British In Poland

I have now moved the British in Poland blog to its own website at http://www.britishinpoland.com/

Here's why if you're interested.

All existing articles and nearly all comments have been moved across there. New articles will only be published at http://www.britishinpoland.com/

Please can you update your bookmarks/favourites/any links you might have to point to my new site.

I will keep this space at blogspot.com running for the next few months or so so that people can find my new blog but this site won't be updated any more.

Thanks.

Ben

For whatever reason you may decide to trade through your own company in Poland. Therefore you want to start a Polish company. Just like in the UK there are different types of company including:

• spólka z. o. o. (z ograniczoną odpowiadzalnością) - private limited company (a UK ltd company). You have to draw up documents at a notary and have at least a bond capital of 50 000 PLN.
• spólka akcyna - public company - (a UK plc). No idea what the process is here but I guess if you were interested in opening an S.A. you would be talking to an accountant and not reading some guy's Blog on the Internet..
  
• działalność jako osoba fizyczna (self-employed) - the simplest way to start!
  

The simplest method to start trading is to therefore go self-employed. This blog post describes the steps to do that.


Things to do before you start:

1. NIP-4: If you haven't got a NIP tax number already, go to the Urząd Skarbowy and fill out the form for a NIP-4. It's straight-forward and you will get the NIP number by post a few days later
   
2. PESEL: In theory anyone including foreigners (who might not yet have a Pesel) can register a company, but I don't know what extra hassles you might have if you don't have a Pesel. When I started my company they wanted the Pesel in steps 1 and 2 below so I guess it's better to have it. If you don't already have a Pesel then see here: how to get a Pesel
3. PKD code: for the Central Statistics Office (GUS - Głowny Urząd Statystyczny) you have to tell them what the nature of your business will be. There are codes for various categories and you have to pick one. For example code 62.01.Z is software development, code 85.49.A is teaching foreign languages. These codes are called PKD codes - Polska Klasyfikacja Działalnośći - Polish activity classifications. At this stage you should therefore look up what codes you want to use. A new list was published in 2007 so make sure you use the PKD 2007 list and not an older one. I used this website to find my codes: PKD codes. Also another tip is that it's better to put too many codes rather than have to add a code later because each change incurs a fee. So if you think there's a chance you might venture into other fields at a later stage then it will do no harm to add the code for it.
   

Now you're ready:

1. Wpis do ewidencji - first job is to go to the Urząd Miasta where you live and ask to do a 'wpis do ewidencji'. Basically this is just an entry to their register of your business. You have to fill out a form and pay a fee which varies from office to office. I paid 100 PLN. When I did it the guy was very helpful and showed me exactly how to fill out the form. I checked my PKD codes in the book they had and also had to choose a date when the company officially starts. Here is the next tip - choose the 1st of the month - it will make life simpler later on. Depending on how efficient the office is you will get a confirmation of your wpis do ewidencji a few days later in the post. I have heard that sometimes it takes a couple of weeks though. Another point worth mentioning is that a company name is optional - you can either specifiy a name such as "Green Widgets" or you can leave the name blank in which case you will trade under your own name, e.g. "John Smith".
   
2. REGON - next job is to fill out form RG-1 from GUS (see above) to get your REGON number. This is where you need your PKD codes (although I also had to supply a code when I did the wpis do ewidencji). In the old days you would have to go to your nearest GUS office to do this but in a refreshing drive of efficiency you can now do this online via their website (link above). Even more efficiently (and suprisingly!) the guy asked if I wanted to do this with him when I did the wpis do ewidencji! Great - two jobs done at once!
3. Bank account - my understanding is that your company is required to have its own bank account. I didn't check this though so I may be mistaken. In any case once you have your REGON and Wpis it's very simple to open a bank account for your company. According to the mBank.pl website you just need some ID, regon and wpis.
4. NIP-A - presuming you already have a NIP-4 from earlier, you now need to go back to the Urząd Skarbowy and do an update - aktualizacja - on it. This is form NIP-A. At this stage you have to choose which tax scheme you want. There are a few choices which I shall outline below.
5. ZUS - you have until 7 days after the date your company officially starts (the date you gave in step 1) to register your company with ZUS so that you can make social insurance payments. You have to fill out form ZUS ZFA to register your company as an employer to open an employer account (konto płatnik). You will also need to fill out form ZUS ZUA to register yourself as an employee. Again you need the proof of your wpis to do this. They ask you for your REGON but you can always provide that later if you are still waiting for it. You can find instructions in English and German about how to fill out all of their forms here: ZUS
   

Choosing a tax scheme:

As mentioned in step 4 when you do your NIP-A you need to choose which tax scheme you want to operate under. You can choose from:

• zasady ogólne - "general rules" - this is the default option
• ryczałt
• karta podatkowa

At the time of writing I haven't had a chance to read up too much on these so I apologise that the info here is a little scant. If it helps there is some info in Polish here and also here. The pros and cons of these schemes include things such as paying a flat rate of 19% tax, not being required to keep a record of accounts, being able to split your tax burden with your spouse etc.. etc..

Also I haven't mentioned here about registering for VAT which is a requirement if your income will exceed 20 000 EUR in a year.

But I hope the information I have given is useful and will help get you started. If anyone has any feedback, corrections, experiences, more info etc.. then as always please let me know.

Good luck

I have a UK company which I ran before I moved to Poland. Having now lived in Poland for a while I figured that I should do something about my residency situation as per my last blog post about Polish residency.

Therefore I spent a long time on the phone to the Inland Revenue back in the UK, and made a couple of visits to ZUS and the Urząd Skarbowy here in Poland.

I decided that I would continue to pay myself from my UK company but I would become a Polish resident employee.

The Inland Revenue said that I could continue to put myself through my pay roll if I wanted (Class X for National Insurance and tax group NT) or I could just take money out of the company against an invoice.

Polish Social Insurance - ZUS

ZUS said that I needed to register my UK company as an employer in Poland and open an "employer account" called a konto płatnik to make social insurance payments. The alternative was to pay the employee (i.e. myself) gross, and have the employee sign a declaration that the employee has the responsibility of paying both the employer's and employee's social insurance payments.

Option 1 - konto płatnik - to do this you have to fill out form ZUS ZPA. But to do that you need a tax number (NIP) from the Urząd Skarbowy. To get the NIP you have to fill out form NIP-2. But because your company is foreign you have to apply directly to Warsaw and enclose certain documentation:
* company documents (such as formation certificate)
* translations by a sworn translator of these documents
* declaration (in Polish) that you are not supplying bank account details becase you do not wish to make use of Polish VAT returns

The Warsaw address for a NIP-2 for a foreign company is:
Drugi Urząd Skarbowy Warszawa Śródmieście
ul. Jagiellońska 15
03-719

Telephone +48 (0)22 5845100 or 831 9194 or 831 9195
There is information about this in English and German on the zus website.

Option 2 - employee pays both employer's and employee's ZUS:
The employee and employer should sign an agreement that the employee takes the responsibility of paying the employer's side of the social insurance payments.
In Polish this is called:
"umowa z pracownikiem o przyjęciu roli płatnika z przedsiebiorstwem nie mającym oddziału w Polsce".

Polish tax - Urząd Skarbowy

This side seems simpler. My understand from what they told me is that my company simply pays the employee a gross salary and the tax bill is determined the following year. Not like the more complicated PAYE system in the UK with different tax codes etc..!
The Polish system is that in February 2009 the employer fills out a PIT-11 form for each employee which shows how much that employee was paid for the 2008 year. The employee then has until April 2009 to pay his/her tax bill.

After going through all this information I decided not to use my UK company to do this afterall - I figured that if the ZUS was going to be hassle then it would be simpler to just open a new company in Poland and have that company pay my ZUS. My Polish company can simply invoice my UK company as necessary to move funds.

My next blog post will be about how to set up a Polish company.

Residency for tax purposes

It's important to determine whether you are Polish or UK resident because that will determine where your taxes are due and whose health insurance system you fall under. The rule of thumb is that if you are in an EU country for 6 months or more then you are resident there.

If you are UK resident then:
* you continue to pay your taxes in the UK
* you pay national insurance in the UK
* you can get a European Health Insurance Card from the NHS to cover medical bills in Poland

If you are resident in Poland then:
* you will now fall under the Polish tax system. The tax bands are lower than those in the UK and your GLOBAL INCOME is taxable, NOT JUST MONEY YOU EARN IN POLAND!
* you will pay social insurance to ZUS
* ZUS can give you a European Health Insurance Card which you should use when you are back in the UK

What happens if I move to Poland?

In theory when you decide you are 'resident' in Poland you should inform the authorities accordingly. That means you tell the Inland Revenue you have left the UK and they will calculate whether they owe you any tax back or not. If you start working for a Polish company then they will sort out your tax and ZUS for you. If you were self-employed in the UK then you need to talk to an accountant. You may decide to open a new Polish company, or you may decide to register your UK company as an employer in Poland so that it can pay social insurance for you.

What happens if I work in the UK during the week but return to Poland at the weekends?

In situations such as this it comes down to defining your 'place of living'. If you stay in hotels during the week but your house is in Poland that's one point for Poland. If your family (spouse, kids etc..) live in Poland that's another point for Poland. If you spend your spare time in Poland, again that counts as living in Poland. If you think your situation is arguable then you can ask the Polish tax office (Urząd Skarbowy) to make a ruling. An application for a ruling is free of charge. You describe your situation and put your point of view in it. They have 3 months to rule. If they don't rule within this time then your point of view prevails and is binding for all tax offices in Poland.

What happens if I don't become resident in Poland?

Probably nothing for a while. But you might get a knock on the door one day from the tax office. You run the risk that they will rule you as a Polish resident and give you a backdated tax bill for your global income. Having said that, Poland has tax agreements with most countries so that you are not charged twice for tax. But I don't know if there are any penalties involved or if there would be a tax bill still due to differences in tax bands etc.. If this has happend to anyone I would be keen to hear about it!

There are a number of documents relating to identity in Poland - marriage certificates, birth certificates, passports, identity cards and so on. For everything to do with identity the paper trail starts with a Polish birth certificate.

Therefore if you want to apply for confirmation of Polish citizenship the first thing you need to do as a foreigner is get a Polish birth certificate. However there is a problem if you have changed your name by Deed Poll because the Polish authorities won't recognise it.

What is a Deed Poll?

In the UK changing your name is frighteningly easy. You just write a declaration on a piece of paper that from this day on you want to be known as X. You get a friend to sign it. Done. You can then send this off to your bank, the DVLA, the passport office and so on and go about getting your new name updated on their records. I was shocked at how easy the process was and a little concerned that it could be used by people to get a passport in somebody else's name or for dubious purposes.

I guess this illustrates the main difference between UK and Polish bureaucracy - in the UK things can be done with ease and often via post/internet and the price we pay for that is identity theft. In Poland everything is more difficult, requires permission and must be done in person. Nobody here has ever heard of "identity theft".

I changed my name via Deed Poll a few years ago when I decided to revert my surname back to my Grandfather's original surname (he had changed it to a more English sounding one when he came to the UK after WW2).

UK Birth Certificates

In the UK the process is simple. You start life known as X. This is what is on your birth certificate and it is never changed. You change your name later on to Y but your birth certificate with X on is still valid.
Your true birth certificate is permanently held by the registry office where you were born. Your parents were issued a duplicate when you were born. If you lose it you can buy a new one for £7.

Result: Your passport now says your name is Y but your birth certificate says your name is X. This is a problem in Poland because your documents don't match.

Polish Birth Certificates

Your true birth certificate is held by the Urząd Stanu Ciwilnego. Your parents were issued a "short summary" of this birth certificate. If you change your name it is done by getting a 'decision' from the USC. They then ammend your original birth certificate (there is a space for notations on it). They issue you with a new "short summary" birth certificate with your new name.

Result: Your passport now says your name is Y and your birth certificate now also says your name is Y. Your documents match.

Applying for a Polish Birth Certifcate as a person born outside Poland

As I have described above, your UK birth certificate does not match the name in your passport so the USC consider this as two different people. They won't accept your Deed Poll because it was only validated by a witness and not by a notary or registry office. This is the exact problem I had. I spent a long time meeting with the director of my local USC who confessed that he didn't know what to do and would have to research it. One month and a couple of phone calls to him later he told me to contact the Polish Consulate in London to get from them a document in Polish to say that my name had been changed in accordance with British law.

Polish Consulate London

I put in a few phone calls to the Polish Consulate in London. I eventually got hold of the legal department who told me that what I needed was an "apostille" from the British Foreign Commonwealth Office's legalisation office. I would then need to get that translated into Polish along with my UK birth certificate and then my local USC would accept it.

Getting an Apostille from the FCO

After a quick read on the FCO website I found their document legalisation service. The process costs £33 which covers the £27 fee and £6 for recorded delivery return of documents (to a UK address or abroad). You can do the application either in person of by post. Current backlog for postal applications at time of writing is 1 week. Your Deed Poll first needs to be certified by a UK solicitor or notary. Most high street solicitors will do this for a fee of about £5.

I hope this blog post has been helpful. I am in the middle of getting my Apostille right now (as of 20th Aug 2008). I will update this post if I find out anything new or have any problems. Please leave a comment if this information has been of use, it's nice to know if I am helping or not.

As you may have already noticed in Poland, any time you try and do something (such a open a bank account or get a mobile phone contract) people ask your for your 'Pesel'. Most of the time you don't actually need a Pesel if you argue with them - but of course it's a lot easier if you have one.

What is a PESEL?

A Pesel is an 11 digit identification number partly based on your date of birth. Polish people are assigned one within a couple of months of being born. When my daughter was born here in Poland we simply called the Urząd Miasta when she was 2 months old and they told us it over the phone. For foreigners you get it in the same place where you do your zameldowanie.

A Pesel is not a VAT number, nor is it a tax number (called a 'NIP' number in Poland), nor is it a national insurance number. It is just an ID number.

How do I get my PESEL?

If you are a foreigner (i.e. you don't have confirmation of Polish citizenship) then a pesel can be applied for when you do a zameldowanie for a a period greater than 3 months. But to register for more than 3 months you will need to have got your karta pobytu already which lets you register for 5 years.
When you do your 5 year zameldowanie make sure you explicitly tell them that you want a Pesel. They are supposed to ask you about it but they didn't ask me at all.
I have heard that sometimes they generate the Pesel automatically and some people didn't even know that one had been generated for them. But for me no-one mentioned anything and on checking today they said I don't have one.
Because the procedure is that a Pesel can only be generated when you register, I therefore needed to de-register and re-register (wymeldować and again zameldować). Unfortunately I didn't have my documents with me so I will come back and do this another time. I was told I would receive my Pesel within 10 days of doing this.

Getting a Pesel is very easy to do and doesn't cost anything. It will save you many arguments in public offices and shops. I wish I had known about this a few months ago...

EDIT - 19th Aug 2008:

I just returned form the Urząd Miasta and was told something different - the regular guy was there and he claimed that he did offer me a Pesel and I declined it. I find that hard to believe (why would I decline a Pesel?) but maybe I misunderstood something. He said that it would now be difficult to issue one. After a few phone calls and playing with his computer he said he would delete me, start over again from new and do it. So in the end it was sorted and I didn't have to de-register and re-register. He said I had to return in a week to collect it. I asked if I could just call by phone and he said no. By this time he was getting grumpy so I didn't try and push my luck any further...

Whilst googling for Polish traffic news I just happened to find an article called Jak jeżdzić po Anglii? (How to drive around in England) on the popular Polish portal onet.pl. Out of curiosity I had a quick read and it showed up some differences that I hadn't been aware of:

• As you might expect, our road signs are a little different. But unless you have recently passed your test who honestly remembers what they all mean anyway? So I didn't pay too much attention to that paragraph except the bit regarding this sign:
  As I am sure you remember from the Highway Code (nod along blankly if you don't) in the UK this means "National Speed Limits now appy", which in a car with no trailer means 60mph or 70mph on a dual carriage-way. Therefore whenever I saw this sign in Poland I put my foot down. But according to that article in Poland it means "previous signs banning things no longer apply" and thus has nothing to do with speed limits. Whoops.
• Seatbelts - they change the law all the time on this back in the UK so I haven't got a clue what the rules are now anyway. It used to be that children under 14 didn't need a belt in the back. Now babies need a car seat. Now your pet dog needs to be bolted to the floor. Well probably. The rules in fact according to this article say:
• In Britain - Everyone has to wear a seatbelt. There are no exceptions for pregnant women or those in the back. Children under 12 not taller than 135cm need a kiddy seat or booster seat.
• In Poland - similar except women who are "visibly pregnant" don't need to wear a belt. The kiddy rule is the same except the height limit is 150cm.
• Alcohol - Britain has a very liberal blood-alcohol limit of 0.8. Most of Europe is 0.5. Poland is 0.2 which leaves you very very little margin to drive if you have had anything to drink at all. Personally I don't drive if I have had a drink at all and was aware of this, but worth mentioning.
• Penalty points - In Britain if you get 12 points you lose your licence. Most speeding offences carry 3 points and they last for 3 years. Poland is not so strict. Points only last 1 year and you don't feel them until you have racked up 24 points! Plus if you aren't spanking it down the road it's probably only 2 points anyway. But this is irrelevant for most of us - Poles will be driving in the UK on a Polish licence (thus no British points for them) and likewise for us Brits in Poland. The EU is a great thing!
• Headlights - this should be simple. If it get's dark, turn them on. If it's not, turn them off. But it's not:
• UK - headlights required when visibility falls below 100 metres. Only side-lights are required in built-up areas with street-lighting.
• Poland - headlights (not sidelights) required 24/7 365. Worth mentioning that this previously was a requirement only in winter months, but as of 2007 it is summer months too. But I saw on the news they are debating reverting it back to winter months again.... oh Politicians!

Happy motoring.

Following my painful experience with PKO Bank Polski I took the advice of a couple of you (thanks guys) and opened an account with mBank.

Here's the link to their website in English - yes that's right, it's in English! mBank.pl

You can read all the details of what they offer on their site so I won't duplicate it here, but the main points and the reason I am so happy and thought it worth a blog post is:

• the bank account is free to operate. Most Polish banks charge you monthly fees or fees to do basic things like make simple payments. Maybe this isn't a shock for non-Brits, but for us Brits who are used to banking for free (well free if you don't count unfair bank charges as a fee) then this is a taste of home
• they are quite foreigner friendly. You don't need to have a PESEL number, you don't need to have a karta pobytu. Their website is in English.
• opening an account is easy - because mBank is an internet bank you don' have to physically go to a branch. I did the formalities over the phone and then a courier came to my house to check my passport and give me my activation pack.
• mBank is actually part of one of the big boy banks in Poland who collectively hold a third of all personal accounts in Poland. Well their brochure says something like that, so at least they're not a little mickey mouse bank

Here's the downside:

• Unfortunately when you call them they don't speak English, so that might be a bit of a show-stopper if your Polish is a bit ropey or non-existent. I will guess that having a friend call won't help as you have to personally answer their questions and accept their terms and conditions etc..
  
• Their internet banking service is only in Polish too.

Also worth mentioning that when I called up to apply they tried to tell me I couldn't open an account without a PESEL despite their website saying this wasn't required. I had to tell the guy I thought he was wrong and ask him to check with his manager before he relented. Apart from that the sign-up process was quick and smooth.

Here's a couple of things I recently discovered which might help a newbie to Polish/international banking:

• When you want to make an international payment the UK banks ask for the foreign bank's Swift code. In Polish this is called the "BIC" number - numer rachunek BIC.
• Poles don't quote the sort-code and account number separately like we do in the UK. They use the IBAN system. Therefore their bank account number is just one long number such as 04 2000 1234 0000 1111 2222 3333 (preceded by "PL" for international operations). I have no idea how Poles remember their bank account numbers. ...
  

Happy banking...!

Congratulations - you're pregnant! So now you both are thinking about where to give birth - back home in the UK or here in Poland. For my wife it was an easy decision - Poland. Factors we considered were:

• quality of health-care in Poland/UK. Based purely on our experiences we rate Polish hospitals better than those in the UK - which would you rather choose from - old equipment but well-staffed, or shiny new equipment and buildings and 1 doctor per 30 patients? Plus you can always bribe the doctors/nurses in Poland and get grade A care and attention.
• closeness of family/relatives. My wife wanted her parents near by, and mine are always happy to visit Poland
• her gynaecologist would be on hand. A good gynaecologist was recommended to my wife and she saw him privately through-out her pregnancy. So it made sense to have the birth at the hospital where he worked

Worth noting that there are a few reasons to possibly not consider giving birth in Poland but they either didn't affect us or weren't important enough for us as factors:

• No fancy water births or anything "new age". Fathers have only been allowed to even attend births in the last couple of years here in Poland
• No caesareans on demand. I don't know what the rules are regarding caesarens in the UK but you can't pay or chose to have one in Poland. The doctor will organise one only if it is needed for medical reasons.
• Citizenship issues - do you need to have your child born in your home country for citizenship reasons? I am fully British so my children have the right to British citizenship regardless of where they are born (having checked with the British embassy)

My wife's pregnancy seemed to be taking too long but the doctor's were reluctant to induce her or do much about it. My Polish parents-in-law (who know the system only too well) asked to have a 'private chat' with the duty doctor. 10 minutes later the doctor (who had been hidden away in his office the whole time) couldn't do enough for us. It was almost like having a personal private doctor with us - constantly checking her, barking instructions to the nurses. I couldn't believe it. He even said I looked a bit pale and took me to a side room for some fresh air by the window and gave me some aspirin.

On one hand I think it's a terrible shame that medical staff are corrupt. The NHS isn't perfect back home but I would never expect staff would take bribes. On the other hand it's great if you have the money that you can effectively 'buy' good service. When someone you love is ill, is suffering or is in this type of situation it's fantastic to have the power to do something about it rather than just complain that there aren't enough doctors.

After the birth the hospital automatically sends notfication of the birth to the office for civil affairs (Urząd Stanu Civilnego) in the town the birth occurred so it's important that the hospital has your details correctly recorded. You must go to this office within 14 days to take care of the paperwork. I don't know what happens if you don't, but according to my wife it's something very terrible. At this stage they produce a birth certificate which they permanently keep. They issue you with 3 copies of a summary version (transkrypt aktu urodzenia). If you need more copies (because everyone always wants to keep your originals) you have to go back to that office and buy more.

So I went to the USC within 14 days under fear of death. I filled out the form giving the parents details and the chosen names of our daughter. Because we are married they wanted our Polish marriage certificate. The girl in the office wasn't happy with this though because it is missing some information on it (because British marriage certificates don't have all the info that Polish ones do - see my blog article in the link). Short story is that she refused to issue me the documents. My wife had to call and complain to the manager. We had to explain that there is nothing wrong with the documents or our translations, it's because we got married in Britain etc.. etc.. Next day I went back and collected our documents.

I have heard stories that the manager of the USC has the right to reject your chosen name for your baby (is this why everyone in Poland seems to be called Mariusz or Kasia?). I was expecting a battle as to why our daughter's chosen middle name was of Welsh origin but nothing was said at all.

I have never quite understood how Polish car insurance works, but now that the policy that came with my car is about to run out I have had to go and find out about it...

Here is what I know. If anyone has anything to add please leave a comment as always - I hope this article can be a work in progress.

The insurance is 'with the car', not 'with the person' as in the UK

What does this mean? Well in the UK the policy normally allows you and only you to drive your car unless you add specific named drivers. As a bonus you can normally drive other people's cars on 3rd party cover too. In Poland it is the other way around - anyone can drive your car if you bought a policy for it.
This is a bit confusing because in both cases the policies specify both the driver and the car.
The net result for us Brits though is two nice bonuses:

• Anyone can drive anyone's car in Poland (presuming the car is legal of course)
• You can take out insurance in your father-in-law's name to get a cheaper price (just like we used to do in the UK 20 years ago when we were 17 years old)

The vehicle must be insured continuously

In the UK your vehicle needs to be insured if it is on the road. If you don't have insurance there is nothing wrong with leaving the car in your garage for example. This is not the case in Poland!

IN POLAND YOUR VEHICLE MUST HAVE INSURANCE CONTINUOUSLY regardless of whether it is road-worthy or not or even if it's parked up on private property.
This means that the day you buy a Polish vehicle you have to make sure it has insurance. If a policy didn't come with the vehicle for some reason (e.g. because you imported the vehicle) then you have to go and buy insurance THE SAME DAY. I got bitten by this rule. The powers that be have 5 years to check and apparently they can fine you for it.

European Union Harmonisation

There are a number of directives to harmonise car insurance and driving across the EU. See the official Europa website for details. The basics are that any policy you buy in any EU country automatically gives you the minimum required cover in any other EU country (including Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). Green cards are no longer necessary inside the EU.

Levels of cover

In the UK we have 3 levels - 3rd party only, 3rd party fire and theft and fully comprehensive. In Poland from what I have seen they only have the compulsory minimum level of 3rd party (called "OC" which means Odpowiedzialności Cywilnej - civil liability) and fully comp (called "AC" - Autocasco). You can bundle into the package add-ons such as breakdown cover as they do in the UK.

Insurance that comes with the car when you buy it

This is the bit that I still don't fully understand. In the UK because the cover is with the driver the situation is clear cut - you have your policy, I have mine. Because as mentioned the cover in Poland is with the car, this means that when you buy a car from someone the policy is transferred to you. Well sort of. From what I can work out you have 30 days from when you buy the car to contact the insurance company and change the policy in to your name.

I didn't change my policy within 30 days and that caused me the following problems:

• I was then not able to change the insurance company until the policy expired. Luckily for me the previous owner had used a cheap company
• I had to keep the sale contract in the car with me when I drove so that I could show that the name on the insurance policy was the seller and that I had bought the vehicle.

Taking out a new policy

Like in the UK 20 years ago (presumably before people started buying their insurance directly or via the phone and then online) everyone in Poland buys their insurance from agents. You will see them everywhere. They seem almost as prevalent as "Apteka"s in the town centres... Just look for the big sign that says "Ubezpieczenie" (insurance) or the names/logos of the big insurance companies (PZU, Warta).
Recently some companies have been advertising on TV where you can buy direct. Examples include Link 4 and LibertyDirect. Fire up google.pl and you'll find them easily enough.

No claims-bonus - "zniżki"

In the UK we count how many years of NCB we have, in Poland they ask what percentage you have (e.g. 10, 20, 30%..). Otherwise it works as you would expect - you gain your NCB the longer you have a policy without accidents and you can transfer your NCB if you change your insurance company. You can normally also transfer your NCB from the UK if you produce an NCB certificate translated into Polish. Worth checking if you have a lot of NCB from the UK.


Worth knowing - the GOTCHAs

• You must carry your insurance certificate with you all the time
• A policy will auto-renew if you do nothing unlike in the UK where it's up to you to renew it. If you want to change your company make sure you write to them in good time
• You must have insurance even if your car is not on the road

Prices

Like in the UK the price varies a lot depending on each case. The two biggest factors in Poland appear to be the engine size and how much NCB (zniżki - "reduction") you have. But a pleasant suprise is that car insurance seems to be very cheap compared to the UK, especially for motorbikes.
For my Suzuki GSF1200 I paid £600/year in the UK for 3rd, F&T (including my UK NCB). In Poland I paid 135 złoty for OC and didn't even bother to tell them I had any NCB at all.

Remember too that they still haven't wised up to the trick of taking the insurance out in some else's name such as a parent or parent-in-law (choose someone old with a lot of NCB). But to do that the vehicle needs to have this other person listed as a co-owner on the registration document. I did that this morning with my father-in-law so will cover that in my next blog post.

Happy motoring...

As I have already posted in my blog about getting a karta pobytu, I found out that as I have Polish blood I may well have Polish citizenship and therefore was supposed to go to the Urząd Województwa in Kraków to present myself. For those of you in małopolskie go to:

room 354 on the 3rd floor
Urząd Województwa
ulica Basztowa 22
Krakow

It's a huge impressive old building not far from the main train station. The guy there was very very helpful and told me that the first thing I need to do (and one of the fundamentals for getting most things done in Poland regarding identity) is to get my birth certificate registered in Poland.
That is easier said than done because British birth certificates don't have all the information that goes on a Polish birth certificate. Also, I restored my Grandfather's name by Deed Poll a few years ago, and Polish law doesn't seem to recognise or have any provision for British Deed Polls.

After that it's a case of filing the application. You have to provide a passport photo and the kind of information needed for a karta pobytu such as proving you have means to live in Poland etc.. etc.. Of course you need to provide originals (with certified translations where appropriate) of all documents required to show you are of Polish descent. If you don't have originals (as in my case) then basically you just give them what you do have and explain the situation, it's then there task to investigate.

Simple cases where all documents are in order take a few months, most cases take over 2 years.

Last night I called our local restaurant to get a pizza delivered. Their menu says "free delivery" on it and we only live about 500 metres away. Of course I could have gone and collected it, but I was feeling lazy. Plus what's the point if they offer free delivery?

The following short conversation impressed me so much I thought it worthy of a blog post:

Me - hello can you deliver a pizza to me?
Her - no, there's no driver
Me - OK, but this is the 11th time we've ordered from you, and only once have you been able to actually deliver. Either you say there' s no driver or there's no car. What's the point in putting "free delivery" on your menus if you can't offer delivery?
Her - to be honest I don't care. Complain to the boss. If you want your pizza come and collect it

Although shocked at what she said, afterwards I thought it was brilliant. There's no American-style customer service here, no false smiles and pretending to care. At the end of the day she doesn't give a toss and said so which I think is fair enough.

In a funny way that's one of the things I like about Poland...

This morning I went to a branch of one of the biggest banks in Poland - PKO Bank Polski - to do what I thought would be a very simple task - namely withdraw 1500 złoty from my wife's account on which I have permission to use.

How I was wrong! Here follows a rant. I hope it will make interesting reading. At the very least it should restore my blood pressure.

First I tried to use the cash point outside the bank (read ATM if you are American :-) ). Not suprisingly it said I couldn't withdraw that because the daily limit is 1000 złoty. OK fair enough, time to head inside. Now normally when I go in to a bank or post office or similar establishment in Poland I like to calculate what I call my "service inefficiency index". Basically this means calculating the ratio of staff sitting on their arse to those actually serving customers. Today I counted 6 windows with staff, of which only 1 was open despite a long queue of customers. Thus PKO this morning managed to achieve an impressively low index of 16.7% - even lower than the post office yesterday.

Fine - this meant I would have to stand in line for a while. Now I am not a particularly patient person to start with, which is why I try and do most of my banking online when possible, and I could feel my blood pressure slowly rising as I contemplated what could possibly be more important than dealing with the customers whose money is in their bank and ultimately paying their wages...

Finally I got to the front of the queue. This is when I like to do my second test of Polish customer service - does the clerk have the common courtesy to acknowledge my presence at the window while they finish playing with their bits of paper in an "I'm very busy and important" manner? Or do they manage to go as far and say "dzień dobry"?
The woman today managed a half-smile. OK great start. Our conversation went something like this:

Me - hello I want to withdraw some money from my wife's account. This is her card.
Her - umm, do you have the account number
Me - no, I just have her bank card. Is that not enough?
Her - are you on her account?
Me - yes
Her - dowód please
Me - I haven't got one, I'm British. Here's my driving licence.
Her - aah. OK Pesel then
Me - I don't have a Pesel either.
Her - in which case I don't know how to look up her account
Me - so you are saying that despite having her PKO Bank Polski debit card in front of you, you are unable to find her account? Is this not PKO Bank Polski? I am a little surprised.

[Now I should point out at this stage that unlike in the UK where you can deal with any branch of your bank without a problem, the branches of PKO Bank Polski aren't so closely interwoven. Like in the UK, the bank where you open your account is your home branch, but unlike in the UK that means that some things (such as telling them you have moved address) can only be done in your home branch personally and physically, and not elsewhere.
So it took her a lot of effort and consulting with colleagues and playing with the computer to actually find my wife's account number. Of course there was a queue of people behind me before we started, now the queue is to the door (yes, still only one till open).]

Her - [looking at my driving licence] so what is this?
Me - [surprised, given that there are pictures of cars and lorries on the back] Err, it's a driving licence
Her - do you have your passport?
Me - not with me, why? Can't you just use my driving licence?

[By this stage I have been in the bank over half an hour (including queuing time), there are 11 people behind me and I am starting to lose my patience.]

Her - sorry I can't give you any money on just your driving licence. Why don't you use the bankomat outside?

[Is it not obvious that I would not queue up like a twat if I could have used the bankomat? I managed to restrain myself from saying that...]

Me - Because I want 1500 złoty. That's a valid ID document in the UK and I thought we were in the EU here
Her - sorry, passport only
Me - in which case can you tell me your surname?
Her - why?
Me - because when I make a complaint later I want to know whom I dealt with
Her - but I checked everything and we can't pay out on a driving licence
Me - fine, but I want your surname anyway
Her - [writes down her surname]
Me - [leave bank empty handed and incredibly p*ssed off]

I don't understand why my driving licence is not good enough for PKO Bank Polski when it is good enough for the Urząd Miasta and Urząd Transportu i Kommunikacji. It is good enough for me where we have our other accounts at Bank BGŻ.

PKO Bank Polski is clearly not geared up to deal with foreigners. I have access to my wife's bank account but as a foreigner not working in Poland I was not allowed to be a shared owner of it with her, which is another stupid rule in my opinion (again no problems with Bank BGŻ).

I have written to PKO Bank Polski and asked them to explain their position with regards to foreigners. I have also mentioned this article on my blog and invited them to respond. If/when I get a response from them I will be sure to post it here.

As mentioned, I opened a bank account with my wife without any problems at all at Bank BGŻ. I even have a credit card with them, so I know that not all banks are as bad as PKO Bank Polski.

I would very much like to hear about your experiences with polish banks as a foreigner - please leave a comment!

PKO's advertising slogan is "PKO Bank Polski - blisko ciebie". Blisko ciebie? Blisko dupy in my opinion.

One of the roles of the British Embassy in Poland is to help British people travelling or living in Poland. Most people know that they will help you if you lose your passport or give advice if you manage to get yourself arrested, but they can also provide business advice and give guidance on things such as transferring large sums of money (for example if you are buying a house here).

A few months ago I was browsing their website and was a little bit miffed to see the front page was plastered with "Living and Working in the UK" featuring lots of help for Polish people going to the UK. I don't have any problem with that - but should there not be at least SOMETHING on their website giving advice for Brits "Living and Working in Poland"?

So back in October 2007 I sent the following email to them:

Hi

I was looking at the website of the British embassy in Poland. There is
a lot of information for Poles going to the UK, but not so much help for
Brits in Poland.

For example, can you point me towards any resources that explain about
things such as:
* temporary and permanent registration in Poland
* how I can go about getting a mobile phone contract
* registering a car
* opening a bank account
* polish language lessons

It would be nice to know what the official procedures are as I am often
giving conflicting information when I ask in Polish offices.

Thanks.

Ben

After not hearing back from them I then forgot all about it. Then last week something bizarre happened. After a delay of only 6 months I got a reply. Someone might find something useful in it so I shall quote it in its entire glory:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email.

The British Embassy may signpost you towards organisations who may offer you professional help.

Here are some useful contacts with reference to your enquiry:

RESIDENCY IN POLAND

Poland is now a full member of European Union and you have the right to live here without visas and permits. However, after an initial stay of 3 months in Poland, you should contact

DEPARTMENT FOR FOREIGNERS at the relevant Voivod Office to apply for registration of your stay in Poland.

This office should also provide you with information about permanent residency in Poland.

For more information referring to different issues for British residents abroad please enter:

www.direct.gov.uk/BritonsLivingAbroad/fs/en

You may also find useful the following webpages :

www.msz.gov.pl ( Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, information available in English)

www.fco.gov.uk/traveladvice

(Travel Advice prepared by FCO)

and the British Embassy in Warsaw website: www.britishembassy.pl

You may also find useful the assistance of a professional agency (relocation agencies) that assists foreigners in many issues like: Settling-in Services; Home Finding Programme; Medical; Taxes etc.This is : POLAID, contact MR Olgierd Chrobak, 00-082 Warszawa, tel: 0048 600431204 email: olgierd.chrobak@polaid.pl , PRO Relocation, ul. Kaniowska 41, 01-529 Warsaw, tel. +48 22 869 04 40, info@prorelo.com, www.prorelo.com, Pryma Agency, www.pryma-cudzoziemcy.pl .

Right hand cars cannot be registered in Poland. You may consider contacting the relevant department of the Ministry of Transport and Construction at the following address for clarification of this issue:

Ministerstwo Transportu i Budownictwa
Departament Dróg i Transportu Drogowego
Ul. Chalubinskiego 4/6
00-928 Warsaw
tel. 022 630 12 40

I hope you find this information helpful.

Regards,

Consular Section

Well I am impressed that if you do email them then they eventually will reply. Whether it's worth them bothering to reply after 6 months is another question...

I just hope that if ever I should have the misfortune to get arrested in Poland then their consular assistance people are are little quicker than the rest of the departement....

I hadn't heard of winter tyres and summer tyres before coming to Poland. I have owned a number of vehicles in the UK (cars, motorbikes and a van) at one time or other and although not a mechanic would like to think I know the basic stuff about looking after vehicles.

So I was a little suprised that in Poland they make a big fuss about having the right tyres on their cars according to the time of year. My first impression was that this was probably a scam by the tyre companies just to shift more tyres. So I did a little bit of research on the Internet and found the following:

• In some EU countries (not suprisingly mainly those cold ones up north) such as Finland and Latvia you are legally required to have winter tyres on between certain dates. There are no laws in Poland or the UK as far as I know however.
• If you have an accident in Poland and the tyres are considered to be a contributory factor I have heard that this can count against you. But I can't find any specific rules about it.
• The difference between the two types is that they have different rubber compounds and different tread patterns. When the weather is less than 7 degrees winter tyres should be used. Above 7 degrees summer tyres according to www.tyres-online.co.uk
• You can get universal 'all-year-round' tyres. I guess these are what we use in the UK. They aren't recommended in Poland.
  

There is loads of tyre info at www.etyres.co.uk about it if anyone is that sad enough like me to be interested.

When last winter came (2007) I had just bought a car with summer tyres. One day it really snowed and driving in that car I felt like bamby on ice. Whilst drunk. My braking distance was terrible and I couldn't accelerate away from junctions without wheel-spinning and sliding. The same day I decided that winter tyres probably wasn't a load of bollocks and went and got some. The difference that same day was evidence enough - I am no longer a sceptic.

Where to buy tyres in Poland?

Every town and village normally has loads of garages that just sell tyres and oil. They are easy to find with the brands advertised outside such as Dębica, Goodyear and Continental. The price depends on the size of course. Fitting and balancing is normally included in the price if you are buying tyres there. If you already have tyres from last year then expect to pay about 10 zloty per tyre for them to change them.

How do I know what tyre size I need?

Easiest way is look on your current tyres and get the same. Tyres are measured according to tredwidth, profile height and wheel diameter and this is written on the side - e.g. 175/65/R14 means tread width is 175mm, profile height is 65% and wheel diameter is 14 inches. It is always written in this format. There is also an alphabetical maximum speed rating. For example H means your tyres are rated for you to drive up to 210 km/h.

Buying tyres online

I was quoted 160 - 170 zloty per tyre for summer tyres from my local garage for tyres made by Sava. I found my size made by Goodride online for 114 zloty and Dębica (a Polish brand but made by Goodyear) for 158 zloty which I ordered from www.oponytanio.pl

The other day I got a phone call from some guy in the office regarding my application for my karta pobytu. That was a nice suprise as I was wondering what was happening with it having not heard anything since applying. He asked me about my Polish looking surname. When I told him it was because my Grandfather was Polish he asked if I knew that I probably already had Polish citizenship.

What?

Yes that's right - I might already have Polish citizenship. Apparently, if you have a parent or grandparent who is/was Polish then you automatically became Polish the moment you were born whether you knew it or not, regardless of where you or your parents were born!

So today I did a bit of googling to see how this could be, and what the impact would be for me.
It seems that as long as my Grandfather didn't renounce or otherwise 'lose' his Polish citizenship, then by blood rights I too have Polish citizenship. The rules are complicated though because if your ancestors left Poland before 1962 (as my Granddad did) then there are a number of caveats.

To check whether I have citizenship or not apparently I need to do an application to my local embassy and supply documents such as birth certificates with translations and so on.

These are the links for more information:

Polish nationality law - good ol' wikipedia.
Polish Embassy in London, Citizenship info - explains exactly what the rules are
Polish Citizenship, ancestry and geneology - questions and answers from polishforums.com

This has got me thinking though - what are the advantages and disadvantages of getting Polish citizenship? I have come up with the following - let me know what you reckon:

Pros:

• Will be treated like a Pole whilst in Poland, therefore bureacracy should be less complicated than it is for me now with registration, buying property etc..
• Ability to get a Polish passport. Not much use to me as a Brit, but might be useful to non-EU citizens who want an easy way to get an EU passport

Cons:

• No doubt applying for citizenship (or rather I should say "getting confirmation of citizenship" as these are two different applications) will be tedious, bureaucratic and time-consuming
• New legal responsibilities (for example you have to declare your nationality as Polish to the authorities when in Poland)
• Potential tax/legal issues could arise (I read about some guys who suddenly became obliged to do national service or pay taxes etc..)
• If you are involved with the armed services or areas requiring special security clearance then dual nationality can be problematic
  

This whole thing has also got me thinking about whether or not I want to be Polish or not. Would I feel comfortable having to carry an ID card? How would I feel about declaring myself as Polish? Which country would I feel I had the most allegiance to? How would this change my view of Poland?

I am still quite suprised to discover that this could be possible and will think about it all some more before deciding if I will apply or not.

Meanwhile I have written to the UK embassy with my details to find out exactly what the process involves.

Apparently the blood line can go further back than just 2 generations - which is food for thought - who knows what citizenships you might have that you don't even know about!?!

So this is the effect of being in the Schenghen zone!

"A teenage Dutch boy who ran away from home and headed to China with just £6 and a bag of crisps has finally been caught in Poland. Residents in Przemkow, a town of 7,000 inhabitants in south west Poland, phoned the local police after discovering a boy who 'looked lost', and spoke no Polish, at a bus stop."

www.ananova.com

Brilliant!

It goes without saying that one of the toughest parts to living abroad is dealing with the local language.

I tried learning Polish from zero when I was still in the UK but without much luck. Now, a couple of years later, there are more resources available including evening classes (which my parents thoroughly enjoy going to back in London!).

As everyone says, there is nothing like being in the country to help you learn. Obviously the more enveloped you are in the language the better. But even this ranges - I know some people who live and work with English speakers and don't bother to learn Polish at all. At the other end of the scale, I was thrown in at the deep-end because I rarely have contact with English speakers, and I have only got Polish TV. It was tough at the start but was worth the extra effort.

I'm by no means an expert, but my advice to anyone starting to learn Polish is this - THE FIRST 100 WORDS ARE THE HARDEST - KEEP GOING! When it's all new nothing makes sense and you don't see any patterns in the words. It's very easy to give up at the start - but the start is the most difficult as that's the steepest part of the learning curve. DON'T GIVE UP - KEEP DOING A LITTLE BIT EACH WEEK. You will get a lot of satisfaction when you start to work things out for yourself and when you start seeing patterns in the words and spellings.

I have been asked a couple of times how I learnt Polish - basically I taught myself (and am still going of course!). I already had a good understanding of grammar from studying German and dabbling with Latin, so was happy with things like cases and tenses etc.. Therefore I just got myself a couple of books, found a course on the Internet, and went from there.

Websites for learning Polish:

University of Pittsburgh Polish Language Website
Without a doubt the best course I have found (and it's free!) is at the University of Pittsburgh. The course is a little dated and there are a number of typos and mistakes in there (increasing in density as the course goes on), but I think the structure and content are excellent.

Polish Forums Learning Links
This link is a thread at PolishForums.com where people have posted useful stuff. Worth having a dig around.

Books for learning Polish:

Polish/English Dictionaries:

Oxford PWN Polish/English dictionary
If you want a hardcore heavy duty dictionary for your bookshelf then by far this is the best one. This is the daddy of all dictionaries. I paid about £75 for it and I reckon it's a good investment. It is actually two huge books - one is Polish to English, the other English to Polish. I like this one as it has a vast collection of swear words (always handy). When I can't find a word in one of my smaller dictionaries or I want a fuller description then that's the one I use.

Cambridge Klett Concise Polish-English dictionary
This one is good value at £8.49 and very useful. This is the one I use day to day and am very happy with it.

Langensheidt Pocket dictionary
I have added this one for completeness because I also have it BUT IT SUCKS so don't buy it.
Annoyingly it has many blank pages presumably due to a printing error. Whether that's just my one or a whole batch I don't know.

Polish Text Books

I like to get stuff for free which is why I use the online courses where possible, but sometimes it's nice to have a book for when you want a rest from the screen, want to make notes in it or are travelling etc..

Here is a list of the books I have used and my rating on them:

301 Polish Verbs
This book is basically a list of common verbs and how to conjugate them. For example if you know the word "prosić" (to ask, request, beg, plead, invite) then it will show you what the perfective is (poprosić) and how to conjugate them to make the past/present/future/conditional/imperative etc... It will also show you related words (e.g. przeprosić - to apologise) which I find useful for improving my vocabulary. Good as a reference book.

Teach Yourself Polish
Typical teach yourself style book where you are expected to work through the chapters progressively. Useful enough, contains some good vocabulary but not my favourite book by far. The book avoids using grammatical terms which some people might like but I don't - for example one chapter talks extensively about the difference between determinate and indeterminate verbs of motion (e.g. iść versus chodzić) but without mentioning even once the words "determinate" or "indeterminate". Also by trying to avoid the grammar, the order the content is delivered in seems strange to me and things aren't explained as they crop up but are left until their own chapter which I find frustrating.

Polish in 3 months
Good alround book and one of the first ones I bought. The title annoys me though - does anyone really think they can master Polish in 3 months? Guess a book called "A polish course that lasts 3 months if you do a lesson a week" probably wouldn't sell as well though...
Anyway a good book for beginners.

For intermediate to advanced speakers:

It's easy to find resources such as the ones above if you are a total beginner, but beyond the basics it get's harder to find suitable material.

My suggestions are:

1. Try this Polish educational publisher who have books for foreigners: http://www.universitas.com.pl/
2. Join the local library (free) and get childrens' books. I once asked my wife to go for me and she asked the librarian where the kiddie books were with pictures. The librarian asked her - "how old's your boy?". My wife said 28. The librarian was obviously stuck for words until my wife told her I am a foreigner!
3. Get Polish TV and try and listen to Polish radio.
4. Read the news in Polish. I don't particulary have any favourite Polish news sites - they seem to be full of ads and pop-ups - if anyone has any good ones please drop me a comment.

I hope this post has been useful. As ever, comments are welcome.

How to get a "Odpis skrócony aktu małżenstwa" - Polish marriage certificate

Given that the theme of my blog is foreigners (well OK Brits) in Poland, then my razor sharp logic suggests to me that if you are reading this blog then it's quite likely that you or your spouse (if you have one) aren't Polish. Therefore there's a fair chance that you didn't get married in Poland. This means you may well have another piece of Polish bureacracy to take care of - reporting your foreign marriage!

Why?

If you are lucky you might not need to bother. If you don't need to then I suggest you save yourself the money and the hassle and don't. So by now you are surely thinking - so when would I need to? I can think of the following cases:

• Your Polish wife wants to change her surname to yours.
  
• You want to register a newly born child in Poland as a married couple.
  
• You are applying for a residence card (karta pobytu) and need to demonstrate that you have a Polish spouse.
• You or your spouse want to avoid problems with the ruthless Urząd Skarbowy (treasury office) and want to report your marriage to them for financial/tax reasons.
  

How?

First of all you will need a Polish translation of your marriage certificate from a sworn translator. 1 page shouldn't cost you more than around 44 złoty. Translators for languages such as English and German can be found in every town. I know a couple who got married in Egypt. I can't imagine that there are many Arabic translators in the phone book so my practical tip for today is to avoid getting married in odd places, or to odd people, or preferably both.

Next you need to go to the Urząd Stanu Cywilnego (office of civil affairs) in the town where your spouse is permanently melded with your translation and original. My wife did this part so I can't remember what she paid for the priviledge or how long it took, but I can tell you that THEY WILL KEEP YOUR ORIGINAL so make sure you have photocopies for your own records!

Why they keep your original I don't understand. What happens if you need your original for any reason back home I don't know. I am sure there is Polish logic in there somewhere. Come to think of it, like most Polish bureacracy there probably isn't...

So now you are the proud owner of a yellow piece of A5 paper that has the summary of your wedding details on it. Unfortunately you are likely to face the following potential problems with it:

1. Polish wedding certificates have the places and dates of birth of the bride and groom on them. Your certificate probably doesn't (e.g. UK wedding certificates). Therefore your details will just be blanked out. This will cause you no end of problems when you try and use this document in other Polish offices. When I tried to register the birth of our daughter the woman insisted that our document must have been translated wrong and wouldn't accept it. It was only after a long phone call with the director of that office that they relented.
2. Some offices won't accept this certificate once it's older than 3 months old. They expect you to go and get another one. An example is when applying for a karta pobytu. This means going back to the office holding your original wedding certificate, regardless of whether you now live on the other side of Poland because you reported your wedding X years ago and have since moved... This alone is a good argument for not bothering to report your wedding until you find you need to.
   

I wrote this article based on my experience (a Brit) who married a Pole in the UK. Let me know about your experiences!

I already blogged about my experiences with registering locally, well after growing tired of traipsing to the local council every 3 months I decided to bite the bullet and get my karta pobytu (card of stay). This allows me to register for a 5 year period.

It's worth mentioning that apparently you can register permanently, but I haven't looked into this too much and you need the card of stay first anyway. Quoting from the "instruction to the nationals of the European Union member states and their family members" leaflet that they gave me when I applied for my karta pobytu, it says "the Union citizen shall obtain right of permanent residence after five years of continuous residence within the territory of Republic of Poland".

Also note that you can only get the karta pobytu having already been here for 3 months having already done the local registration as above.

The first problem in doing this is the difficulty in finding out exactly what you are supposed to do, what documents you need and where to go.

There's a thread here about it on Polish forums where I asked if anyone had tried doing this in Krakow. Just to be sure though I called up the office in Kraków myself to check. They referred me to their portal at www.wrotamalopolski.pl where the forms and instructions are available for download. It took a bit of hunting down but here is the page for registration in małopolskie. Unfortunately the link entitled "wniosek do pobrania (ob. UE)" which in English is "form for download (EU citizens)" is the wrong form. That form is for a replacement card, not a new application. I had to do my application a second time and of course go and get photocopies there and then because of this.

If anyone has links for the right form or for other regions please post a comment.

Where to go

Oddzial do Spraw Cudzoziemców Wydziału Spraw Obywatelskich i Cudzoziemców Małopolskiego Urzędu Wojewódzkiego w Krakowie, ul. św. Sebastiana 9-11, I piętro, pokój 102

Here it is on google maps.

Basically that is the office for foreigners, room 102, 1st floor on Świetego Sebastiana street. It's pretty near the Wawel behind the hotel Royal, so if you get lost head for the castle and ask. Also there is a photocopy place (ksero) in the same street near the kiosk. You might find yourself having to go there to get photocopies of whatever they decide to demand from you.

There's also an office in Nowy Sącz if that's nearer for you (ul. Jagiellońska 52).

What you need

1. Forms. First fill out the 5 page form. As mentioned it is supposed to be downloadable from their website but my experience is different. You need 3 photocopies too. If you don't have copies they'll just send you out to get them. I should mention here that you even need to copy the blank sections that you are for them to fill in - I didn't, and of course I was sent out to get photocopies. I did ask her what the point of photocopying empty pages was but she wasn't having any of it.
   
2. Passport with 1 photocopy of the page with your details on it.
3. Proof that you have health insurance. This ones a bit tricker because it depends on whether you are working for a Polish company, are a student or still work for a UK company. I work for a UK company so just got the new European Health Insurance Card by filling out this form on the NHS website. Of course I needed 1 photocopy of it.
   
4. Proof that you have financial means. This one is tricky because again it depends on whether you are a student, working locally, retired or whatever. Either they will ask for some crap such as a letter from a Polish bank confirming that you have a bank account, or they will ask for 1 photocopy of your credit card if you have one.
5. Photocopy of your 3 month temporary registration.
   

Note that when you give them photocopies they will probably want to see the originals too, so bring them with you.

Because my wife is Polish they also asked me for our Polish marriage certificate. Because we got married in English we previously had to "announce" our marriage to the Polish authorities and they gave us a little yellow A5 document which seems to keep the officials happy. However I didn't have this with me because when I rang I hadn't been told this was necessary. Even if I had had it with me it would have been no good, because they said they wanted one less than 3 months old. We have been married 2 years and our Polish translation/certificate is already 1 year old.

Still following this?

So according to them I have to go all the way back to Opole (where we first lived when we came to Poland and where we announced our English wedding) to get another Polish certificate, to then bring to them in Kraków, even though I live nowhere near either place.

I pointed out to her politely that that was bollocks and I wasn't going to, so she decided instead that photocopies of my credit cards would suffice, but that I should call up after 2 weeks to check it wasn't going to cause a problem with my application.

MORAL OF THE STORY - I STRONGLY ADVISE YOU TO CALL UP AND ASK THEM EXACTLY WHAT YOU WILL NEED FIRST!

The Kraków office phone number is 012 392 1845.

What to do

Turn up. Queue. Get told that you have the wrong form or have filled it out wrong. Fill out the right form correctly. Go back to the photocopier place. Return to the office again. This time she decides that she wants photocopies of your credit card as you don't have your Polish marriage certificate with you. Go back to the photocopier place. Return to the office again. Call after 2 weeks to check your application is OK. Wait for the Police to turn up at your door to ask you strange questions about your educational history, work experience and if you are a terrorist or some sort of nutter. Tell them "no". Go back to the office again after 1 month to collect your certificate. Pay 1 złoty at the till first.

Springer's Final Thought

This process has to be the biggest load of bureaucratical bollocks I have dealt with to date living in Poland. I really don't see the point - if I am a terrorist why would I apply for a residence card to start with? If we're all in the EU aren't we free to live anywhere we want? What p*sses me off the most is that they ask you to bring photocopies with you - how primitive is that? What happens if you have made a mistake or have the wrong form? Would it not be more logical for them to check your forms and originals and then take whatever copies they want themselves?

Anyway that's my rant over for now... please post your experiences of applying for the karta pobytu if you have any.

EDIT - I got a phone call on 13th May 2008 to say my karta pobytu was ready. I went back to the office in Krakow, paid 1 zloty and collected it. What an anticlimax - just a little bit of paper with a stamp :-(

Recently I have been thinking about sitting a Polish language exam. I figured that now my Polish is a little stronger having lived here a while, it makes sense to sit the exam and get something to show for my time here on my CV. Plus I reckon it will spur me on to study some more if I know I have an exam looming...

After a bit of research on the Internet (god I love wikipedia) it turns out that there is a Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and an Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE). After digging a bit further it turns out that the prestigious Jagiellonian University in Krakow is the Polish ALTE member responsible for the Polish language exam for foreigners as commissioned by no less than the Polish Ministry of National Education and Sports.

Here is the official website (from what I can work out anyway) on the Polish as a Foreign Language series of exams. There are currently 3 exams:

• Basic level - Poziom podstawowy - ALTE level B1
• Medium level - Poziom sredni ogólny - ALTE level B2
• Advanced level - Poziom zaawansowany - ALTE level C2

There is an online bookshop that has Polish books for foreigners and most of the titles are labelled with their corresponding ALTE difficulty levels. Also, on the official website there are downloadable sample papers (see the link above).

If anyone has done these exams or can recommend preparatory materials, please let me know!

Our baby crying woke me up at 4am this morning, my wife too. First thing she said to me was "aren't you going to wish me happy women's day?" I couldn't believe it! I told her that until my brain wakes up in at least another 4 hours time it's not women's day or any other day and to go back to sleep.

Of course when we finally did get up today I had forgotten all about our earlier verbal exchange and so again got another nagging.

So anyway, this got me thinking, what exactly is this women's day thing? I remember being equally confused about it last year and presuming it was some communist throwback. I have heard the stories many times from my mother-in-law about how my father-in-law used to get incredibly drunk (as all the men did) and give flowers and tights to the female workers at the local factory. But my wife insists it's an American tradition and not communist at all. Being sceptical about that I turned to the holy grail of knowledge - wikipedia - which says that the tradition started in America and was adopted by Russia (amongst other countries).

I presume that this day has died out in America or isn't so popular, because as a Brit I have never heard of it or seen it mentioned in any films or news. Therefore I still reckon it's a communist throwback, just don't tell my wife.

I like to read the "strange news" from around the world and I like to read news about Poland or Polish people. This one cropped up for being both strange and Polish:

Worker caught having sex with Henry Hoover

Apparently though he was just "cleaning his underpants", and that "vacuuming underpants is a common practice in Poland". Wierd.

I had to blog about this. For those of you who don't know who Mariusz Pudzianowski, he's a world famous body-builder. One of only 3 men to have won the world strong man competition 4 times.

Before I had heard of other famous Poles such as Lech Wałesa or who the Kaczyński twins were I knew who Mariusz was - guys in the gym I trained in in London would talk about him and I'd seen him on TV in the strongman competitions.

So as the first Pole I had heard of and as a weight-trainer myself I have always admired Pudzianowski.

But then he went and did this:



Why oh why Mariusz? Please stick to lifting heavy things and not poncing around on the dancefloor with C-list celebraties, actors nobody has heard of and wanna-make-a-comeback singers!

I am worried the kids in my new local gym will take your pictures down otherwise...

I don't understand it. How comes when I fill out a form they ask such odd questions:

• What level of education do I have? This is wierd - what on earth has this got to do with me registering a car? In fact they ask this one everywhere - try opening a bank account or registering the birth of your child. I can only presume it's related to the Polish obession with education.
• What is my Mother's first name? Usually followed by what is my Father's first name? Why? Are you going to send them a note if I am naughty?
• What is my Mother's maiden name? Why? Are you going to try and hack into my HSBC account now that you have all of my other personal details?

I wonder what they do with all this information. Probably nothing. Answers on a postcard please...

I know there's a tendancy to be critical when talking about what's different in a new country, so I just thought I'd put a few things I like about Poland because I think overall it's a great place and don't have any regrets about moving here.

1. The weather is better. No you read that right - the weather is better. I know that it drops to minus 1o sometimes at night in the depths of winter (or lower I hear in years gone by), but I would rather have -10 degrees with crisp white snow everywhere, a clear blue sky at day time and dry weather rather than +10 degrees in London but with drizzly rain and a depressing overcast grey sky. Plus summertime is much hotter than in the UK and I love the sun.
2. The food is better. Well my wife says I don't like Polish food but that's not true, more that I am ambivalent about Polish food. However I am ambivalent about most food. But I still prefer to buy 'proper' meats and the local produce that is more readily available here rather than what I heard someone refer to as 'plastic ham from Tescos' in England.
3. Family values are still important. The UK news always talks about moral decline, falling standards of behaviour in schools and in the streets and the increasing numbers of single-parent families. I like the fact that in Poland the family unit is respected more. I hear it was like that in the UK in the fifties, but given that I was only a gnat in my dad's sack then I can't comment on it.
4. There is a lot of investment in Poland. I know that sounds like a bit of a crap reason to like Poland, but what I mean by it is that when you walk, drive or go anywhere you can't help noticing the new buildings going up, the new roads being built or the pavements getting a much needed refurbishment. Whether I am alone on this I don't know (please comment!) but it gives me a sense of excitement about how things will be here in the medium to long term. It also reaffirms my decision to move here that Poland is indeed on the up after being unjustly held back for so many decades.
5. There are some beautiful places to visit. I thought Gdańsk was just a bombed-out ship yard until I visited it - UNBELIEVABLE! I couldn't have been more wrong. Well worth a visit if you haven't been there before. Poland has a choice of miles of sandy beach along the northern coastline or stunning scenery and skiing in the mountains in the south. Plus there are loads of places to visit in between.
   

I seem to keep blogging about vehicle related stuff, but given that I do a lot of driving over here I guess that can't be helped.

This is a post about remembering to carry your documents with you when driving in Poland. This is something I find hard to adjust to, I simply never remembered to do so having never had to carry documents in the UK. I know that this is a fairly 'normal' requirement, and possibly not unreasonable, but I can't help also feeling slightly resentful that I have to carry documents with me everywhere I go.

Now that I have a Polish car the registration certficate is a tiny practical thing that comes laminated and handily fits in my wallet so I don't have to remember it anymore. But when I first came over with my van, my UK documents were of course all A4 and I had them filed away in a safe place.

So anyway one day early in 2007 I was taking the van back to England for another trip to collect more stuff and to sit an exam back in London. My wife came wife me as usual, but along for the ride was my father-in-law who spontaneously thought he might as well take advantage of a free trip to London given that we had a 3rd seat in the van and he had the time free.
We only got about 2 hours down the motorway when we were stopped by Polish customs.
Now I should mention that if you have an old English van and are returning from anywhere in Central/Eastern Europe you are GUARANTEED TO GET STOPPED at least once on your journey. They expect you to be stocked to the ceiling with cheap cigarettes to dodge the duty in the U.K. Polish customs like to set up random stop check points on border routes and I was on the main E40 motorway heading for Germany.

So of course they asked for my driver's licence, registration certificate and certificate of insurance. I had my licence in my wallet but then remembered that everything else was safely filed away in my filing cabinet back in our flat. The customs guy was incredibly rude. He asked me why on earth I wasn't carrying my insurance and what would I do in the event of an accident - this seemed like a stupid question to me and I made my reaction obvious - if you have an accident you exchange details and then spend months piddling about with the paperwork later - what difference is there if my policy is physically with me or not? The important thing is whether I have the insurance or not, which I did.

So he searched the van, found nothing of course, then decided to call the police to report me for not having my documents. I wasn't too fussed at this point, more annoyed that we were being pointlessly delayed, but my wife was going ballistic with me - she couldn't believe I hadn't thought about documents. Meanwhile my father-in-law was going a funny colour and looking incredibly stressed. I have learnt now that the older generation of Pole are typically quite afraid and respectful of the authorities, and from the look on his face I thought he was going to have a heart attack about it. So 2 hours later (I couldn't just drive off as customs were still holding my driver's licence - believe me, I thought about it) the police arrived. Luckily for me they were two younger and friendly guys who clearly weren't impressed with customs that they had been called out just for this. Seeing how annoyed my wife still was with me, one of them jokingly offered her his baton and showed her where she should hit me with it to not leave any obvious marks. Then they issued me with the minimum on the spot ticket they could - 50 zloty - and sent us on our way.

Of course when I got to the German border the German customs pulled us aside for another search. "Papiere bitte" they asked. Again my father-in-law turned a funny colour. Again my luck was in - because I can speak German I told them that I had lost my documents (well, a small stretch of the truth) and had already got a ticket for it in Poland but needed to get back to the UK to sort my documents out. The customs officer looked at the amount of the ticket, commented on what good value it was said that in Germany it wouldn't have been so cheap before sending us on our way again.

Moral of the story - repeat after me: I will always carry my documents with me when driving in Europe.

One of my websites is a little eCommerce shop where I sell products and then post them off. This means I have parcels to send by registered delivery on an almost daily basis to (usually) the UK and Ireland.

90% of these orders are to England so I didn't mind too much when the woman at the counter at the local post office would add "ANGLIA" to the end of the address (apparently "United Kingdom" isn't enough). I started to do the same to save time at the post office, putting "SZKOCJA" or "WALIA" where appropriate. One day I had a parcel for Northern Ireland and so had written "United Kingdom, PÓŁNOCNA IRLANDIA") on the address. I was quite suprised when she told me I had to put "Anglia" on it. What followed was an extremely strange 5 minutes of argument because I refused to do so, telling her that Northern Ireland is not in England. She insisted that only "Anglia" was a recognised country and it had to be "Anglia". I asked her if she thought that Scotland or Wales were in Anglia too, at which point some of the increasingly frustrated people queuing up behind me started to join in the argument too.

The situation was resolved by her calling her manager, who reluctantly agreed that we could leave the envelope as it was, but they weren't convinced that it would get to it's destination OK. I said I would take the chance.

When I got back home I was so annoyed I wrote a sarcastic email to the Polish postal service (Poczta Polska) asking them if they knew the difference between England, the UK and Great Britain or if they only had problems with European geography in my local branch.

I was suprised to get a letter out of the blue 2 months later stating that they had held an investigation, given the employees some training, and that according to their code of practice the country must be either Northern Ireland (PÓŁNOCNA IRLANDIA) or Great Britain (WIELKA BRYTANIA). As a nice little twist that made me smile, the letter also said that the woman serving me had tried to tell me that it must be "Wielka Brytania" but that I was rude to her. Err, no love. So she seems to have not only a problem with geography but memory problems too....

Finding a car/motorbike

The use of the Internet lags behind the UK somewhat, but it's still a great place to start looking for vehicles. Have a look at the motoring section on gratka.pl or the most popular Polish auction site allegro.pl.

Like in the UK 10 or more years ago (i.e. pre-Internet) one of the best ways to find a car is to do the leg work and go and visit local dealerships. Also you will often see vehicles parked at the side of the road with "Sprzedam" (for sale - lit. "I will sell") in the window.

Some useful vocabulary:

• przebieg (mileage)
• pojemność (engine capacity)
• rodzaj paliwa (fuel type)
• skrzynia biegów (gear type, i.e. manual or automatic)

It's worth noting that the price of second-hand vehicles is higher in Poland than in most western European countries such as the UK or Germany. I can only presume this is because there is a higher demand for older cheaper vehicles in Poland which means that vehicles hold their value longer. If you have a trailer and go back and forth by road frequently enough I am sure you could make a sideline importing motorbikes for this very reason. If you have spent any time on the E40 motorway you may well have noticed the amount of crash damaged French/German cars that Poles bring over on trailers.

Lots of Poles I know check out the German market too - have a look at autoscout for example. You might find a cheaper car there, but then of course you have the hassle of going to Germany and then importing the vehicle over here. Also worth a mention is that foreign cars of the same age may well be in better mechanical condition as they haven't had the extra punishment of the pot-holed Polish roads exerted on them.

Checking the vehicle/test drive

You are pretty much on your own here. There aren't the checks that you can get in the UK such as AA car check etc.. Also their MOTs don't show the history of the mileage so you can't check if the car has been clocked or not. My tips:

• Check the car out yourself, bring a mechanically minded friend if necessary.
  
• See if there is a service history.
  
• Check that the engine numbers match the documentation.
  
• Look for signs of an accident damage repaired car by checking the engine bay for unusal marks/damage/weld joints
• Look for signs of broken glass under the carpet in the boot (where the spare-wheel is etc..)
• Does the car have winter tyres on or summer tyres? You might need to buy a full set depending on the time of year and how long the car's been parked up

Don't be afraid to take the car for a test drive. As long as the car's registration certificate is still up to date you will have the mandatory 3rd party level of insurance so anyone can drive it legally.

Buying the vehicle

Buying is straight-forward except there are some differences:

• Most transactions are cash only. Expect to have to go to the bank first!
• Get a proper receipt with the seller's details and your correct details on it - you will need this at the treasury office so don't lose it
• VAT is payable on second-hand cars. You have to go to the treasury department and declare that you bought the car, show the receipt and pay up. If you buy at a dealer they can do this for you to save you the trip. I had to pay 2%. The dealer might not want to put the full value of the transaction on the receipt because they also pay tax on it. It's up to you if you mind doing that or not.
• The seller/dealer will give you the registration certificate. You now have 28 days to get the car registered in your name, which means going twice to the transport department (wywiad transportu i komunikacji)
  

Registering the vehicle

Take your registration certificate and your certificate that shows you are registered to live in Poland (tymczasowe zameldowanie) to the transport department.

There you will have to queue up and fill out a form (wniosek) that you have bought the car and fill in your details. If I recall correctly I had to pay a fee of 60 złoty. I was lucky that the car I bought had local number plates for the area I lived in. If your car is from a different area to where you want to register it then you will have to buy new number plates and pay 300 złoty. It's quite a bizarre sight seeing the woman at the counter handing out pairs of shiny new number plates to people.
They will take your registration certificate from you and give you a temporary one valid for 28 days. You will have to return in person to collect the new one after about 2 weeks.

If you are temporarily registered to live in Poland then your registration certificate will have this noted on it and therefore will only be valid whilst your personal registration is valid. Frustratingly you will have to go back to the transport department each time you renew your address registration to get your car registration updated. On a standard temporary address registration that is every 3 months.

Insurance

The registration of the car includes basic 3rd party insurance so that you can legally drive the car anywhere in the EU. If you want fully comprehensive or fire and theft cover you will have to go to one of the insurance shops (ubezpieczenstwa) you see in the high streets. I haven't bothered with this so can't comment on it.

MOT

On the registration certificate is a stamp and date that says when the next vehicle inspection is due - "termin bandania technicznego". You can go to most garages to get that done and they simply stamp your registration certificate for you. I have to go and get an MOT for my motorbike next week so will update this post then about it.