Job Discussion Forums

[dynow]

july to december......not surprising.

yeah, this will be my 2nd renewal, and i anticipate it taking no less than 4 months. the most ridiculous part of it is that even if you're on your 2nd or 3rd card, or in your case Jack, your 5th, they still go through the mandatory 3 month review period. plus, I had a policeman visit my apt. every time as part of the review process.

[Jack Walker]

I know,it's complete madness.Let me tell you an interseting story about my last card renewal.

As I said,I applied for the card in July.

Anyway,one Friday night at about 8pm in early September, just a few days before my vacation to Canada,I was greeted by the gate doorbell ringing.We live in a house in a more rural area and Friday night doorbell rings are a rare occurence.

My mother-in-law rushed into the living room to tell me in Polish that 3 "immigration agents" were here to see me.As it was a Friday evening during my holiday period,I was imbibing on Jack Daniels and was half in the bag.I had to quickly get myself in order and go to meet them and put on my Mr.Friendly face.They proceeded to ask for a plethora of documents which a guy doesn't normally have laying around on a moment's notice like marriage certificates and tax things etc.

To make matters worse,my wife was vacationing in Slovakia with her friend at the time, and none of these "immigration agents" spoke a word of English, despite the fact that they interview foreigners as a job and were all in their 20s-30s.I had to go next door to get my sister-in-law to come over to translate.I was also phoning up my wife and asking her where we kept such and such a document.The room was a complete mess of papers as I scrambled to find everything.I spent the next hour putting everything back in order.I was literally flying through all our papers in a mad rush.

Luckily,all went well, and the interview lasted about 25-30 minutes.

I really wondered if it was all necessary.As I said,this was my 5th card application and my address hadn't changed from my last card application.One would think it would have all been on file and the unecessary drama could have been eliminated.

Oh the joys of Polish bureaucracy!

[dynow]

[anospi]

This sounds awful. How often do you need to renew your residency card? I got my "zaswiadczenie o zarestrowaniu pobytu obywatelu unii europejskiej" in December 2006 when I worked in Opole. I was told it's valid for 5 years, and obviously it has my old address from Opole on it. I use it whenever I need to do something 'official' and there have been no problems so far. I just need to show another document which proves i live in Wroclaw.

Should I get this updated? I don't want three immigration police officers coming to our flat! Or is that a special privilege bestowed upon Americans?

[dynow]

anospi........where are you from?

As far as I know, all Americans need to suffer through the residency card process unless you have a work permit through a company.

[anospi]

I use my Maltese passport to live and work in Poland. Saves a lot of hassle being part of the EU. I imagine I'd have heaps more bureaucracy to deal with if I used my Aussie passport.

[Jack Walker]

With an E.U passport,you'll certainly have an easier time of it.I'm a Canadian citizen, and the E.U Gods are not too keen on having European descended Canadians living and working in Europe.

Why would they want us and the yanks and Aussies around??Obviously, we have no business in Europe, even though our forefathers helped to build and develop the continent.Don't even get me started on the joke that is the European "Union".

Anyway,everytime I go to the actual citizenship and immigration office with respect to the card renewal procedure and say something in English,they always respond with "nie rozumiem".In Finland,I was speaking English with the bus drivers,kiosk clerks,pensioners,farmers and shop assistants.In Poland,the majority of immigration workers don't know a word of English.These people deal with foreigners on a daily basis.It's their job.

Nepotism is a big part of getting a governmental post in Poland.Instead of hiring qualified workers with language skills,they hire "Jan Nowak's" nephew, because Mr.Nowak put in a word for him or greased some palms.

In Germany or Scandinavia for example, you can be assured that the people manning the desks in the citizenship and immigration department are proficient in English at the very least.

[dynow]

as promised, here's the list of things you need to re-new your residency card:

-residency card application

-photo of yourself, 5 copies

-5 copies of your passport

-1 copy of your ENTIRE passport, front to back

-NIP

-REGON

-letter from ZUS showing you have paid your ZUS payments (50zl)

-Wpis do ewidencji

-PIT- tax statement from last year showing you were paying all your taxes

-Zameldowanie

-Lease contract with your landlord (assuming you are renting)

-Umowa Wspolpracy (work contract with whatever business you work for)

-Earnings statement - a letter from your employer listing your paid income over the past 3 months

-Someone who speaks Polish (I saw 4 Koreans trying to do just what I was doing and the clerk was speaking Polish at real speed to them......what a mess.....)

You must pay 340zl. before submitting this paperwork and bring your receipt upon paperwork submission.

Then you wait 45 days for a decision. In my case, I expect another visit from the Police. They came the first 2 times.

After I hear back from them, if there's anything else they will ask of me (and they always do) I'll let you all know.

[hrvatski]

[Blasphemer]

To be a bit fair, it's really not that hard of a process, yes you do need shit loads of docs to support your case, but you are entering and trying to live in a different country. At least they don't ask you to send new sets of finger prints every 6 months like they do in the US or for your blood test (also every 6 months) alongside thousands of dollars that you need to dish out in the process. The immigration process is similar in most countries, and is just as much of a pain in the ass... It took me 14 years to get my paper work straight in the states... where nobody speaks another language... period.
The immigration officers in Poland deal mainly with Russian or eastern European immigrants, I am willing to bet that you could hold a nice conversation with them in one of those languages.
So in the end... you can work and live here legally in about 2 - 3 months time (which is not bad at all) and you can become a citizen after 5 years of living here with a legal residential status or after 10 years if you have been living here continuously and paying yer share of taxes. I think that's a pretty fair deal in comparison to most western countries ...
Let the bashing begin...

[spiral78]

As for officials being proficient in English - yes, they are in Scandinavia - but so are 90% of ALL Scandinavians. It's NOT true that German officials are always proficient in English.

The officials in the Czech Rep (and I expect Slovakia and Hungary, etc as well) are also not necessarily required to be proficient in English.

And it's a good point that officials in the States generally speak nothing but English, so for a Pole trying to get papers...well, where is the primary responsibility for being able to communicate REALLY??

You've gotta take responsibility and 1) take along someone who is fluent in both languages 2) learn Polish.

[dynow]

so i finally received my residency card. amazingly, this time they gave it to me for 2 years instead of the standard 1. great news considering that will save me over 400zl. and lots of aggrivation next year.

the guy at Urzad told me that it's standard now that the 3rd residency card, or after two years of residency, is for 2 years instead of 1, so for those who have been here a couple years and on a residency card, it should be the same for you.

[justflyingin]

[misteradventure]

Poland has a fair bit of catching up to do. The comparisons with other countries is fair: Even fewer people speak Scandinavian languages and their system is far more efficient.

I've gone through the immigration process in three countries so far and found Poland to be the worst offender so far. Even in Latin America it can happen in 3-4 months and, provided you have all of the correct paperwork (not only what they 'said' you needed, but everything listed in the law) permanent residency can be had in less than a year.

Citizenship in 10 years is pretty lengthy- Switzerland and Andorra are longer, but they are the exceptions, not the rule. Most of the world is 5-7 years of continuous legal residence.

Given the history of the country, however, they have a vested interest in keeping the system as Byzantine as possible. It also creates jobs. Once upon a time, I believed in doing everything the 'legal' way, but now I can see why people operate in the 'black' or 'shadow' economy. Taxes get paid on that money someplace in the chain of transactions, just not in the Payroll block.