British male with Polish background. Marriage in Poland.

POLAND . The Unofficial Guide

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Apr 28, 10, 14:16 #1

Please please can you help?

I'll give you a summary of my dilema! (beurocracy again! With "the time of the essesnce" mixed in too :-( ... [Apologies for the lengthened post however all details are in here].

Okay, Im a British Male (Polish Background - both Parents) Im also Roman Catholic with all the waypoints under the belt (Christening, confirmation etc...), I'm getting married this July in Poland in a Roman Catholic Church...To a Polish Woman (who is Roman Catholic with all the waypoints under her belt (Christening, confirmation etc...) in Poland in a Roman Catholic Church (a konkordowy wedding).

Okay so the stage I'm at at the moment is that we have been to the priest here in britain (a polish parish) and he has agreed everything and the paperwork is being sent from the parish to london, then to poland, then to end up at the church of marriage in poland.

On this said paperwork both of us are registered at a british address. (the reason given is that because we reside here this is our "local" parish)... So the Religeous side is being sorted. No Probs here!

My fiancee will be sorting out the civil documents out in Poland... No Probs here!

For myself however i've just been today to the local registry office to get "my certificate of no inpediment" sorted (which will take approx 15days or so but the wheels are in motion) and on the certificate I have us both at our british address (the same as the parish documents state). But..... Because my Fiancee is "registered on her dowód osobisty" in poland "with a polish address" ... I am now s*it scared that the gmina will not accept any of our documents as there may be inaccuraces in address'.

I also understand that my british documents will need to be Apostilled and translated to be then handed in at the gmina. (which souldnt be a problem)

Will this address thing screw things up or will everything be okay???? Please please help!

Thanking you in Advance
Adrian.

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Apr 30, 10, 17:31 #2

Hey

I don't think there should be any problem. I got married to an Irish dude, myself being Polish.
We got married in Registry Office in Ireland last year and we are having the catholic blessing (I think that's the proper name cause legally we are already married) in the Catholic Church in August over in Poland.
After getting married in IRL I had to let our gmina ;) know that I'm married to be able to change my name in my passport and all that, so we went with all translated documents over to Poland and had it sorted within a day. On my wedding cert from Irl you can see my Irish address. In gmina they put both addresses (my polish and irish one) in their files. Priest did the same so everyone is happy :)

I'm guessing then the address doesn't really matter.

Congrats and good luck!!

TwojPrestigeThreads: - Posts: 14 Joined: Jul 2, 09 ♀	May 5, 10, 00:16 #3
I don't think there will be any problem. In which city will you get married?

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May 5, 10, 18:06 #4

Czesc Wam !,

Thank you for getting back to me on my issue! It looks like by your experiences I should be fine.... (Phew!) So thank you once again :-)

However....

Do any of you (or others reading this) know if the UK Certificate of No Impediment will have my parents details (as it was requested that these details are on the certificate) however I don't recall them asking about "my parents details" when I went to the registry office ???

Is it something that comes as standard when I pick the certificate up? or do I need to make a special request for it?

Thank you again :-/

LisicaThreads: - Posts: 7 Joined: Nov 7, 08 ♀	Edited by: Lisica May 8, 10, 17:37 #5
Hey Your Birth Cert will have your parents' details. That should be enough.

TRUE FACT

May 8, 10, 19:57 #6

Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but in Poland anything is possible.

It all depends where you are getting wed ( what region ) and who deals with your paperwork.
I had a rotten jobsworth of a cow who insisted having things done HER way, over and above what the British embassy said.
I will keep it brief, it was forms, translations, and more forms and translations and .......
When I got clever with her by saying that she was more important than the British governments representative in Poland (ie. the embassy) she told me to get married in the UK.

Only via the intervention of the towns president did the matter get resolved. I guess because of the shame the matter could have caused had it gone further.

Don,t breathe easy yet my freiend, there may be obstacles awaiting you.
Double check, treble check exactly what details of yours they require translations for.

Hope this saves you time, patience, and cost, as it did me.

Good luck, regards from a normal civilized person.

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May 9, 10, 15:57 #7

Can I just thank you once again for replying to my questions!

Lisica - I really do hope they will accept the birth certificate, as I am day by day convinced that the certificate of no inpediment from my registry office won't have my parents details on it. Fingers crossed! :-/

True Fact - Thank you too for sharing your experience ! I can relate to this slightly... as my parents who have land wanted to get foundations laid for a garage... to cut a long story short and much hair pulling later there was still running around getting ink stamps on diffrent pieces of crappy paper!

Update:

I have been informed by the Polish consulat in Manchester (who are very friendly and helpful I must add.) that I now require a „zapewnienie” (letter of assurance).

A phone call to the "Urzęd Stanu Cywilnego", And the not so nice lady (with a raised voice now p*ssed off that Im calling every 5-6 days to confirm these new hoops I need to jump through).. has stated that she'll sort it out when we arrive in Poland! (2 weeks before wedding) However it is stated (now twice) by the consulat in Manchester this needs to be sorted at "in worst case 1 month" before wedding!

What the hell is going on with people making there own f*cking rules up! J*sus C*rist!

The wedding will be in a small viilage/town in the podkarpackie area of poland. So not in a big city/town. Which doesnt bode well It seems!

In the wrost case scenareo that she won't accept my documents can the "Wójt" do anything to help the matter out?

Please Please can someone answer me back!!!

P.S. True fact - can you please go into some more detail on what documents you had to sort out from the "b*tch from hell" when it was your wedding! It would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

Rece mi opadaja! / Help! :-(

TRUE FACT

May 14, 10, 20:44 #8

Can,t you just pretend to be married....... just joking.

polski_anglik5:

"Urzęd Stanu Cywilnego"

These guys required original birth certificate plus translation ( in my case )

certificate of no inpediment ........ translation.

The church, who ask for all your christening, communion and confirmation certificates.....
wouldnt accept mine because the forms failed to have " Roman catholic " printed on them.
( as if this was any fault of mine )

The priest required a testament stating that I was single and not a bigamist etc, but was happy that this declaration was signed by my mother ( who could have been a hired actress )

Now, your biggest ally and aid, should be the priest ( being that you are marrying in his parish ) , hope he,s a good one.

Other than that, anything you require at the 11th hour, just go and doctor it on the internet and print out. ( friends marrying after I did in Poland done it and no one was none the wiser. )

Sorry for the delay in responding, only not on here all the time.

polski_anglik5:

Update:

looks like its starting already.

polski_anglik5:

What the hell is going on with people making there own f*cking rules up! J*sus C*rist!

Thats just the way it is in Poland..... keep calm, you,ll get more results when you,re here with the fiancee ( who knows the system, " when in Rome " )
And remember, don,t lower yourself to their level .........

♂

Edited by: Moderator Jun 4, 10, 20:43 #9

MANY THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING:

LISICA, TWOJ PRESTIGE, & TRUE FACT.

Thank you for answering my call of help and detailing your own experiences that have helped me to the place I am now... That is... Not yet married... however in a few weeks I will be... as today after faxing my documents through they have been confirmed as "Good enough".

*phhhhew!!!*

Guys thankyou... and God Bless / Hope each one of you win the Lottery!

I will post my experience so that I can now somehow help other people !!!

===================

Short Story:

Ok so to cut a long story short I've faxed my documents over and they've been *accepted !!!* I am to now take my originals to the USC (urzad Stanu Cywilny) physically as soon as we get to Poland. (Hopefully by that time the Roman Catholic Church Documents will be at the church also!)

Long Story:
This will be a long piece of writing and therefore is to help people that "will be/are in" the same situation as me "now/in the future" (Please take note this information is correct as of June 2010). and hopefully will help someone who is pulling there hair out with the bureaucracy they have just found out about. I'm writing what happened to me and any help I can offer for you.

Okay so as stated in the first post I am a British born male with my parents being of Polish origin ... I have been through all the Roman Catholic hoops and have everything from Baptism to Confirmation (through a Polish RC Church in the East Mids)... and as you’ve guessed now is the time to get married... I will be marrying a Polish girl in Poland who is also roman catholic... and who has also jumped through the Roman catholic hoops (through a Polish RC Church in Poland)... we will together be getting married in "her" RC church having a konkordatowy wedding (Civil & Church together)... Firstly get the church documents out of the way... get to the priest to post all your Church documents to London then to Poland...

So now you can concentrate on the Civil documents...so due to me being British i will need to submit my British documents to the USC (urzad Stanu Cywilny) in the town i will be getting married in Poland... All I can recommend for yourself is to ask and ask and ask these people at the USC as it WILL be slightly different for every other town location in Poland (I know it shouldn’t be but it unfortunately is) ... Okay so my documents will need to be ones that are issued (by British officials) NOT MORE THAN 3 MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING DATE...

For myself I found out I required...*1* A "certified copy" of my Birth Certificate (just contact the Registry office of the town you are born and after a bit of form filling and handing over £7.50, i had it posted to me.. the certificate looks great! and you'll be happy with your purchase... *2* A certificate of No Impediment from your local registry office, this will be issued after 21 days (So it's already eating into your 3 months limit).. so after these 21 days you get a flimsy piece of paper which could of been done on Micro$oft Excel, with a signature on it!... (Trust me you'll think WTF is this!?!)... *3* a „zapewnienie” (letter of assurance). This can be issued from the Polish Konsulat in Manchester (as I’m from the East Midlands Territory) but PLEASE NOTE I DID NOT REQUIRE THIS DOCUMENT as I was told by the USC in the town in Poland that they'll do it 2 weeks before the wedding, I told this to the Konsulat who said it was my risk and I need to be 100% sure on this issue as they can not be held responsible for the wedding not taking place!...

I then contacted the USC back in Poland who again assured me that they'll do it 2 weeks before... So it has been left at that!.... Anyhow back to the British documents... you have to now get your ass over to Milton Keynes FCO to get these two documents legalised "Apostilled" (so they can be accepted in Poland) around £60 it cost for this and if you turn up you'll have them back in your hands in approx 90mins.with legal stamps all over them! (Excellent Place!) ...

So now as you have legalised British Civil Documents with you they need to be Sworn-translated (this was done for me by the Polish Konsulat in Manchester for approx £50 After personally dropping them off (please also see the „zapewnienie” issue before) I received them through the post in 7days ... These were then faxed over and then I called to confirm they are correct over the phone. ... RESULT!!!

HELPFUL NOTES: Ask the USC in the town in Poland you are getting married exactly what you need!.
Remember that the Documents need to be issued and be only 3 months old "MAX".
You will need to make prior appointments for your Certificate of no impediment at the local uk registry office and at the konsulat for the sworn translation.
You can turn up on the day at The Milton Keynes FCO just take a ticket and wait your turn!.
The way i organised it for myself (using annual leave from work). is that after 21days I received my C.o.N.I from the Registry office on a Thursday... then Friday went to Milton Keynes FCO for the legalised Apostile stamps and the Monday after weekend (and with prior appointment) turned up at at the Polish Konsulat to hand over documents for translating.

GOOD LUCK AND HOPEFULLY THIS SOMEWHAT HELPS!!

polski_anglik5

TRUE FACT	Jun 4, 10, 23:27 #10
Happy to hear you scaled the MOUNTAIN. All my best wishes and I hope your wife to be appreciates all you,ve been through to make it possible. " It must be love "....... UB40

Lucy_pol_brit

Apr 14, 11, 00:16 #11

Hi
I have been reading your messages.. maybe you can help.
I am british, and polish (dual nationality), born in Manchester. I am marrying my partner who is British, via a concordat wedding in August 2011 (in Krakow).
Your situation already sounds easier than ours!
As i hold a polish passport.... i do not need a certificate of no impediment.. apparently.

We are due to apply for my partners certificate of no impediment next week, which will be 'issued' 21 days later. The issuing date will be within the 3 month validity period before the wedding (being issued 6th May, and our wedding taking place 4th Aug). We have been told by the polish consulate in Manchester that this is fine. I read however that you 'applied' for your certificate of no impediment 3 months before the wedding, THEN waited 21 days, which ate in to your 3 months. Were you told this was the only way by the polish authorities??

I'd would be grateful if you could let me know your views on this matter...
Lucy

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Apr 14, 11, 01:30 #12

Lucy_pol_brit:

I read however that you 'applied' for your certificate of no impediment 3 months before the wedding, THEN waited 21 days, which ate in to your 3 months. Were you told this was the only way by the polish authorities??

That's how I did it - I was advised to do it like this to avoid any doubts at all.

For what it's worth, if you already live in the UK, then your local council can issue the document - no need to mess around with the British Embassy.

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