Polish visa - Nightmare!

Help!

Iv booked my flight back to poland (to hopefuly live happily ever after) and today i went to the Polish embassy in London where i was given an application for to stay in Poland +90 days.
This is what is required to apply. I was so shocked that theres so much red-tape involved to go live there, when all i want to do is live happy and work hard!

*fill in the form (11 pages) in Polish
*4 photographs
*My CV, translated into Polish
*My birth certificate
*My marrage certificate (if married to a pole)
*A certificate of earnings from the inland revenue
*A police clearance document to state i havnt been naughty
*an 'invitation from a relative in Poland' - to be submitted to a regional office
*Documents confirming my financial resources
*my pasport....

Plus over £100, does this not seem deeply unfair, ocncidering all my boyfriend had to do to live here was register with the home office?

if anyone can help or shed light on how to aquire the above various documents, please do.

Much love
very stressed KatieKasia
x

I don't understand what the problem is. I may sound harsh, but as far as I am concerned, you wanted to move to Poland and that is what you need to do.

Collect the required documents asap, or jus tgo there for 90 days as a turists if you want to avoid the red tape.

nothing new.... i have to fill out lots of papers and spend lots of money to live in the US... that's how it is... no complains...

and nobody translates those papers into Polish only because i am Polish...

that's funny lol, to give foreign people 11 pages to fill up in... Polish lmao! (sorry Katie, I'm sure it doesn't look so funny from your perspective :)

get your boyf to help you translate .. but you would need to have some understanding of the language to get by anyways



2 will probably be attached to paperwork and the 2 others on cards you may need and will only cost £4.50 in a photobooth



This needs to be done by a professional translator as they will have to confirm that they have done it and stamp it etc - rates vary but not cheap



This will need translating into polish as well by an official translator i believe



To prove your income and to be sure you can support yourself



CRB criminal Records Check costs £36 for a standard disclosure and enchanced one for teaching or hospital work costs more



new one on me



Usually your job in Poland gives you this along with your current bank statement showing you have sufficient savings to survive and not sponge of the state



to prove you are you



its going to cost you more than just over £100 love ... !


in the words of O-Ren Ishii --- "You didnt think it was going to be that easy did you!"

this is to make sure that immigrants from some strange 3rd world countries can't enter poland for some suspicious reasons.this is for your own safety.the government just make sure that you can provide for yourself.i read about a case when a visa for an ukrainian woman was turned down because her polish husbands earnings were insufficient. i think it's quite fair because you have to really want to come to poland and make an effort to do so.

I don't get It... Does she need that crap as a British citizen... ?

Sorry,

I didnt mean to sound rude or ungreatful, i am looking forward to moving there and i hope to be there for the long haul so i dont want to make it sound like im just 'not bothered' to do all the paperwork. I was just misslead by what many of my polish friends had said, there rational being that: because they dont need anything to come here, surley i wont to go there. so it was a bit of a shock! My boyfriend is happy to sort out my translations etc and i can get everything (apart from the police check wich can take 50+ days) and as im leaving on the 18th of this month i was hoping to have everything in place before i went.
If worst comes to worst ill just have to come back after 3 months and go out again with renewed vigour, but i also cant work until i get it so i cant earn any money.
Thanks for all the responses (the constructive ones anyway) and the advice.

Cheers
KatieKasia

Are you British? If you are, surely you can carry on being UK tax resident and working and paying tax on your Polish income in the UK, until you exceed the obligatory 180 days in a year?

Just think if u wanted to live in USA what u would half to do:)

My thoughts too!
I didn't even need to go through half of this when I moved here over eight years ago.

Poland is obviously a lot more fussy than the UK....!

Damn... May I spologize for that... ?

czesc. it must be traumatic for you but thank you for your story because it will help me prepare for exactly the same thing. sigh.

If you are British, they can not ask you for any of that ****. The list which they have given you is for non-EU citizens.

If you are British, you can safely ignore that list and just go to Poland. Once here you go to the local Foreigners Office (for you it will be in Gdansk) and register there. The Polish consulate in UK has nothing to do with the process at all.

If you want to make a little cash, go back to the consulate and point out that you are British and are they sure they have given you the right information. If they say yes, I can put you in touch with a couple of journalists who will buy that story.

I have recently moved here and opened my own company. I did not have to provide any documentation before I left the UK. The process in Poland can get a little tricky at times but if your b/f is polish you should be fine. If you have any questions I can let you know where I tripped up.

Whatever you do, do not pay them any money as this is not needed

Hallo,

Well i am in Poland now, and as it turns out the UK embassy where talking ****! I spoke to The town hall here in Gdynia and when i mentioned the London consulate the first word out of the blokes mouth was 'Kurwa!' so thats what he thinks of them...he told me they havnt updated there info in about 7 years and are constantly getting people coming to them with the same problem.
But just to put anyone elce that wants to come out here at ease - im here, im ok and i dont need any silly paper work!

katiekasia
x

Simply, if you're Brittish, you need do feck all apart from register in the country. Even the Americans and Ozzy's need not worry, though by law they should get visa, no action will ever be taken agains them. Though Indians are another matter, i rented my spare room to one, and i had the police chapping at the door to confirm he had all the paper work. Only if they donethat with me, i could have missed the 5 hours waiting in E.U citizens office....:D

I absolutely think you should complain to the MSZ (ministry of foreign affairs)

If they're taking money, it might be crooked employees who are collecting money and not reporting it, in which case they need to get their asses fired.
If it's merely incompetence they need a fire lit under them. The Polish embassy in London has enough to do with trying to deal with local Polish people's problems without harrassing (or shaking down?) EU citizens about vias.

Some years ago a friend of mine received faulty information from a Polish embassy and getting it sorted out was a _huge_ headache. At one point there phone calls to the MSZ were made and they took down the name of the individual who'd made the mistake and they got ripped a new one.

Typical Poland, bribe first...maybe sort it out later...

Fortunatly i have little intrest on gaining money from this situation, however i certainly will raise the problem through the correct channels.
But in my case, I am more than happy that i am here, happy and safe. looking for a job and looking forward to a long and happy life by the Baltic.

KatieKasia

x

and I see less and less Poles moaning about life in UK and more and more Brits moaning about life in Poland.

Yup, for a Brit to enter Poland and have to pay money, what do you think it is??

C'mon Lukasz, your country still has some area's it needs to catch up on. For instance, i was told that to get my Persol number it would cost about 100 pounds....ahem, this is free. That aint the only experience of this matter i've come across.

Actually, they KatieK didn't moan about life in Poland. She wanted to go there. When in Poland she received the good news that the process is much simpler than she had been previously told.

She moaned about visa process that took place outside of Poland.

Pole who has been born in Poland has to pay money for obigatory ID etc...
I don't know this case you mentioned and I am not going to argue. Buraucracy in comparion to UK is bigger.

I agree.

But one of the benefits of being in the E.U is that every person should have free right to move, work in every country. Whether its a Pole in the uk, or a mere scotsman in poland, i dont understand why the embassy should be tackleing this when really, there is no restriction in movement.

Also, im not complaining, i've lived here for many years, i just want to see the younger generation take over this country and complete it's potential. Just because i complain, doesnt mean i cant see the reasons behind what needs to be done.

I'd consider it as mistake made by bureaucrats not special policy. IMO it should change soon.

Im glad we can both see the same picture. I know alot of brits complain about Poland, but actually, it can be a good thing. Sometimes you need outsiders to point out the things that need to change. Still im not paying my bloody internet providers anything, half the time i have no net!! :/

It is not normal. Chnage your provider or call them and ask what is going on.



you know everything is process and most of Poles know what is wrong and what should be done. Progress is noticable espeacialy when we look how it was 10 years ago.

How to say it hmmmm Poland isn't USA :) but it is much closer to USA than it was in the past.

Lets say when we look on bureaucracy or taxes we are in many cases in much better situation than Germans. Still a lot of work has to be done.

as to outsiders pointing out that roads in Poland are worst than in Germany :) we know that our roads are worst than German :) and there is progress in this case but I doubt that tomorow everything will be done.

It is process.

I agree totally, it takes time to rebuild a country, to make it a place on the map ect. but im sue you agree, some of this paper work needs to be cut out. its a shame that a few people will lose their jobs because the times are changing, but its to the countries benefit.

On the question of my ISP, theres only oe in my street, every time i complain he says its my computers fault. Tomorrow im giving lessons with Onet guys who have heard me complaining so much they now want to test it:)

I say walk on Poland, every country has its problems, but its how you deal with them that makes the difference:)

so you know guys who move this country forward.




agree :)

No f*cktard, the visa process was to take place inside Poland. If she'd been told by somebody in the UK that she needed to pay for something which was free, she could report the fraudster to the British police. However as the shakedown took place in the Polish consulate, which is of course legally part of Poland, she'd need to complain to the Polish police.

hey, katie, nice to meet u again~~~
I'm glad you are now in Gdynia, happily~~~

This is all very hard to believe. As somebody wrote before - it has to be something for non-EU citizens. As a Belgian I can live and work here without problems.
No need to have a work permit. You register with your local Gmina to get your meldunek and then you go in Warsaw to the Foreigner's office on ul. Długa 5 where the very friendly girls in the EU section you will issue you a "Karta Pobytu" (Residence Card" for EU citizens.

- You're obviously not from any EU country? What is your country? I know much more nightmarish countries than Poland as regards obtaining visa, red tape, etc. For example US and Canada. If obtaining a Polish visa is allegedly a nightmare, is there any word in human language to describe difficulties in obtaining visas from those countries? Don't you exaggerate big time? And before Poland joined EU many Poles trying to visit UK were simply not allowed to do that and were fiercely harassed by customs people. So what is your country?

Im from the UK and as i stated before everything is sorted and im now living and working here. end of.

x

- If you're from the UK, why would you have any visa problems when entering Poland? Citizens of UK (and of any other EU country) can enter Poland visa-free. So what's the whoop? Didn't you make up the entire horror story? Didn't you vilify my country for no other reason than your prejudice?

No, she didn't. She was badly advised by some embassy staff.

That was Polish embassy staff, no?

Just in case there were any further misunderstandings.

yes, read the first post in this thread.. but I doubt she will want to bother answering Puzzy's vitriolic post. why the hell would she make it up! get a life...