Job Discussion Forums

stephabee · Joined: 28 Mar 2005 Posts: 7

Hello! I'm a Canadian citizen and hope to be teaching in Poland this fall. I already have my flight booked and leave in June. I'll be travelling in Portugal with a friend for a few weeks, volunteering in Krakow for a month, and in August I'll be taking the TESOL course in Prague.

The plan until now has been to find a job in Wroclaw or Gdansk following my course in Prague. However, yesterday I was told by someone that I would need to come back to Canada in order to get my work visa, after being offered a job. This is the first time I've heard this and if it's true it could really put a damper in my plans!

Can anyone tell me if this is 100% true? I know some people work illegally and make border runs every 3 months but I'd rather not do that!Should I find a job before I leave Canada to avoid this? Any advice would really be appreciated! Thank you!

Stephanie

junkmail · Joined: 19 Dec 2004 Posts: 377

Well I found this:

patrykt · Joined: 18 Aug 2004 Posts: 51

I would agree with junkmail; call the Polish embassy nearest you for details. They botched my work visa so when I arrived in Poland my employer politely told me to fly back to Los Angeles for a day to get a new visa. To cut a long a story short, we worked it out. I can assure that Poland is rife with red tape and hair-pulling-out experiences. Grow some thick skin before you get here.

Alex Shulgin · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 553

There are two shortcuts, one legal and one not. The legal shortcut is to register as living in a country closer to Poland than Canada. For example if you have a parent who is a British citizen then you can register as a resident of the UK and so go to London for your visa. The illegal shortcut is to take the train to Berlin and then DHL your passport to Canada (complete with the exit stamp for having left Poland) and get them to take the passport to the Polish consulate. The problem is that all visa applications should be made in person the consulate reserve the right to ask for a face to face interview for any visa and if your face is in Berlin that will be hard.

gregoryfromcali · Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:23 pm Post subject:

The short answer is "Yes."

But at some schools it isn't a problem as some places fidn their own loopholes.

MrQuack · Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 8 Location: Australia

As far as I know, it's necessary to get the visa while in your home country. Alex Shulgin's suggestion of registering as a UK resident if one of your parents is a citizen is one option, but if one of your parents is a citizen of the UK or Ireland (or a grandparent in the case of Ireland) then you are eligible for citizenship as well. If you're a UK or Irish Citizen, then you don't need to worry about visas because Poland's in the EU.

gregoryfromcali · Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:50 am Post subject:

You may also want to know that there are a lot of Americans here that don't have papers.

Although I think it can get in the way as I was working at one school that would have hired me if I was willing to go home that summer to process my visa. But I didn't want to go home as I had just arrived a few months before that.

Yet at the school I finally did settle down with they had me get my visa when I went home for holidays.

My advice would be to get a return ticket if you really want to have the visa. Otherwise if you are not planning on being here for more than a year I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I originally wanted a visa because my girlfriend is Polish and I figured getting kicked out of the country may have made our relationship slightly difficult. But now I don't think I would be so worried as I have only seen immigration come to a school once and that was because someone was processing their visa.