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englishwithjosh
Joined: 12 Aug 2009 Posts: 5
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:36 pm Post subject: Playing the Polish lineage card |
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Howdy all,
With this being my first post it only seems proper to give a good, hearty hello. Maybe some of the other Americanos living in Poland can answer this for me because honestly I like loop holes and preferential treatment. Does Poland give any sort of leniency or is there any angles to play for someone who's of Polish descent? In my case it would be having had Polish grandparents.
The treatment I'm directly curious about would be getting residency, or heck if possible, citizenship. I'm figuring marrying Polish women is about the best angle to play, but my luck with women knows no international borders.
Dzieki in advance. |
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scottie1113
Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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OK amigo. I'm an Americano but I'll let someone with more experience here and more patience answer your question. Is there any angles? IS? You want to marry Polish women? Is you a bigamist? |
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maniak
Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 194
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Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:46 pm Post subject: |
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Im an American who got his polish citizenship a few years ago. Heres the deal: you do not qualify for citizenship unless one of your parents was polish or unless your grandparents left the country before 1918. If neither is the case than you are SOL, if you want to marry you have to wait 3 years anyway to get it.
No way around it. |
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scottie1113
Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:27 am Post subject: |
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maniak, I have a question. When you got your Polish citizenship did you have to give up your US one? If not, how did you do that? |
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scotv
Joined: 01 Apr 2008 Posts: 19
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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Scottie, the following link is from the U.S Dept of State: http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_778.html.
According to the Act as written and through other research, unless you voluntarily renounce or perform certain acts against the U.S., you do not lose your U.S. citizenship. I think this is governed by an Administrative Act, which comes from the Executive Branch, which means the law can be changed by the President at the drop of a hat. |
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englishwithjosh
Joined: 12 Aug 2009 Posts: 5
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:10 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Maniak, thanks for the info. That's pretty much what I was expecting, but if there's ever an easier way on the table, why not. Also you answered another question I was curious about in the dual citizenship.
Scottie, yes I is looking for angles, and I makes mistakes. So does teaching in Poland for a few years turn you into a nit picking old man? I love my people but that may be more than I can handle. |
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englishwithjosh
Joined: 12 Aug 2009 Posts: 5
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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Woops, sorry, thanks to Scotv for the dual citizenship post. |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008 Posts: 270
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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I have a friend from Belarus whose mother is Polish. Her mother was born in Poland, lived here until the age of 20, then moved to Belarus. My friend has now lived in Poland for 6 years, during the entire time her application for citizenship has been being 'processed' with no end in sight. Amazingly she still loves Poland with a passion. |
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scottie1113
Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk
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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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englishwithjosh wrote: |
Hey Maniak, thanks for the info. That's pretty much what I was expecting, but if there's ever an easier way on the table, why not. Also you answered another question I was curious about in the dual citizenship.
Scottie, yes I is looking for angles, and I makes mistakes. So does teaching in Poland for a few years turn you into a nit picking old man? I love my people but that may be more than I can handle. |
Nah, I'm not a nit picking old man. Just funnin you amigo, I didn't have a lot of answers, and I probably had had too much piwo. BTW, the link didn't work and I didn't know about the dual citizenship thing. |
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englishwithjosh
Joined: 12 Aug 2009 Posts: 5
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Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 5:39 pm Post subject: |
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Ah, a little hazing of the new guy. I'm ok with that. After 5 months of only 6 terrible beers to choose from, just reading the word piwo is making me really want a Lomza. So that actually hurts worst of all. |
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Khrystene

Joined: 17 Apr 2004 Posts: 271 Location: WAW, PL/SYD, AU
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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:16 am Post subject: Re: Playing the Polish lineage card |
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englishwithjosh wrote: |
Howdy all,
With this being my first post it only seems proper to give a good, hearty hello. Maybe some of the other Americanos living in Poland can answer this for me because honestly I like loop holes and preferential treatment. Does Poland give any sort of leniency or is there any angles to play for someone who's of Polish descent? In my case it would be having had Polish grandparents.
The treatment I'm directly curious about would be getting residency, or heck if possible, citizenship. I'm figuring marrying Polish women is about the best angle to play, but my luck with women knows no international borders.
Dzieki in advance. |
THere are no 'loopholes' or easy ways to get the Citizenship (which you can of course try for as a grandchild of Poles). And I have met someone whose father was born in Poland but due to name changes and other issues, they were denied Citizenship.
Even getting citizenship via marriage isn't easy. It takes time and you have to fill in paperwork regularly, have interviews, pay money, have the police check your marriage out, etc etc.
So, best idea is to do it legally. Get all your family documents together, in both English and Polish, that can prove your descendents were Polish and then follow the advice of your local Polish embassy, eg: New York gives great advice/info: http://www.polishconsulateny.org/index.php?p=123
Many people have tried to do it the 'easy' way or look for easier options, but it's not easy. I got mine back in '05 after 2 or more years of paperwork etc.
Best of luck. |
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maniak
Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 194
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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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scottie1113 wrote: |
maniak, I have a question. When you got your Polish citizenship did you have to give up your US one? If not, how did you do that? |
No, I have dual. I was worried about the polish draft, ie, going to the army and that could be grounds for taking away my US citizenship, but luckily nothing came out of it.
The road was not easy, even with both of my parents being polish. I had to amass a bunch of paperwork, from what I remember, their birth cirtificates, marriage certificate, copies of their dowody, passports, etc etc and had to fill out a ton of stuff. |
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Blasphemer
Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 199 Location: NYC/Warszawa
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:49 am Post subject: |
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maniak wrote: |
scottie1113 wrote: |
maniak, I have a question. When you got your Polish citizenship did you have to give up your US one? If not, how did you do that? |
No, I have dual. I was worried about the polish draft, ie, going to the army and that could be grounds for taking away my US citizenship, but luckily nothing came out of it.
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Luckily the draft is done and over with. |
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scottie1113
Joined: 25 Oct 2004 Posts: 375 Location: Gdansk
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Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 10:28 pm Post subject: |
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I'm too old for it anyway (the draft). Now I'm intrigued by the idea of Polish citizenship. After all, I live here and I'm not going back to the US. |
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