$3,000-$4,000 a month - would we have enough money to live in Poland?

Contact your nearest Polish consulate and find out what the legal requirements are for your family, to relocate to PL.

warszawski

I did and it states:

Work permits
Working legally in Poland

Since Poland has joined the European Union, its rules and regulations regarding labour mobility are changing as they come into line with EU directives.

Citizens of EU member states and their family members do not need a work permit for Poland. Most non-EU citizens need a work visa and work permit in order work in Poland.

That is from the Polish Embassy!

It just comes down to she is scared to move from US. Oh well guess I do not have to worry about it anymore!

You still need a residence permit, however. That should be issued for 2 years - and yes, you can work quite legally on it.

Your husband will go. He is not a jerk and he loves you.
By coming to this forum to express his worries is prove enough that he is doing the right thing. Preparing.
He is asking whether or not you guys will make it with 3000$ a month. The answer is yes by most of the members. You guys have nothing to worry about. Poland is fine and despite all obstacles (which by the way, you will find obstacles in every country) you will make it just fine. I live in the U.S since 13 years ago and I just got blessed with Polish Citizenship. I'm seriously considering taking all of my savings and moving to Poland too. It will be hard and I will find many obstacles and people that will turn me down, but I'm still going and I know Poland offers a lot of opportunities to the ones that can see them. Believe it or not, I'm in a very similar business as yours. I own my own business doing maintenance and parking lot sweeping to shopping malls and retail centers. I identify with you and your husband for many reasons and I can tell you. GO!

You will not have 3000$ a month, but more, because you guys can also find little jobs to do. But despite all the money you could make, there is this one thing you have to do sometimes: "Stop climbing and making a fortune; and make sure you haven't lost the things that money cannot buy: Family and love". Your father is sick and this is the time for your family to be together. Your husband knows this and he will agree.

Good luck and God bless!

rent for an apartment or mortgage for a house!!?, i've never heard anyone paying more than 1200-1500 a month for either one, and that's in good neighborhoods. $2000 with all the utility bills i'd understand.

It is true that you can reside in Poland if your wife is a citizen of Poland, however you must first apply for a spouse visa at the Polish embassy in your country.

The spouse visa is the same as a residence permit and it allows you to work legally in Poland. A marriage certificate is not a substitute for a residence permit.

Some member states of the European Union allow foreign citizens to apply for a spouse visa at the immigration office in the country of their spouse.

To enter the European Union they would first need to apply for a tourist visa at the embassy in their country.

Citizens of the United States are exempt from this rule as they can stay in the European Union for 90 days as tourists without a visa.

I'm sure this information will come in handy as woman tend to change their mind quite often. My experience is that it is hardest for Americans to adjust to a new country, so I believe that your wife has some merit to be worried.

Only if they need a visa to enter Poland. If they can visit for 90 days as a tourist, they can just apply for a residence permit in Poland - which is much easier.

$3-4K USD / month is really good money in Poland. Poles make around $1k / month. I'm sure your wife will eventually find a job for 2-3K PLN / month and you guys will live better than most Poles (well even w/o her working you will).

Having a Polish wife will make it possible for you to live well in Poland. Most foreigners get ripped off and therefore need more $ to live on.

Right, that is why I mentioned to him that it might be possible to apply for a residence permit in Poland. So just to be clear: You need to apply for a Polish residence permit, which you can do once you arrive in Poland.


Yeah, being ripped off is even a problem for Polish people that live in other countries and come to Poland. Still, that happened quite frequently during communist times also. Cheating and greediness was even more of an issue back then. A lost and naive person would be spotted and considered a frajer, easy pray to scam. Poland is definitely no place for naive people.

A common scam was when Polish people came to Belarus and were told they had to pay more because a percentage would go to Poland. Of course they were never told this if they did not notice that they were being scammed.

Just don't expect to get a job in Poland unless you are well educated and speak Polish. If you have some specialist knowledge that is in demand then you might not even need to speak Polish. There are of course exceptions but in general Poland has no need for uneducated foreigners.

Ni it's not. It's what it is where I'm am. Property tax is included however and it's what kills people here. Our town has a lot businesses so we pay $700 dollars a month, but in the neighboring towns you would pay $1,300 monthly on a property like ours (which is nothing special BTW).

You can move to a different town and get a 2 bedroom for little more than $1000 dollars but you would be sending your kids to crappy schools.

Where on earth do you live? $8400 usd per year in property taxes. Thats outrageous, ten times what I pay in London for instance.

Marynka11 maybe you're trying to have a lifestyle you really can't afford? we're not all born princes and princesses.

New Jersey, USA. I think it's outrageous too. But not quite as outrageous as $13,000 that my friend pays, one town away (for an average house as well).


I missed the part where I complained about not being able to afford it.

To be fair, it's probably about equal in the end - there's no 20% VAT in America ;)

And I posted some facts. That's all. And it's a fact that people in NJ are upset how high the property taxes are.

Your quotes have been on the money. To live in the states you need about $5 grand/month.
(and I live in rural midwest).
If your young, dumb and single, you can scrape by with less.

Again ! Thank you all so much for your input !! I wish she would not be so scared and change her mind ..... But there is only so much I can do, I offered and if she does not take it.. well .. then her bad! Again, Thank you ALL!!!

s2good2

Ok, I do not know if anyone is following this thread anymore but, My question... My wife said (apparently she is thinking of moving again (Wow the up's and down's of having a wife (Polish)))My son needs to be in a Private English school. She says it would be easier for him to transfer to Poland and then back to USA. It costs 1036 zl/month. Is this really necessary? He speaks Polish fluently, of course he does not know every word, just like every six year old. When he was in Poland a little over a year ago, he attended Kindergarten and adjusted just fine and loved school. Please tell me what you all think.

Thank you,

Shawn

Just send him to a Polish school. Will work out just fine. My father sent me to local schools in France, Belgium, and Germany and I've never regretted it. As long as you keep talking English to your son and your wife Polish, he'll have the best of both worlds and he'll be/stay bilingual.

Its coming, have no fear.

private school might mean smaller classes. it also means classmates from all parts of town.

Result: not easy to see friends after school hours.

regular school: probably close to home... friends live local.

level of education: probably no difference. at least for six-year-olds.

put the money in the bank for your son or a rainy day.

Shawn,
I lean towards "Wroclaw's" school explanation. Education system in Poland in comparison to US's (for public school), has much stronger and better education. You will be fine to send him to public school in PL. He will gain a lot even when he goes back to US public school; and without a trouble if private elementary school in US will await him after return. This what I know from experience.

Many responds from members are very truthful and helpful.
Your wife should not be worry so much. You 'guys' has this Life for trying all, Go for It. You will have all support in here as well as in Poland (her Family and Friends).

I will send you my email, if you need more explanations in many areas (for comparison in US and PL).

The first thing I would point out to you is that 1036 PLN/month is not expensive as far as international/English schools in PL. Your wife needs to contact the school and establish exactly how many native English speaking children are in the class. My guess would be less than 10% in Tri-city. If that is the case, your money would be well spent putting your child into a good Polish private school, with English as the second language. You should also discuss the situation with your sons school in US. They may be able to advise you, on the best ways to keep up your sons American schooling,during your stay in PL. It could be in the form of online classes or maybe you can buy the American work books in advance for the period your family will be out.

As a native English speaking child, your son will be well ahead of other children in respect of english language/reading/writing, so use the time to acquire the second language skills.

What are you doing with your house in the US? Selling, renting out, or what?
If you rent out to other people while you are gone, that's another source of income for you.

We are currently are renting! So, no income from that but also no worries of having to sell either. My problem, we have a car that we owe about 22,000.00 (upside down a bit) what to do with that? really do not want to make the $ 400.00 a month payment while gone. Ideas???

What is the make/year and model of the car?

It is a 2009 (Bought it new in 2010 in one of the closeout sales) Kia Optima I know I am way upside down, had to put some of last car on this loan. That is why I am asking for other ideas of what to do with car while gone.

Thanks!

Sell it and pay the loan off.

No way he will get any decent money.


You can ship it to PL as a "mienie przesiedlencze" without duties and taxes,but my guess is you would have to pay it off first.

Hi Shawn,

A couple of things you might not be aware of...

Since you mention that you are calculating your income "after taxes", are you aware that US citizens overseas that are exempt from paying US taxes on the first $91,500 per year. In addition, you are able to claim some housing and relocation expenses.

In order to claim these exemptions, you must declare your residence as outside of the US and demonstrate proof of spending at least 330 days outside of the US during the tax year.

As you are self-employed, you will simply need to state that you are sending yourself overseas to explore possible business expansion opportunities, etc.

irs.gov/faqs/content/0,,id=199926,00.html

Regarding shipping a car, it really isn't that expensive as you are able to waive import tariffs/VAT for ONE vehicle. Within 3 years, you must either ship the car back or pay the import tariffs/VAT. If you transfer the title or sell the car at any time during this period, you will be obligated to pay import tarriffs/VAT.

I do suggest that you explore opportunities for business in Europe. This will be a considerably different sort of opportunity than in the US, but nevertheless, it seems you have some experience that may prove valuable.

For example, as you have experience with brokering and managing commercial cleaning projects, it seems there would be some similar opportunities to be found. As you are working with venues and subcontractors, there could likely be a model roughly similar.

I suggest you consider the idea of exploring opportunities for brokering commercial cleaning contracts in the UK (since it would be easiest because of language) that would be fulfilled by Polish contractors (since you are there, you can focus on developing relationships with reliable subcontractors that would send workers to Poland).

I think you will find that while some details will be a bit different (you will definitely need to spend some time digging into various differences in law), the general concepts are the same.

Regarding continuing your business using an international cell phone, I would suggest to make it much more simple... you can transfer that existing number to an account with various providers, such as Google Voice, Phone.com or Skype, and receive the calls in Europe through a broadband connection.

While you're at it, get a Netflix account and a VPN account from strongVPN, and you're able to connect a Netflix box to your TV... makes the transition a bit smoother.

Anyway, I've been living outside of the US for about 10 years now. It was a bit rough at first, but now can't imagine going back.

Hope it was helpful.

Wow! A lot of good information! Thank you soooooooo much ! I will be looking into starting something there if we go (she still has not made up her mind and it is driving me crazy!) If we are going we need to start planning NOW!

Again, thanks for the info. Please ALL opinions from Many are wanted and appreciated

Shawn

How do I look for Flats In Gdynia? (Morska Area) I can not find anything online except for Luxury "getaways" renting fully furnished Flats by the week. Is there a web site that actually list flats for rent by the month? (unfurnished).