Job Discussion Forums

[delphian-domine]

[dragonpiwo]

I've rung the tax office Delph and my tax status is rock solidly confirmed. I also pay tax elsewhere and can get company letters to prove it, some of which have been given to the bank. It's got sweet fa to do with risk. I have a full-time job like my Polish missus, but who got her credit card in 1 day. My banking history with WBK was about 15 years I recall. How long have you been in Poland? Currently with DB and Millenium. Millenium have been insisting on the old photo ID karta, which isn't issued anymore. Poles who earn in the UK in GBP and work as subbies can easily get PLN mortgages despite not paying tax in Poland and having very uncertain sub-contracting building jobs. It's about race and Polish attitudes to foreigners. Their gut instinct is to say 'nie'. I just let the missus do all the talking these days. Maybe you got lucky. My pal X, who inherited a fortune cannot get a visa credit card either and he's lived here donkey's years. What's his risk as a GBP millionaire? The missus will do it and I'll pay it. Job done.

We're getting married in a few months. That's a new world of paperwork pain. Zameldowanias with updated addresses (do Poles need such stuff in the UK?), kartas that might need renewing, dumb rules about it's ok to do it on a Friday in June but not in May...it's just endless. Like the banking they insist on taking their time to do things and make decisions by which time original documents are approaching their expiry conditions.


And Delph, I have lived in other countries in western Europe.

[delphian-domine]

Are you honestly telling me that the tax office will give binding legal advice through a phone call? Anyone with any knowledge of Poland knows that you're only in the clear if you have a signed and stamped decision from the tax office - and even then, it only applies to the tax office where you are resident. I don't know anyone with any common sense that would rely on a phone call here - not least because there's absolutely no trace of anyone saying such.

Paying tax elsewhere is meaningless to the bank, as quite frankly, I wouldn't trust a letter from Libya to mean anything at all. The standards of public administration there aren't exactly what they are in Europe, are they?

You have problems with getting credit cards and so on here for one simple reason - your situation is simply abnormal by any standards. Polish banks are very risk adverse due to the regulatory climate - and so it should be. Poles can't easily get mortgages here - where did you get that impression? The market has opened up slightly, but the latest round of regulations is more or less keeping a lid on demand.

The Polish attitude towards EU citizens is perfectly fine. They say 'nie' when presented with someone who may possibly have evaded a considerable amount of taxation, who has a considerable amount of cash in the bank from a dubious source and so on. The fact that the UK was/is lending cash to all sorts of dubious characters is exactly why Poland avoided a banking crisis and the UK didn't.

I don't think I "got lucky" with anything. I merely complied with what they wanted and did my homework so I didn't waste my time. Like most of Poland, do things the way they want it and you'll be perfectly fine.

As for credit cards, there's a simple rule for them. They won't issue them to people who don't have a clear work history here. Again, much less problems with personal debt here - for the simple reason that the banks don't go handing out credit like sweets. If, like me, you work under a normal umowa o prace and have a job that they understand, then you don't have problems.

As for getting married, again, I had no problems here. But then again, I took the time to ask the USC directly exactly what they wanted and gave them copies of absolutely everything that might have been interesting to them, even down to a copy of my work contract here. Most of it was irrelevant, but it's very hard for a civil servant to cause trouble when they have multiple copies of anything that they might need.

It's a matter of mentality. Then again, I guess if you have to rely on the missus for everything, I can see why you struggle.

[dragonpiwo]

A major international oil company with docs issued by the London office...yeah right.

[ecocks]

Reluctantly, VERY reluctantly, I am getting a lawyer into this.

Simply, the situation is not workable for the long-term and erodes the quality of life drastically.

Will post what I hear from the lawyers I talk to and what course of action is taken plus the results.

Disheartening.

[delphian-domine]

[wojbrian]

[/quote] Does your country allow me as a EU citizen to work freely there

[dragonpiwo]

The visa stuff seems a real hassle for the North Americans. I was wondering how easy it is for Poles to work in the States. Maybe that has a lot to do with it.

And wojbrian's right. They know exactly who people are after a while. The visa situation is really no different to the credit one in some respects.My pal, who's an accountant and tax expert was round my place the other night. He's been here 17 years, earns all his dosh in Poland, has a Polish wife and 2 kids and owns several properties outright with no debt and he can't get a Visa credit card either. Some risk he is hey? It's common practice to get a mortgage in say Spain when you live in the UK. A Kuwaiti bank would have lent me the money in 2012 to buy in Poland. It's just Poland. Passport, zameldowania, karta, salary slips and full-time contract plus a hefty deposit don't seem to do the trick here, so the missus will have to do it. Delph talks about people not giving the right papers, well that's just BS as I have nothing left to give them. For the wedding they've got everything it's just that my impending CNI is sent on a certain date and depending on the 'parish' is valid for 3 or 6 months. There's just no uniformity in anything when it comes to paperwork. It's a Polish economy as the Germans might say.

[dynow]

[Master Shake]

[delphian-domine]

[dragonpiwo]

Delph-I was in the British embassy last week talking to Elzbieta. she's the person who told me and my fiancée to my face, some are valid for 3 months and some for 6, the CNIs that is. She said it in perfect English and repeated it to my fiancée in Polish. So either she's wrong and it's her job to advise people or you're wrong.

And what's dodgy about a paper trail that involves a full-time company contract, pay slips, letters that indicate I'm paying tax somewhere, a lengthy banking history and good funds???? What exactly is dodgy about that?

You go on and on about Polish banks but some like WBK are owned by Spanish banks. Others like Millenium are Portuguese. The UK banks got knackered by the US sub-prime fiasco. Their liquidity was nobbled by their exposure to banks not people. The credit crunch then buggered business and people lost their jobs. This whole quantitative easing thing going on is to give banks liquidity. In the UK, the tax payer is footing the bill for the banks' greed.

[Richfilth]

[wojbrian]

[delphian-domine]