About Me
I’m a 30 year old Brit who has relocated to the mountains in between Kraków and Zakopane. I build websites and do Internet marketing for a living from home. I have a Polish wife and have just become a Daddy! If you are an expat in Poland let me know you exist – drop a comment! If you are interested in being interviewed for my series of podcasts please get in contact.
Hi just finsihed reading some of your site. My name is Sean from Dunstable in the UK I have spent some time in Poland as my girlfriend is Polish and we have one son called Krzysztof just born in October of last year. I’ve just come back from Spending xmas in Poland and my girlfriend is very keen on moving back there. I am also working in IT in UK and previously Ireland. I am mainly working in Software development using the java platform my other interests are web application development and PHP. My Girlfriend is moving back with Krzysztof soon but I am staying on for a little while longer here. I am slightly nerved about looking for work in Poland and could use some advise from yourself. My Polish is still a little shaky but I am open to learning more and making more of an effort. I can understand alot more than I can speak. I am very familair with Polish culture as I spent some time there in 2007 and travelled around lots of cities and towns. We are interested in Buying a house there as we have almost all of the money but I am nervous about the job situation and making that commitment. Our money is already in Zloty in BGZ bank but we still need to take a small morgage to buy the kind of house we want. I would like to hear from you and maybe get in touch with you when I come over next time.
Look forward to hearing from you.
regards
Sean
Hello.
I am so pleased that I have come across your website. I am from Scotland and have a Polish wife. We have a house in Scotland and in Poland and therefore have been through a few of the difficulties that you mention here. However, as I read through I realise that I have just scratched the surface of the hoops to jump through. As I am an IT contractor with all my work so far in the UK I have not entered into the registration maze and am a bit reluctant to start until I am the point of starting work in Poland. By registering in Poland what does this mean to tax and residency in the UK or does it not affect it at all?
It is great to see that I am not alone in the situation and take comfort in the knowledge that there are others out there that can help. The worst thing for me is the lack of control that I feel in Poland as I am unable to get the information myself as my Polish is still not great.
Look forward to hearing from you and adding any helpful information I have about any of your blogs.
Regards
Martin
Hi Martin
When you mean ‘registering’ in Poland do you mean registering a company or registering yourself at a residence (zameldowanie)?
Neither affect your residency status for tax purposes directly. Residency is mainly affected by how much time you spend in either country and where your main ‘ties’ are – see here: http://www.britishinpoland.com/blog/2008/09/am-i-now-a-uk-or-poland-resident-for-tax-purposes/
Cheers.
Ben
Hi,
I have just started contracting in the Telecommunications industry in Poland and I want to get setup to pay Tax here.
I am not paying Tax anymore and am exempt from from paying in Ireland now so I solely want to setup in Poland.
I have an umbrella company doing all my tax, invoicing etc, and they need me to setup as ’self-employer contractor’ here in Pland.
So my questions is what is the first step, it looks like its GET A NIP ?
To start I need a NIP but you say that NIP-3 is for and it states that the last 2 pages are about ‘ my company’ but I think im not setting up a company so can you clarify for me ?
Remeber – I want to be setup as ’self-employer contractor’.
Regards & Thanks,
Eoin.
You should confirm with them what that is in Polish – I suspect they want you to set up a regular self-employed company which is “działalność gospodarcza” which is a form of company where you are the legal entity.
Hi! Ben,
An English friend of mine living in Chelmno came across your web-site whilst looking for something else. He immediately telephoned me and gave me the site address. I spent a couple of hours last night reading your site and I can definately identify with the problems you have had, particularly in respect of bureaucracy. I came here with a Landrover Discovery from England, and guess what, that’s right, I could not register it because it was right hand drive. I therefore bought a vehicle here and returned to England to sell the Landrover. It took four visits to the registration office before I had everything I needed to get the new registration plates. Three of these occasions we had to wait between one hour and two hours. This was very frustrating.
I moved here three years last November although I had visited Poland quite a number of times before moving. I have (had) a Polish father and therefore did not have too much difficulty in obtaining my “Dowod Osobisty”. It took just two and a half months although I had been told by one bureaucrat that I would have to live here ten years before I could apply and even then it was unlikely that I would obtain Polish Nationality.
That showed him!!!
I am sixty one years old and am retired from my career in England. I live in a small village about forty kilometers north of Bydgoszcz and in August last year I married a Polish woman whom I first met 20 years ago. We have a 14 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. We are in the final stages of building a new house very close to Jezioro Koronowskie. It is in a beautiful area and yes like you I love being here in Poland. What do I miss? Meeting up with friends and going to the pub for a meal and two or three pints. There are no pubs or good bars anywhere around here. I also miss my family although my sister and her husband were here for the wedding last summer.
There are quite a few experiences I could talk about, some involving bureaucratic nonsence, others due to language difficulties, problems with building contractors and so on but maybe some other time. It would be nice to hear from you either by telephone or e mail.
Kindest regards,
Alex.
Hi,
I just came across your site because I was looking for some info on how to get a NIP (fortunatly I already got pesel which was a nightmare :)).
I would like to ask you if you had or have any kind of Polish lessons or know some good institute to teach Polish to foreigners.
Thank you for the cool blog you have with really useful stuff.
Regards from a Portuguese in Poland,
Hugo
Hi, In about 4 weeks my Polish wife and I will be leaving England and moving to a smallholding that we have bought (in her name) In the Podkarpacie region. (yep we are retired 52 and 49) and want some peace and quiet in the country. We are both accomplished administrators and my wife has experience of the bureaucracy, so we have had everything translated in advance, have bought LHD vehicles (which are very capable off road – Unimog and Steyr Pinzgauer) I was a soldier for 15 years and have lived in Germany for 7 years in the past, have no reason to be homesick for this Decadent, ungoverned slime pit, (If you haven,t lived in suburban UK lately you won,t know that law and order is breaking down year by year and if we had stayed, 15 years down the line this house would have had to become a fortress) We are so grateful for this site, because it doesn,t matter how well sewn up you think you have everything, there is always something you missed. Thank you once again. Stephen and Dorota Cooper (we will bring an update to the site when we are settled in)
Hi, am interested in being in touch with you guys. Am 56, semi-retired, also live between Krakow and Zakopane (just outside Bochnia actually), – girlfriend still abroad I’m afraid – and plan to do some ‘odd-jobbing’ as a translator or something along those lines. Contact me if needs be.
Wow, I must admit, that Your life is ideal to me. I always wish to go to nice place, such as mountains, work at home as developer and just live life in slow, my way – not as in big city.
So congratulations :)
Hello,
First of I want to thank you for such a blog which is quite helpful for most of the beginners, and secondly Congratulation for the baby.
Before I ask my question(s) I will tell about myself, I have been married to a Polish girl for three now, (going to be a daddy in few weeks) , Have Temporary Residence Card for two years which is expiring in September, which I will get it renewed soon again for a new Temporary Residence Card. Would you be kind enough to tell me:
1) How much time it takes to get a Permit to settle (after applying). Can you travel abroad out of EU once you have applied for the same?
And after getting Permit to settle and once you declare (your intention)/apply for citizenship,
2) How much time is taken in the decision (generally)?
Thanking you in advance,
Best regards,
Al
Hi Al – sorry you didn’t mention which country you are from but I am guessing outside of the EU?
Yup, I am from outside of the EU
Sorry Al I don’t know much about that having never gone through it myself. But you will get an answer either at my forum at http://www.britishinpoland.com/forum or try Polish Forums at http://www.polishforums.com/
Cheers.
Ben
hey np man, i will check it, nways itz always good reading ur Blog its like m reading my own experences :)
keep up the good JOB and All the Best pal
Nice website. I live in Zakopane for some of the year and am getting married there this summer. Currently trying to convert a large sum of money to PLN but what with the UK elections the rates are very variable. I called up the brokers you suggested but your guy has now moved on. Has he moved to another broker? Would you still recommend the old broker?
Thanks,
Adam
I read your blog with great interest, as I’m looking for a house in Poland myself.
I was wondering if you can answer a question for me.
We have found a house that is virtually finished, though we’re told that ‘on paper’ it is still being built. When we declare it as complete are there any taxes or fees to be paid?
Hope you can help.
Phil
Hi all, think am the first female to write on this so far! well were to begin… moved over in July with my polish partner and my one year old son and now currently 7 months pregnant. We are living just outside of Tarnow in the country which am not use to as am originally from Edinburgh, but hey got to love the peace. Have found it very difficult getting anywhere with the system here as not married and not employed but things starting to move on after 2 tiring months. However yesterday we found out that my one year old son would have prove his polish statis even though his father is Polish and is mentioned on his brith certificate, which now means its going to take up to 3months (what the Krakow voivod office told my partner) for him to get a pesel number; not good if he needs to see a doctor. Overall have found registering here really difficult and made worse by the lack of compassion in some of the council staff, really hope its all worth it in the end. Any success stories of anyone in a similar position would be a great pick me up.
Sandra
Hi guys,
and a special “hi” to Sandra :-) I was reading down the comments thinking “hmm…am I the only female expat in Poland?” :-) but you beat me to writing a comment. Unfortunately I have no children though so I can’t help you with your son’s situation.
However, it is nice to see how many more of you are “out there”. I came to Poland from the UK in 2002, after having met my husband at university. I’ve been living in Skawina, near Krakow, ever since but we got married in England in the summer of 2004. I am just about to turn 30. I’m an English teacher (I got into teaching when I came out here) and my husband and I run a school in our town.
I found this website when looking for info about Polish surnames, but seeing as Sandra is (as I understood it) not married and the rest of you are blokes :-) I don’t know if you’ll be able to help. I got a new passport with my married surname in it a few years ago. My new surname has a polish letter “ę” in it. It’s NOT in my passport. (I can’t remember if I wrote the “ę” in my application or whether they just couldn’t print that kind of letter). It wasn’t that bad when it came to writing up documents about joint ownership of our house at the solicitor’s, but in May this year I passed my driving test in Poland (Yay!) and it turned out that according to them, I now have two identities. The “ę” is in my (hand-written) english marriage certificate but not in my passport. The driving licence has to agree with my passport. So now, officially, I have a different name to my husband! :-( At the solicitors (returning to the house ownership scenario) we are quoted as two seperate people because they couldn’t write that we are a married couple due to his dicrepancy in our names. All of which is not really so bad, but I’m worried what will happen when we have children etc.
I’m also thinking of applying for PL citizenship which would make life a lot easier.
Anyway, the question I’m looking for an answer to is: can British passports be printed with Polish characters non-existent in the English alphabet?
Caroline
Hello!!
I just found this site after googling “foreigner giving birth in Poland”.
I am an American, married to a Polish man, about to have our second baby here.
I gave birth to our son here (around Poznan) but am looking up different hospitals and such in the area and your write up sounded just too familiar! The no fancy water births, bribing doctors, but the more 1 on 1 treatment.
Then I clicked on the ‘Beuaracracy’ tab and I feel so good just to see that its not only me having these problems! I have had an A$$ full of Beauracracy its not funny! I see you have too. And you have posted very helpful information for others out there!
Congratulations on becoming a Father!
Beverly
Hi Ben,
I just came across your blog whilst searching for information about renewing my ‘Karta Pobytu’. I find your stories very recognisable, I’ve lived in Poland for 8 years now (4 in Gdansk, 4 in Cracow) and seen it all!
I will be following your stories with interest.
Joost
G’day
Glad to have found your blog! Oh, how well I know polish bureaucracy or rather bureaucrazy;-) I’m Polish, spent 5 years in UK and now live in Oz. It’s easier here and was easier back in the UK with things that meant to be simple & logical but weren’t in the polish reality…Nonetheless, we’re learning & getting there!
My fiance is an Aussie and we’re thinking about going back for a year or so, so he can learn some more Polish.. I’d love to believe that it is possible ;0) lol
Hi Caroline,
Glad to report things are finally getting better! Regarding the name issue we have polish friends that had their son in Scotland and they were not able to print the accent above the s and when they came back they had problems registering the child at their new home address as the surnames were different. So basicly the father had to prove that his son was polish, (which we have also had to do with our first born). Do to this you have to fill out an application form from the foreign affairs office (can get it online) and summit it in person with a fee. We did ours 3 weeks ago and still nothing yet. And I got told at the local registar that the name of the child born after marriage needs to match that of the mothers! not too sure if this is true. (Sorry off at a tangent) We are getting married here after the birth of our second and we had to decided in advance what my married name would be and the surname of our unborn child…. so complicated. Also if you only have your 5 year temp registration and you have a child you need to declare at the local registar that you are happy for the child to be registared at the fathers address (if polish), if not you need to register in your home Country. So overall you need to get the child registared before it can get a proper pesal number and you cant get a passport without the pesal number! Not an easy system but I really hope they are learning as it really does put you off living here if you think about it too hard.
Congrats on passing your test here. heard they dont teach you that well about how to go round a round about!
How did you get into teaching English, do you have any qualifications in this as I dont have any and would like to look into it.
Sandra
@Sandra: I just came across this blog by accident and notice that you are living near Tarnów out in the country. So do I. You’re the first foreigner I know of living in this area. ;) Anyway, if any of you on this blog who live in the Kraków / Tarnów want to get together, let me know.
Just found yr site when looking for rhd to lhd car conversion. Big diff in uk and Polish car prices. Been living part time in Zamosc for a few years & married to Polish lass.
Retired now and busier than ever renovating old farm Zawoda near Zamosc.
First time in Poland was Gdynia on ship in May 89. Things have changed since then. Never thought I’d marry and live here. Easier pace of life except for driving on the roads but its slowly slowly getting better (I think).
Regarding the paperwork I leave it to my Wife and just say Yes Dear.
Anyone living Zamosc area?
Hi. I’ve lived in Britian for few years and I miss it. I have read parts of your website about british tv. You are doing great and valuable job here. Say hello to your family from lad from Gdansk.
Hi, just came across your website as I was doing research. Thought you and your readers might like to know about my novel The Black Madonna of Derby which is about a Polish family in England in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a Polish version available called Goodbye Polsko. Available from Amazon and my website, http://www.jczechowska.com. I’m writing the sequel at the moment. Just thought you might like to know…
Hi All!
Moving to Tarnow next month. i have been been back and forth since last summer. However the whole family will be together next month. Hubby working on a project in the area.
Have a 15 month old baby.
Sandra and Eugene: Came across your post by chance. You are the only english speakers I found in the area. How do you find living here.
I am finding a bit hard and lonelly.
We are from ireland and things are very diferent here.
looking forward to take some Polish classes to help us a bit since neither I nor Hubby can speak a single word.
Hopefully things will get better
All the best
zaira
Hey, I’m 26 in April, I have a ski and snowboard company in Zakopane with my girlfriend who is from Zakopane. I have spent the last 5 winters working there as a snowboard instructor and we are now into our 2nd year running the business on our own. This year I’m looking to stay and work (I hope) doing something in the summer as well with a view to stopping over there full time with her. Where exactly are you between Zakopane and Krakow? Obviously you work for yourself, my issue is that I’ve spent a lot of time in Zakopane but am not sure what I’m going to be able to find in terms of work through the summer! My Polish is quite good, I can hold a basic conversation and let people know what I want but it’s difficult to see myself working for someone although I’m really keen to stop and be more settled with my girlfriend and I love chilling out in the mountains! What are your podcasts about?? I’d be keen to talk to you about living in Poland, why not! This kind of site is great for people like me looking for answers and help from people who’ve done it all before! I’m back out there again for good next Sunday, always keen to meet expats nearby, although there are not many in Zakopane that we know of! Look forward to hearing from you, thanks!
Like everyone else who has posted on here, I’ve come across this site by pure chance whilst searching for info. My partner is Polish and we are currently divinding our time between Liverpool and Gostyn. Have returned just yesterday after 3 weeks.
I design & build, industrial & farm buildings with more and more work being carried out in Poland.
I will now be a regular visitor to this informative site.
Hi, I have just arrived to work in Poznan as an au pair to a Polish family, and stumbled across your website while searching for ways to watch British tv online. Do you know how easy it would be, language barriers aside, to take the Polish driving test here and acquire a Polish license? I have my theory test, but unfortunately it expires in June this year, and I won´t be home to take the test in that time (nor could I have taken it last year, I left for the continent and had in fact lost the paper part).
It´s great the host of information you have for Brits here!
Unfortunately I don’t think that you can mix and match the theory part with the practical part – i.e. just because you have done the theory in the UK that doesn’t necessarily mean you can now do the Polish practical. I think you would need to sit the Polish theory exam first. I understand that in most towns you can do this in English or German.
To Zaira, Good to here of someone else who has children and cant speak Polish. I have two boys one is 17 months and the other is 14 weeks. Zaira if you fancy meeting up that would be great as I really miss the baby groups in Britain and girly chats. We live 10 mins from Tarnow and would be great to have some English speaking friends. My husband is Polish and speaks fluent English, but not the same think there is only some much baby chat he can handle.
Sandra
Hello Sandra! Great to hear from you. You have no idea HOW HAPPY I am as well to know there are more people like myself in Tarnow. Thanks for getting in touch with me and of course i would love to meet you.
Count down to moving day…
Our dog is being shipped on saturday 12th and Little One and myself will be flying to Poland on Sunday 13th. Mixed emotions… looking forward to start my new life in Tarnow and sad to say goodbye to Ireland.
Just letting you know we are not Brits in case you think we are. We are Irish…
Well at least 1/2 of this family is. I am Brazilian and Little One is a mix . Ha…Ha…
My son is also 17 months and loves to play with other kids so I thought it would be nice tying to organise an English Baby/Toddler group for us English speakers. What do you think??????
I will be in touch.
Look forward meeting you and your family.
zaira
Hey Zaira, Good luck with the move hope you have something to calm the little one as ours was a nightmare at Christmas on the plane. Just a heads up about the British thing… if you speak English as your first language your from England!!! dont know how many times i’ve had to correct people and you know how us Scots can get about being called English!!hehe. If you want you can mail me and we can meet up once your settles. Good luck for the move.
Sandra
[edit: personal email address removed - Zaira - please contact me at ben@britishinpoland.com and I will forward you on Sandra's email]
Hello!
I’m student of Jagiellonian University in Cracov. I have a huge favour!
I’m writing master’s paper on the quality of life for foreigners (from England)in Poland. Age is not important, neither is the length of stay.
I would be grateful if somebody could help me :)
I can send you an email with questionnaire. I doesn’t take too much time (5-15 min) and it is very friendly questionnaire.
If you are interested in helping student to get knowledge – please contact me:
aleksandra.d@op.pl
Hi
Liked your site – been reading it on and off for a while :)
I’m a 37 year old Brit who has just bought a flat in central Krakow and will (in a few weeks) be moving to Zakopane where my partner has just got a job.
Don’t know where the best place is for finding flats/houses to rent for 3 or 4 month lets and wondered if you had any ideas?
Or anyone near Zakopane that teaches Polski?
cheers
Greg