manage your expectations" that in fact they are overloaded, and maybe that statement in itself will turn you away, or at a minimum they have already "planted the seed in your head" to tell you that this may take longer than you think. Or quite simply, they need somebody to whine to about thier workload.

As for replying to a decision that requests additional information, I cannot speak from experience, but I would think that if 14 days is not enough time to get the required info (which is quite possible when dealng with foreign agencies if you need to get more documents), I would think you should be able to ask for an extension, as long as the request for an extension is within 14 days. Your father would probably need to go in person to ask for the extension though.

 

Polish citizenship

I was hoping you guys could answer a couple of questions in relation to my application for Polish citizenship.

My grandmother was born in Poland sometime between 1919 and 1921. She left in about 1926 for Australia. I have a copy of her Polish passport/exit documents, and those of her parents. I think I can get her birth certificate from Poland, but the Lodz archive appears to suggest that they don't have my great-grandfather's birth certificate (see their response below).

My questions are:

1) Will it suffice to apply on the basis on my grandmother's birth certificate and passport/exit document? Or do I need to get further documents (perhaps a marriage certificate) for her parents?

2) Can I submit one bundle of documents containing an application for myself AND my two siblings (provided I pay 3 lots of fees, I assume)? Or do I need to put in 3 separate applications (and so need to get 3 sets of notarised and apostilled documents)?

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Joel

Message from Lodz archive:

Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi informuje. że w Aktach stanu cywilnego gminy wyznaniowej żydowskiej w Poddebicach znajdujących się w naszym zasobie, zachowały sie jedynie akta małżeństw z lat 1872-1890 oraz dowody do akt małzenstw z łat 1857-1858, w związku z powyższym nie jesteśmy wstanie odszukać aktu urodzenia na nazwisko Borek Chaskiel Majer. Natomiast w sprawie aktu urodzenia Goldy Racheli Borek urodzonej w 1921 roku radzimy zwrócić sie do Urzedu Stanu Cywilneno w Poddebicach, ul. Lodzka 17/21. 99-200 Poddebice

 

Re: Polish citizenship

Yes, you should be able to apply for Polish citizenship based on your grandmother's Polish citizenship alone. You do not need her parents' marriage certificate. There are two provisos, however:

1) If your mother took Australian citizenship between 1920 and 1951, she most likely lost her Polish citizenship status at that time. So, unless your parent (her son or daughter) was born before she became Australian, your grandmother could not have passed her Polish citizenship on to you.

2) Something I have raised before, which I still don't have an answer to, is did Polish women who married non-Poles during the 1918-1951 period lose their Polish citizenship? This was commonly found in pre-50s citizenship laws of various countries, for example, British.

Regarding how you should proceed (separately or as a group), that will be up to the Polish Embassy/Consulate you're dealing with. They will tell you how they want it done.

As to your grandmother's birth certificate, I believe that the message in Polish alludes to that fact that your grandmother is/was Jewish. In that case, the article "Vital Records in Poland" at this site might be helpful:

http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/polandv.html

I don't see any reason why you would need your grandmother's father's birth certificate.

The fact that you have your grandmother's passport should help your case very much.