Thank you polskiarg!

Sounds like this process would not be much if any quicker if I started my trip in Poland, and did so in person? Would you go about things differently than what you already recommend if being present in Poland was an option?

 

Of course, to do it in Poland it would be the best option. If you go to the town in which you were born you might evem get it in a couple of days if you are lucky, and since obviously you can speak Polish, that should be no problem for you.

 

Awram>Abraham
In general that's not considered a "change" since it's just a translation of the given name from Polish to English
Pres>Press
Technically a change since it's the last name but so minor that some might overlook it, since it does happen that names are sometimes spelled differently, or small mistakes are made

 

Czesc Slawku! (Hello Slawek)
The passport is what shows citizenship, and the Polish consulate should be familiar with a family passport. The landed immigrant card shows you live in Canada legally, and a Canadian driving licence or other document will show where you live (each consulate handles different areas of Canada) since each consulate handles different areas.
Your Polish birth cert doesn't "prove" Polish citizenship in the sense that not everyone born in Poland is Polish (for example if your parents had not been Polish) but it sounds like you have all you need. Just check the website for the appropriate consuklate and ask them any questions.

 

Good news! The information regarding my grandfather's military history was accepted and approved in Warsaw and my uncle received today the confirmation of his Polish citizenship . This means that a lot of people whose ancestors acquired a foreign nationality before 1951 can actually be also recognized as Polish Citizens.

 

should i go on my own or go with a lawyer?

So after getting royally screwed by Charsky's firm, and now trying to get a fee quote from polish attorney's, I'm wondering if I should just submit the requests myself.

Background: Grandfather was born in Poland in 1916 (grandmother in the 1920's), and were displaced during WWII, around 1939, mostly in Russia, although never applied nor became Russian citizens. After the war, they were married in a DP camp in Austria, and my mom was born in the DP camp in Austria in 1950. Immigrated to the US in Feb 1951, and became US citizens in 1956.

The documents I have are grandfather's birth certificate from Poland, grandparent's marriage certificate with apostille from Austria in 1947, mother's birth certificate with apostille from austria in 1950, copy of the shipping manifest showing they arrived to the US in 1951, grandfather's and mother's naturalization document from 1956 (I wouldn't send the original but the certified true copy form G-24 from USCIS, can this get an apostille?). Marriage certificate of my parents with apostille and birth certificate of myself with apostille. I got polish certified translations of all documents (except the austrian documents because it had the information in polish on the back). I also have a brief history of where my grandfather was between 1939-1945, however.

I'm also working on getting a certificate from the U.S. branches of the military that my grandfather never served in the U.S. military.

Is there anything other types of documents that I should try and track down?

I just really don't want to have to pay another lawyer's retainer fee and rather submit it myself, but I have a feeling it might be quicker to go with an attorney? Anyone have any suggestions on how strong my case is?

 

Well, I've found almost everything but this, I am wondering what sort of Apostille or certification this will need, will they give me a certified copy when I request it?

 

Did you contact them? I give you their contact details below with a free phone number.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/ ... f3d6a1RCRD

I don't know if they will give you a certified copy with Apostille. I believe they will issue it as "certified true copy of the original" but normally the Apostille is something separate, at least my documents had to be certified also by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (The Foreign Office in Argentina).

 

Re: should i go on my own or go with a lawyer?

Of all these documents I would recommend making sure they specifically say that someone was a Polish citizen. That would be the most important...

I believe you would have to get a copy notarized at any public notary's office in your state, and then the Secretary of State in your state would verify the notary's signature with the Apostille.

That sounds good to me.

Maybe you can help me on this one. Is there an established route / request-form to use when dealing with the branches? I understand you are not dealing with the National Personnel Records in St Louis?

I would make sure you cover the original Polish citizenship proof issue as above first. I think there was a law in effect from 1918 that if you were settled on Polish territory you could claim citizenship - however I didn't need to work with this issue so I didn't research it further. Re the lawyer - in my own experience I think a lawyer might save up to a couple months of time just by having experience with knowing where to go for specific documents without having to making official requests first etc. I have a feeling I am losing a couple of months because the Warsaw Wojewoda needed to verify the records from St Louis with the Consulate in NY. Perhaps a lawyer would have had experience with this all ready.

 

Re: should i go on my own or go with a lawyer?

I've been in touch with a lawyer, and the biggest hurdle for my case is to establish that my grandfather was a polish citizenship, because a birth certificate is not enough to verify (that is probably why I'll need to retain a lawyer, to find supporting evidence archived in Poland).

Regarding the naturalization document; I've gone through it before, you have to get a certified true copy (involves going to USCIS) where they make a copy and attach a G-24 that says it's a certified true copy, which then gets an apostille at the U.S. State Dept.

For the military records, because my family didn't emigrate until after Jan 18, 1951, it is not an issue. However, I did find this, and you have to write to the branches of the military (and they are quick to respond):

http://www.defenselink.mil/faq/pis/PC09SLDR.html

 

Re: should i go on my own or go with a lawyer?

Yes, I suppose there are other types of Polish documents such as military records. It would hazard a guess that it would be a little cheaper to hire a researcher to go through the archives but on the other hand if the lawyer can walk you through all the steps it is probably worth it.

Great workaround. I went back and forth with USCIS several times if they could give me something more official that I could get apostilled and they were adamant that they couldn't and even told me that the Italian embassy doesn't mind as long as the docs come in an envelope from the USCIS (apparently they get a lot of Italian dual citizenship people making enquiries). However in my case the Wojewoda was happy with all the naturalization court records (but not the certificate) - the federal courts do their own apostilles btw - so I stopped pursuing it.

Thanks for the tip. I just wrote them and we'll see what they say.

 

That is fantastic news! As I am in the exact situation, how long did the whole process take him, also If you could give a run down of exactly what he provided to the Poland that would be great!

 

Also, if you could include what he got Apostille on I'd appreciate it, I have to admit the whole apostille thing is confusing to me. For example, would I need an apostille for that letter from the US military?

 

The whole process took less than a year (around 10 months) from the date he presented all the documents in the consulate until the date he received the confirmation of citizenship. About 8 months after starting the procedure he got a letter from Warsow requesting details of his father's military history in Argentina, so he wrote a letter explaining that his father was not required to serve in the Argentine Army due to the applicable law in force for naturalized citizens. This letter was written in Polish language without any apostille and was sent directly to the Polish authorities of the wojewoda in Warsow. In less than 2 months of sending this letter he received the confirmation of citizenship.

The apostille goes normally on official foreign documents (i.e. American documents to be presented in Poland like birth, marriage and death certificates as well as naturalization and military certificates). The apostille is intended to certify the authenticity of an official document in order to be valid for the foreign authorities (i.e. Poland).

 

I got a translation of the 3 forms you get from the consulate into English to fill out, but the forms they have given me seem incorrect, they seem geared toward people who were of Polish Citizenship earlier in there life or something, I'm sure you guys have some experience filling these 3 forms out so let me know!

 

Re: should i go on my own or go with a lawyer?

Hi Nebratu,

Your case is almost identical to mine and I have my Polish passport sitting on my desk at home so you should be ok.

My grandparents were both born in Poland and my mother was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany just after the war. I was able to prove that as my mother was never considered a German citizen, and that she did not take out Australian citizenship until after 1951, that she was a Polish citizen and therefor I am also a Polish citizen.

The documents that I submitted (other than my own personal doc such as my own birth certificate) were my mums German birth certificate, My grandmother's Polish birth certificate, My great grandparents Polish marriage certificate (my agent tracked down both of these), stat decs stating that neither I or any other family member have served in any armed forces and one more stat dec stating that my family did at no point surrender their Polish citizenship. My grandparents German Marriage certificate. The other document that my agent tracked down was the immigration entry record into Australia. I think the only documents that I submitted that stated that they were "Polish" were German documents that my family were given as displaced persons because they did not have any personal documents with them because they were destroyed during the war.


As long as you can show a direct line from them to you and that they never renounced there citizenship, you should be OK.

Good luck

 

If anyone can recall how they handle filling out the 3 Polish forms, it would be greatly appeciated.

 

You mean the 3 forms found here?

http://www.polishconsulateny.org/index.php?p=95

 

In which specific sections of the forms are you having problems?

 

The forms seems to be geared towards someone who was either born Polish and simply hasn't confirmed there citizenship or who have Polish parents. Since my line of descent is somewhat more tenuous, I'm not really sure with what information to fill the forms out with. Do I fill them out using my own information or my last Polish based relatives information?