British In Poland

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.