The supervisor at the office in Warsaw will probably send your person away if they are not a resident of Poland, and tell them that you, the applicant, needs to apply at your local consulate. Its probably better if the person submitting the application in your name is a resident.

In my opinion, the expired passport wil be enough...to get the ball rolling, but it can never be considered as current proof of Polish citizenship. By providing that expired passport, you are essentially telling the clerk, that at some point in time this person HAD Polish citiznehsip. They will then take this to the next step and investigate if they STILL have Polish citizenship today, or until the day they died. Without the expired passport, there would be nothing to base the assumption on, and therefor the clerk would probably not accept the task of investigating it for you.

 

So what would they do exactly? I was unsuccessful myself in finding my grandfather's birth record - it was most surely destoryed by the Nazis. What else could they look for? My grandfather didn't have any ties that we know of to Poland after they day he left, thus there wouldn't be any records after his birth/emigration records, right? Would it be something like, "there's nothing here to indicate he lost his citizenship therefore its good" or the converse, "there's nothing here, too bad for you".

 

I, of course, don't know the details of thier process, I would think a good lawyer would though. My guess is that they somehow tap into some kind of an international database to check things out, they can't just rely on Polish records, since some of the things that can void a person's Polish citizenship are actions that had to take place abroad, but this is my guess.

 

I guess I will just have to send it in and see how it goes...

 

I found this last night that I think could be helpful to many here:

http://www.adwokat.com/cgi-bin/znajdz_en.cgi (the English version)

Obviously, it's a directory of Polish attorneys, but for citizenship, you obviously select Poland as the country, then Warszawa as the city and "Family" as the type of law. There are 48 attorneys listed. This just opens up the options to other than the few one's everyone seems to use.

Just though I would share...

 

RACH

 

Rach,

If your grandmother become a citizen of a country other than Poland before January of 1951, whether she requested this or it was given to her, she lost her Polish citizenship and therefore her ability to transfer it to your parent and then you.

 

I read as many pages as I could, but I couldn't find an answer to my question:

Can I get Polish citizenship with only my Mother's Polish passport, or do I need her birth certificate as well?

She was born in Poland and emmigrated in the 70s. It will be very very difficult to get her birth certificate because she was born in a small town in Poland and is probably only on record in the tiny little church there.

 

I have a similar issue, and I spoke with a Polish lawyer and read a couple other articles and such, and all of the agree that the passport alone is sufficient enough to prove that person was, at least at the time it was issued, a Polish citizen. For example, my grandfather was born in 1918. At that time, not everyone even reported births to the government, as well as the fact that so many documents were destroyed in WWII. So I have to go off of my grandfathers passport...

So, in short, yes it is sufficient.

 

Proof of Citizenship

Gosh, I wish I had found this forum last year! I've read everything and it's all been quite helpful and informative, but I really need to get people's advice on my particular situation:

I started the process last February and I've already received my birth certificate/registration papers. In January of this year I sent off my application for my Confirmation of Polish Citizenship through the New York consulate. They told me that it would probably be around 8-10 months, but if I went there in person, I may be able to expedite the process.

Well, I was getting itchy to leave the country so I left and am now living in London with a friend. Unfortunately, it's been a bit difficult finding a job that doesn't require a National Insurance number--I need an EU passport for that! Of course, I've heard nothing regarding my confirmation so I'm thinking of leaving for Warsaw in a week or two in order to go to the immigration office myself and pester them in person.

What do you think of this idea? I don't speak any Polish, so I'm going to need to hire a translator right? Or should I hire a notary? A lawyer? Can anyone recommend a translator or lawyer in Warsaw that they've used?

Or would it be better for me to stay put and have a lawyer in Warsaw take care of it for me? What would be cheaper? I'm kinda low on funds and I'd feel more comfortable if I was there in person.

Any advice at all is appreciated!
Cheers,
jenni

 

My recommendation is to avoid lawyers. They are very expensive there. I was quoted by two of them who wanted around US$1,000 to go to the governor's office and hand them my paperwork.

What someone suggested me, which sounds good is to ask the concierge at the hotel you stay at if he/she has an employee that will come with you and represent you for a fee. They will almost surely speak English...but I personally wouldnt bother..

 

Re: Proof of Citizenship

My opinion:
Have you every tried to speed up a snail that is cleaning the inside of a fish tank? When I was 6 years old I did. Let's just say my plan backfired on me.


You can't speed them up by pestering them. It won't work. The best case scenerio is that they will tell you that "it is process", but they probably won't tell you why its taking so long, and that you should contact your consulate for more information (which we all know is a useless move, since the consulate is even more clueless). If they are REALLY polite, they may give you a guestimate on hoe much longer it could take, but since you filed though the consulate, they may be confused as to why you are here in the first place. If you show up with a translatorm they will probably dismiss you and give you very little information, since they know that you cannot easily persuade them via a translator.

If your lawyer shows up, my opionion is that they will tell him that your case was received via the consular path, and he may not have any jurisdiction to do anything, since this is an internal consular request. Best case is that they will tell him that it is in process, but probably nothing else. It might not hurt to get a free consultation from a lawyer to see what he can do in this situation.

Sorry to sound so pessemistic, but hopefully you can prove me wrong

 

alyehoud and curious, thank you for your quick replies!

Hmmm, yes, that doesn't sound like good news. Darnit!

I forgot to mention that my mom and dad visited Poland a few weeks ago and went to the immigration office on my behalf to ask them what was up. My dad said they wanted a written document from me stating why I needed my application expedited. I've written up a reply and am going to email them, though I'm not sure if that will help. That's why I was thinking of going in person.

Do you think it would be better to have a relative come with me and translate? I have cousins over there but they don't live near Warsaw...

I'll try writing some of the law firms that specialize in family/immigration law (like Charsky, etc) and tell them my situation and maybe they know of some way to change it from a consular application to an attorney's. And hopefully they won't charge an arm and a leg.

 

Good luck with the lawyers. Also, a relative would be better than a stranger, but probably not the best. If you cant speak Polish, it's your best bet and probably the best thing you could do would be to send your relative in there with detailed instructions and a power of attorney (generously provided on page 6, I believe, of this thread by curiousgeorge). That way they aren't as inclined to push your relative away, just thinking that they can.

Curious, do you agree?

 

Yes a relative or a very good friend (with lots of gusto) armed with a notarized power of attorney going for you (not with you) would be much better than a stranger going with you as a translator.

I can't hurt if you try in person though, I'm just preparing you for a tough fight.

 

Think of it like this: you're a Mexican who doesn't speak any English and you come to the US and are applying for citizenship. Assuming the government clerk isn't Mexican also, they are probably going to be a little annoy that this person is trying to become a citizen of their country, but doesn't even know the language.

Not to mention they probably make just above whatever their minimum wage is, so are among the lowest paid workers in the country so their just generally angry at the world.

Same kind of thing.


Edit: I've actually been told that under the similar Irish program where they will give citizenship to anyone with an Irish great-grandparent or lower (I believe it's great-grandparent), those Irish who "return" are resented and never accepted as true Irish by those born and raised there.

 

You hit the nail on the head with your analogy.

 

Alright, cool. Thanks for the warnings. I'll definitely do this with a relative then.

Cheers,
jen

 

mike4poland

 

They are reputable, but expensive as are all attorneys.

What year were they born in Poland, and what year did they naturalize?