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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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 Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:36 am Post subject: |
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| My American and Canadian colleagues take care of all their visa issues here in Poland on the spot and if there's any problem with their last entrance into Poland expiring, they just do a weekend trip to the Ukraine. |
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abauer
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:36 am Post subject: |
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| Does Poland do the invitation thing as well? |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:40 am Post subject: |
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| I don't think so. You do need a school to sign off on your application though. |
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abauer
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:10 pm Post subject: |
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| hrvatski wrote: |
| My American and Canadian colleagues take care of all their visa issues here in Poland on the spot and if there's any problem with their last entrance into Poland expiring, they just do a weekend trip to the Ukraine. |
Hm, they even applied for their visas in Poland as well? |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| They sure did. |
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abauer
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 12:54 pm Post subject: |
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| hrvatski wrote: |
| They sure did. |
What did they do with their time while waiting for all their paperwork to clear? |
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Harry from NWE
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
Posts: 283
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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| hrvatski wrote: |
| Just go to the Ukraine every time your 3 month stay runs out. The returning stamp is enough to renew your stay in Poland. I believe theoretically you should spend some certain amount of time outside the EU, however no one seems to enforce it. |
The visa runs thing no longer works. You can only spend 90 days in a 180-day period inside the Schengen zone and you can get a new tourist visa for all Schengen countries only after 180 days from your first entry into Schengen territory. The EU's common external borders agency (Frontex) is based in Warsaw, so you can expect Poland to toughen up on border security.
| abauer wrote: |
| What did they do with their time while waiting for all their paperwork to clear? |
At each of the three Labour office inspections I've seen, as long as applications had been submitted, the lack of cleared paperwork was not a problem. |
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Mojoski
Joined: 03 May 2009
Posts: 170
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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I had a different experience. In early 2004 I turned down a recruiter offer because they said to just come, and they would fix the paperwork while the Polish Consulate told me I had to have a work visa before arriving. Then I got an offer from a private school, and they said there was a new law, and I really could just come, and they would fix the paperwork so I came.
Okay, the stonefaced immigration people hadn't learned of the new law yet, but after being instructed by my school, they had to admit that there was a new law. Okay, terminology: this was NOT for a work visa but for a CARD OF TEMPORARY STAY, which is a Polish green card, basically. Once I had that, THE SCHOOL still had to apply for my work permit every year. I was never involved with the work permit except to provide the documents (my original credentials and copies of my card of temporary stay and my address registration).
The card of temporary stay took five months to process, so I had to get two 30 days visas added to my 90 day entry to provided enough time to process the card of temporary stay. The school held my hand throughout the process, or I never could have done it. The card of temporary stay is good for one year, so I had to do the entire thing over again in a year (except for the extension visas).
You can request a two-year extension of the card of temporary stay. The first renewal, they gave me only a year again. The second time, the school had retained a consultancy firm to handle the process, and I did get a two year period for my third card of temporary stay. However, the work permit was still only good for one year.
When I still had one year left on my third card of temporary stay, the school was due to request my next work permit, and they decided they would decline to do so. I had been there 3.5 years by then. Anyway, the point of this long narrative is that I NEVER DID HAVE A WORK VISA. I had the card of temporary stay, and my school obtained the work permit every year.
As for me, even though this was the first time in my life that I had ever been 'fired,' which was a blow to my pride, I knew it was not because of my job performance, and I had already had three recent unsolicited job offers from other schools (it was the hiring season), so obtaining a (likely better) job was not a problem. However, I decided to take a break from Poland. I loved my life in Warsaw, but it was time to move on. My lease was up, and my internet contract was up, and my former gf, whom I had come to Poland to be with, still expected me to be there for her at times of need. I left the land of Sobieski behind...
A guy I knew came to Poland on a 90-day entry and just went to Slovakia for the passport stamp after 90 days and had no problem. However, before I went to Poland, I had a conversation with a Canadian girl here who tried the same thing in Germany (pre-EU) and was deported on the spot. Life is a gamble. |
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abauer
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Interesting (making my head spin). How does one obtain a card of Temporary Stay? |
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Mojoski
Joined: 03 May 2009
Posts: 170
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| abauer wrote: |
| Interesting (making my head spin). How does one obtain a card of Temporary Stay? |
As I said, the school led me by the hand everywhere. I do know that you need to have the job contract fully signed. You need to have your original BA diploma and TESOL Certificate. You have to have a leased residence with a landlord who will officially register your residence, unless you have relatives there who are citizens and will register you. I remember they had to have photocopies of my bank cards (I believe that was the first time only), for what reason, I can't say. You have to go to this little office and get a clean criminal report. As far as I could see, they don't actually check...you just pay the 50PLN for the stamps, wait in line, and they give you the little slip of paper. (I call this place the Ministry of Pay 50 Zlotych.) You have to have your school, or a Pole who knows what's what to take you around because none of the officials speak English, or else they won't reveal that they do. All of the paperwork is monolingual in Polish. Oh, and you pay something...I forget how much...seems like about 150-200PLN.  |
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abauer
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Mojoski wrote: |
| abauer wrote: |
| Interesting (making my head spin). How does one obtain a card of Temporary Stay? |
As I said, the school led me by the hand everywhere. I do know that you need to have the job contract fully signed. You need to have your original BA diploma and TESOL Certificate. You have to have a leased residence with a landlord who will officially register your residence, unless you have relatives there who are citizens and will register you. I remember they had to have photocopies of my bank cards (I believe that was the first time only), for what reason, I can't say. You have to go to this little office and get a clean criminal report. As far as I could see, they don't actually check...you just pay the 50PLN for the stamps, wait in line, and they give you the little slip of paper. (I call this place the Ministry of Pay 50 Zlotych.) You have to have your school, or a Pole who knows what's what to take you around because none of the officials speak English, or else they won't reveal that they do. All of the paperwork is monolingual in Polish. Oh, and you pay something...I forget how much...seems like about 150-200PLN. |
What kind of Visa is required to get this residency card? |
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Mojoski
Joined: 03 May 2009
Posts: 170
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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| abauer wrote: |
What kind of Visa is required to get this residency card? |
You only have to be there legally and have a legitimate job contract. I entered with no visa, just the 90-day passport entry, then as the process dragged on, they gave me a 30-day visa, then another, until the process was consumated. I don't recall what kind of visas those temporary ones were...I suppose just visitors visas.
Anyway, each year you start from scratch again. It means it takes another 5 months, so you have to start 5 months before it expires.
Keep in mind that not all schools are willing to do it, since they can hire Brits or Irish right off the street and not worry about residency. I actually arrived in Poland on the 3rd day of its EU membership, so this was not quite yet a factor. |
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hrvatski
Joined: 16 Nov 2008
Posts: 270
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| Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Harry from NWE wrote: |
| The visa runs thing no longer works. You can only spend 90 days in a 180-day period inside the Schengen zone and you can get a new tourist visa for all Schengen countries only after 180 days from your first entry into Schengen territory. The EU's common external borders agency (Frontex) is based in Warsaw, so you can expect Poland to toughen up on border security. |
It might depend on what border guards and office clerks you come across, but two Americans and one Canadian I know just this year have pulled of the runs and obtained their visas successfully.
An office clerk last month even encouraged me to write a false declaration in front of her eyes that I had just returned from Greece, to ease another kind of bureaucracy I was going through. |
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freesolo
Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 25
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 9:00 am Post subject: visa confusion |
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having read numerous posts in the czech forum and here in the poland forum, it sounds like poland is a nightmare for the work VISA situation, if you are a non-EU citizen like myself.
the czech posts don�t make it sound as bad, maybe cause the gov�t is a bit more organized???
any thoughts. i�d like to come to poland and teach but not if it�s going to be a huge headache hanging over me everyday. |
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abauer
Joined: 18 Feb 2008
Posts: 24
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 9:42 am Post subject: |
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| Mojoski wrote: |
| abauer wrote: |
What kind of Visa is required to get this residency card? |
You only have to be there legally and have a legitimate job contract. I entered with no visa, just the 90-day passport entry, then as the process dragged on, they gave me a 30-day visa, then another, until the process was consumated. I don't recall what kind of visas those temporary ones were...I suppose just visitors visas.
Anyway, each year you start from scratch again. It means it takes another 5 months, so you have to start 5 months before it expires.
Keep in mind that not all schools are willing to do it, since they can hire Brits or Irish right off the street and not worry about residency. I actually arrived in Poland on the 3rd day of its EU membership, so this was not quite yet a factor. |
Who exactly are "they"? My plan is to go their and teach for 7-8 months, that's it. Is the application process for the 30-day visas a bureaucratic pain in the backside?
As for legality and contract, that's already set for me. |
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