consulates

Kozman

You at least have a choice of where to go. But here is another option that can be considered depending on how willing you are to travel to Canada. There is a consulate in Toronto, Ontario. While they only cover the province up here, it initially may be closer. Another option would be to email a consulate or an embassy to enquire if there is an honorary consul closer to you. Good Luck.

 

I guess I should stop complaining that I have to go from 11th street "all the way" to 38th street to get to the NYC consulate!

 

After further discussions with the Polish attorney, he has agreed to lower the cost from 1600 Euros to 1400 Euros. Since my mother and I are going in on this together, we're splitting the cost. 1050.00 from each of us sounds fair to me so I'm sending all the paperwork to the attorney. He is advising that his turn around time is 8-10 months. Thank you everyone for your opinions and information, it is grately appreciated!

 

Kozman:

Just wanted to let you know that I met with Piotrowski in his offices in Warsaw this summer.
I wanted to meet him in person before I handed over my docs and money.
He checked out okay.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

Now that's great to hear!!! Thank you for the info. How long did he take to complete your paperwork?

 

My case is still in progress. I'm having multiple members of my family confirmed...may take a little while longer.
He gave me an estimate of around 8 months.
I plan on being back in Wawa in the middle of April. Hopefully the confirmations will be ready by then. If not I'll still use my time wisely and register some docs with various agencies (USC). During my trip in the summer I had a number of docs translated by a sworn translator...this worked out to be much cheaper than doing it through the consulate.
I'm trying to avoid using the TO consulate until I actually apply for passports. I find the experience to be a little trying (and expensive).

Your document evidence seems very good. I'm sure you won't have any trouble. We all just have to be patient.

 

This is a great thread.

Here's my situation and questions. My father was born in Wilno in 1929, left Poland in 1944, and received U.S. citizenship in 1955. My mother was born in Czestochlowa in 1938, left Poland in 1964, married my father in 1965, and received U.S. citizenship in 1983. I was born in California in 1968 and am not married. My parents are still married. Neither of them has renounced their Polish citizenship, served in army or army reserve, or held public office.

As far as documents, my father has no Polish documents that he has found. My mother has her Polish birth certificate and Polish passport (stating she is a Polish citizen) issued in 1969. I'm not sure if it's relevant, but my mother also has her father's original Tymchasowe Zaswiadczenie Tozsamosci -- he was born in 1893 in Lipy pow. Piotrkow.

Based on everything I've read, I think I have a good shot at getting Polish citizenship confirmed and a passport issued using my Mom's documents.

Here are my questions:

1. Is my case as straightforward as I think it is?

2. How do I get Apostilles of copies? For example, would I take my Mom's original birth certificate and passport, have them copied in front of a notary, have the notary notarize the copies, have the copies Apostilled by the Arizona Secretary of State, and then deliver the copies plus the Apostilles of the copies?

3. For my Mom's Polish passport and also for and my U.S. passport, how many pages need to be copied and submitted? Only the front cover plus the initial pages showing the photograph and personal info? Or the whole passport, including the pages that get stamped (whether or not they are blank) and back cover?

4. What are reasons a consulate may allow someone to process paperwork without coming in personally? Is living in another state and having to work sufficient? [In case it makes a difference, my consulate is the one in Los Angeles, California. I am in Arizona.]

5. If I have to go to the consulate in person, is it possible to make an appointment in advance for a specific day and time?

6. If I can get someone in Poland to help with this, do I have to get the Power of Attorney blessed (notarized or whatever process applies) by my consulate? If so, do I have to do that in person at the consulate?

7. Is my parents' marriage certificate relevant to this process?

8. What is the going rate to have an attorney or agent register the birth certificate in Poland and apply for confirmation of Polish citizenship in Poland?

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

Adamski

As for the passport(s), it is the id page that is the most important. Yes, the marriage certificate will be of great value. Having access to your mothers' birth certificate and passport is definitely relevant. Along with copies of when your folks received their American citizenship.
Having a copy f your mothers' fathers' certificate may be of help as well. Can you get everything scanned? Also, can you get a long form of your birth certificate? It should state your parents nationality on it.
Once you have the documents scanned you can make copies that way for the notary to sign off as copies of the original. Plus take the originals with you so the notary can compare them. As for the embassy/consulate, they should have a website that provides hours of operation and address.
By checking the website will provide an email that you can enquire about the appointment and if it might be necessary.

(When I got my dual with Germany I had to provide a copy of the marriage certificate, the long form of my birth certificate (both of which stated nationality of both parents), a copy of when my father received his citizenship and his passport. That was basically it to prove my claims to German citizenship.)

 

Adamski:

Go back to Confirming Polish Citizenship (part 1) page 3 and look for curiousgeorge's posts beginning from August 4, 2006. Read Them

The most helpful post is dated August 31, 2006 where curious george outlines EVERY single step in meticulous detail (this became my bible).

An AMAZING amount of information is available there.

Good luck

Yes, I think you have good evidence through your mom. I believe your case is pretty straightforward. Processing time could be VERY lengthy depending on which route you choose: direct or consulate.

Curiousgeorge was also located a significant distance from the nearest consulate. Read through his early threads. I remember him making mention of how he dealt with the problem.

 

More news for Charsky customers ...
I am one of those who paid Charsky a deposit before he died/went out of business.
Just received an email from eranium.eu offering to continue the process and pay them only the balance due to Charsky. Didn't take them up on this since hired someone else to finish the job (Piotrowski). I should know in a couple of months how things went.
Interestingly the email from eranium.eu included a password to view my paperwork in the Charsky office files in Warsaw. Seems it took them NINE months to get the translations done !!!! AND the translations were not done correctly.

 

Thanks for the compliment!

 

I had enquired about getting a copy of the registry from where my grandfather had registered as an inhabitant in Germany after the war. In one spot it asks for Staatsnagehorigfeit.
In brackets it says Polen and then staatenlos ungekla(n)rt. If that is what I think it states I may not have a chance at going after Polish citizenship. I was told I may have a chance based on my mother, but this may cause some difficulty since my mother would be considered a minor and my grandparents got married in Germany in 1949. The document does make reference to an unknown address in Pulave county, Lublin, Poland 1 Sept. 1939. Now to obtain copies of immigration material from the Canadian Immigration Archives to see if that will confirm or deny that fact. Oh well.

 

gjene,
Here is the link to the step-by-step as you requested.

http://forums.immigration.com/showthrea ... highlight=


Its not simple to link to the specific posts on this forum, in addition since the old post in Part 1 is now locked, I decided to post the info on a different immigration forum, so that I can keep it current if necessary.

Enjoy!

 

Thanks Curious.
It is not so much for me. But for others, since it requires a bit of rooting to find it. And as you state, you may be able to keep it updated. This way, people can get it printed out if they so choose to follow through on the checklist.

 

I submitted military records stating that grandfather had never served in the Canadian military etc during his lifetime. It seemed pretty complete. The Warsaw rejected it because it did not have specific dates and was not in tabular form. 1. If he lived in Canada 1930 till death 1980 then why do they need the dates of 1950-1951 specifically on the page. 2. If they want the information in a particular manner then you think they would request it in such a manner.

My lawyer was the one who found out it was in the incorrect form. I asked my lawyer for an example of tabular form. If I find out I will let you guys know.

 

Thought I would post a short update as well.
Last week my lawyer wrote asking me to provide a little more background on how my mom happened to have a Polish passport issued from the Polish consulate in Mumbai (mum in Mumbai, oh my...kinda catchy isn't it?).
After I got past the sheer excitement of knowing that some "pani urzedniczka" actually touched my file, I proceeded to scan and forward about 40 pages of excerpts and maps out of the 700 page book ""Polacy w Indiach 1942-1948, w swietle dokumentow i wspomnien".

I provided my lawyer with as much background info as I could. I figure giving "pani urzedniczka" a history lesson (and a sad one at that) would help my case. Providing excerpts from a published book should also make an impact. The truth of my mom' s story becomes more easily verifiable, more a question of "fact" versus "fiction". Hopefully it helps speed the process along.

Good luck to all.

 

I have found that dealing with Polish government administration services, their instructions are often vague. They like to employ the "you try, you fail" method, rather than "we'll tell you exactly what we want it and how we want it up front". Basically, they are not proactive, they are reactive, and their not consistently reactive with everyone. They pick and choose who they will give a hard time.

For example, its easier to tell people to provide a "życiorys", without providing any details of what they need to know, and what format they need to see it in. They can simply say, you provided the wrong info, and throw the onus back on you. It would be more work on their part to create a "clear and concise" application form for people to use. A country like Canada or the USa would have created a fill-able PDF for you to use.

I've noticed this theme in many other aspects of dealing with the Polish government. They set you up for failure from the beginning. You shoot, you miss, its your fault for not knowing that you were supposed to shoot the OTHER target. ;-)

 

In many ways they hope you give up, especially if your case is not 100% obvious. I won't give up. Will get them the information that they want.

 

Hi all my name is Michael from Sydney, Australia

I'll just explain my story, my dad came from Poland in 1962 at the age of 13 to Australia. He travelled on his mothers passport (which i have no idea where it is) however i have his birth certificate and a polish certification of judaism (no idea why he has that but its in polish)

Anyway I'm looking to get Polish citizenship followed by Polish Passport and after reading this forum it just seems like such an arduous ordeal that takes forever and is really hard...but i think most people are trying to claim via grandparents or even grandparents.

So I was just wondering if anyone has actually done the process on their own, was it really hard? (are my two documents enough) and how long did the whole process from the beginning to the passport in your hand take?

Thanks all and good luck to everyone applyin

 

Hi fat_michael. I strongly recommend e-mailing your story to Krystyna at Lost Histories (www.losthistories) and asking her what she thinks. She's the person handling my case (even though I'm in NYC), and she is based in Australia. She's very fair with her pricing. I am in constant contact with her and I am expecting a reply from Warsaw very soon. Best of luck.