Polish citizenship | Polish passport

How to get Polish citizenship and a Polish passport?

Why do immigration lawyers exist at all? Because they have a lot of work to do – in every country, all around the world. Even if we have an old Polish passport belonging to our ancestors, there are much more aspects that are important for us to be given Polish citizenship – military service completed abroad, jobs our ancestors did abroad, time when our ancestors left Poland, time when our ancestors acquired foreign citizenship, marriages with foreign citizens – all these details are crucial, if we want to get Polish citizenship and a Polish passport. Polish law is very complex in this matter – even though only few acts (Polish Citizenship Acts) bring regulations to this issue. Even 10 provisions from these Acts combined with 10 another provisions from other Acts can result in hundreds and hundreds of problems – but also – in hundreds of opportunities at the same time…. And that is why the help of a Polish lawyer could be crucial.

To confirm our Polish citizenship we have to draw up a really fine application and get ready for all procedures the best we can. When we want to confirm our Polish citizenship and get a Polish passport we need to be prepared for the situation when our application is rejected by Polish authorities and Polish courts… And, if that is the case – it will be extremely hard to appeal against such a decision and – in some cases – it will be almost impossible.

So, speaking frankly, Yes – a Polish law office that specializes in the Polish citizenship law and knows how to deal with cases when people want to get a Polish passport, is really the best option possible.

Polish citizenship – why do we need good lawyer

Polish embassies do not provide any special assistance for people who want to apply there (by Polish consulates) – and it is OK, because Polish embassies do not have to offer help to all applicants – they only have to complete formalities. What is more, if we report our case to a Polish embassy, we will also have to pay some consular fees. And will take us money and much, much time to understand everything we need to know to start.

Situation is even more clear if we do not have any Polish documents – because to prepare for such a case we have to be sure that material we bring before a competent authority or the court in Poland will be enough to prove that our ancestors had Polish citizenship (if we only prove that they lived in Poland, we will not succeed…). Polish archives could keep many documents about our ancestors – these documents only need to be found and you are ready to use them during the procedure.

Procedure of acquiring Polish citizenship is not the same in every case – for example, Polish citizens who emigrated to Argentina and other Spanish – speaking countries could run into different problems than those likely to happen in Brasil (for example, there was an obligatory military service to be done in Brasil – and that was not the case in USA). Also, there were many different waves of emigration from Poland – for example, children from the Jewish communities who now want to apply for Polish citizenship could have problems with jobs their ancestors did in the past (or with army service). Sometimes, that could be the main reason their parents/grandparents lost Polish citizenship in the past.

Polish citizenship – mistakes people made

There were also situations when applicants thought that they were right candidates and the entire procedure will be a piece of cake – and suddenly realized that they did not have all the documentation required – and got negative decisions in the end (Polish authorities stated that they are not Polish citizens). The possibility of getting a Polish passport is no longer available for them.

Of course, a situation of people who do not have any Polish documents is another story. But even in these cases the procedure is possible after a deep and careful search in Polish archives. But it is also a hard task sometimes to find appropriate documents that let us be sure that we will get confirmation of Polish citizenship.

All these issues related to Polish citizenship and a Polish passport are only a small part of all the problems we can meet during the process. And that is the best reason why specialized legal assistance (good lawyer) may be really necessary.

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