Polish citizenship

Polish citizenship can be acquired by the virtue of law in the following cases:

• By blood – being born to at least one parent holding Polish citizenship. This is the most common rule and applied to the majority of Polish citizens along with the second case described below.
• By territory – the right of the soil means that any child born or found on the Polish territory gets Polish citizenship if their parents are unknown or do not have any citizenship.
• By adoption – any child adopted by a Polish citizen automatically gets Polish citizenship provided they are younger than 16.

Apart from that, a foreigner can be granted Polish citizenship by the President. The President of the Republic of Poland is not restricted by any rules and may grant citizenship to anyone regardless of their circumstances. If you are interested in taking this course of action, you need to file the form for granting Polish citizenship to your relevant consulate. If your documents are not in Polish, they need to be translated. If your application is turned down, you will not get justification of this decision and you cannot dispute it.

Another way is being recognised as a Polish citizen. Citizenship may be granted to those foreigners who:

• Have lived without interruptions for at least 3 years in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit or a long-term EU-resident permit and have a stable source of income and are entitled to the occupied dwelling;
• Have lived without interruptions for at least 2 years in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit or a long-term EU-resident permit and have been married to a Polish citizen or hold no citizenship;
• Have lived without interruptions for at least 2 years in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit granted to a refugee;
• Are minors residing in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit or a long-term EU-resident permit, whose one parent is a Polish citizen and the other parent has consented to the recognition;
• Are minors residing in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit or a long-term EU-resident permit, whose parent’s citizenship has been restored and the other parent has consented to the recognition;
• Have lived without interruptions and legally for at least 10 years in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit or a long-term EU-resident permit and have a stable source of income and are entitled to the occupied dwelling;
• Have resided without interruptions for at least 2 years in Poland on the basis of a permanent residence permit issued on the grounds of Polish ancestry.

The fee for the recognition is PLN 219. Applicants file the form for recognition as a Polish citizen to their voivode's office. All foreigners who want to be recognised as Polish citizens, except for minors mentioned in the list above, need to pass a certificate of proficiency in the Polish language, and although the legal act does not specify on which level, the official examination body provides certification starting at the B1 level. More about the official language exam for Polish citizenship.

The last way of getting Polish citizenship is through its restoration through the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. This solution is directed at those who lost their Polish citizenship before 1999. If they live abroad, they may apply for the restoration to a relevant consulate. The fee for the application is determined independently by a consulate, while in Poland it is always PLN 219.