Poland gives many opportunities to those who are its fully-fledged citizens. Being a Polish citizen allows you to not only travel around Europe with no border controls or visa restrictions, but also work, study or live freely wherever you would like to. Polish citizenship seems to be very beneficial. No wonder why foreigners are interested in obtaining it, which is possible for the ones who can prove their connections with our nationality. In today’s article, we would like to focus on the issue of Polish citizenship. What are the ways of acquiring Polish citizenship, and what formalities a foreigner must meet before he decides to lodge an official motion? You will find more below!
Eligibility for Polish citizenship – what should you know?
Polish citizenship as a legal institution is strictly regulated by the currently in force Act on Polish citizenship. Depending on an individual’s case citizenship may be granted by the President of the Republic of Poland or confirmed by the Voivode. The main point is a foreigner who would like to hold dual citizenship – the citizenship of the country of his birth and the citizenship of Poland – has to meet several basic conditions and prove his eligibility for the whole process.
We decided to mention it for one simple reason. There are a few common ways of obtaining citizenship, and that means each case is assessed individually. For example, if an individual holds foreign citizenship but also is of Polish origin, there is a possibility he could take part in the confirmation process and become a citizen of Poland too. After he proves his descent and the fact his ancestors did not lose citizenship on the way, confirming his Polish citizenship is just a formality. If the individual does not have Polish ancestry, the list of formal requirements to apply for Polish citizenship to the President is really short and mainly concerns confirmation of identity. It is worth mentioning he should indicate his connections with Poland in the application, and based on that, wait for the President’s decision. Check https://fivetoeurope.com for more info!
Ways of acquiring Polish citizenship
According to Polish current regulations, Polish citizenship is passed via the right of blood which means an individual derives it from a parent, parent from grandparent and grandparent from great-grandparent whether he was born in Poland or abroad. The right of soil is the second way to get Polish citizenship. It only applies to a child who was born or found on the territory of Poland and his parents are unknown or he does not hold any other citizenship. If it comes to children, currently there is also an option to acquire citizenship by full adoption. The only condition to be met is that the child must be under 16. In such cases, an adopted child acquires citizenship from his parents who are of Polish origin and at the same time, they also hold Polish citizenship.
Being a fully-fledged citizen of Poland seems to be great, doesn’t it? Did you know there are more ways to become a Polish citizen? Here they are!
Polish citizenship confirmation
The process of Polish citizenship confirmation applies to an individual who is of Polish origin but still does not have his citizenship confirmed. As we mentioned before, the Voivode has the competence to confirm a foreigner citizenship as his request. We will not give you a straight answer on how long the process takes. It depends on the difficulty of the case. What do we mean by saying that? If an individual has the documentation proving his descent and the fact Polish citizenship was not lost on the way, the process takes less time. The citizenship confirmation may get complicated if it is needed to conduct research across archives in Poland and not only to find any evidence of his eligibility. Once the outcome is positive, a foreigner has to lodge a motion at the Voivodeship Office.
Grant of the Polish citizenship
If you were wondering if it is possible for a foreigner who is not of Polish origin to apply for Polish citizenship, the answer is quite simple. Yes, it is! In such cases, the President of the Republic of Poland has the competence to grant citizenship. What’s important, he acts as the Head of State which means he is not bound to any regulations or even deadlines. The President decides which reasons indicated in the citizenship application are sufficient enough and based on that he issues consent.
Before you decide to lodge a motion for Polish citizenship confirmation or citizenship application, check your eligibility. If everything goes well, you will become part of the Polish nationality.