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.
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I have a peculiar problem where I gave my baby a different surname. I am a Ghanaian and my wife is Polish. We tried to get a polish passport for the baby and that's when we realized the mess this is. We were told the baby has to have at least one of the parents surname-according to the girls at the embassy. So we came back home to change the surname, only to realize English Law does not allow you to re register the baby if the original registration was by the natural father. We did a deed poll for the baby and got it translated to polish. We then went there again today and were told we cannot change the baby's name here in UK so the mother has to go to Poland to change the name. With a 3 month old baby still breastfeeding, that's impossible. No we are stuck. If someone has some advice, it will be greatly appreciated.
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