Archive for the ‘bureacracy’ Category

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European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC)

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

What is a European Health Insurance Card?

If you are covered by health insurance in one European country but are phyiscally located in another European country then it makes sense to have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). This card entitles you to the same level of health cover as a local would have.  If you are suddenly ill then it means you should be able to see a doctor and not be out of pocket.

How to get an EHIC from the NHS

It maybe that you are British and have started to live in Poland.  If you are temporarily in Poland (or until you get your Polish health insurance sorted out) then it’s wise to get your EHIC card from the NHS.  You can do that online here: www.ehic.org.uk. You just fill out the form online and they post the card to you.  If you are from another EU country then refer to your national health service provider.

EKUZ – the Polish European Health Insurance Card

Note that once you become “resident” in Poland then you are no longer entitled to health cover from your former country and are supposed to give back your EHIC card.  In theory once you become resident in Poland you should be paying health insurance to ZUS (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych) and are covered by the NFZ (Narodwy Fundusz Zdrowia).  You then get your EHIC from the NFZ.  In Polish the card is called the “Europejska Karta Ubezpieczenia Zdrowotnego” or EKUZ for short and the info (in Polish) is here: EKUZ.  If you are sick when you happen to be back in your native country you show your EKUZ card.

How to apply for an EKUZ card

As I am sure you have come to expect by now, getting an EKUZ is not as simple as an online form as with the EHIC.  In fact it is a real joke.  This Polish article says that the NFZ make it deliberately difficult to get the card because the cost of treatment for them is much more expensive than the cost of treating people in Poland.  First you have to fill out this form.  Then you have to send a number of attachments to prove you are entitled to the card.  Then deliver it either in person, by fax or by post to the NFZ office where you live.  You can find a list of NFZ offices here.  The biggest joke is that the card is only valid for 2 months and it can take you a month to successfully complete the application (if you are doing it by post and have to make ‘corrections’ as usual)

Is it worth the hassle?

In my opinion no it’s not.  I have even read stories such as this one – Don’t rely on the NFZ when abroad – that the NFZ doesn’t fully cover you and you may still be out of pocket.  I still have my EHIC card which I will hang on to for now, and to cover my family I will buy a regular commercial travel insurance policy.

What about E111 forms?

Note that the European Health Insurance Cards replace the old system of E111 forms which as of 2006 became obsolete.

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Posted in bureacracy, healthcare | 5 Comments »

Registering a UK company as an employer in Poland

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

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.

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Posted in bureacracy, business | No Comments »

Getting a British Deed Poll recognised in Poland

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

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.

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Posted in bureacracy, citizenship | 1 Comment »

How to get a PESEL

Monday, August 18th, 2008

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…

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Posted in bureacracy, citizenship | 8 Comments »

Getting Polish Citizenship

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

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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Posted in bureacracy, citizenship, residency | 1 Comment »

How to report your marriage in Poland

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

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!

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Posted in bureacracy, citizenship | 14 Comments »

5 year registration – karta pobytu

Tuesday, March 11th, 2008

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 :-(

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Posted in bureacracy, citizenship | 25 Comments »

Why do you keep asking me about my mother?

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

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…

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Posted in bureacracy, life and living | 2 Comments »

Must remember to carry my documents!

Friday, February 29th, 2008

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.

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Posted in bureacracy, life and living, vehicles and driving | 1 Comment »

Importing a motorbike

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

I already blogged about my attempt at importing my van – basically I couldn’t. Well now having been here a bit longer and with a better grasp of Polish I am ready to tackle importing my motorbike.

Here’s what I did and how long it took. I have written everything down in detail as I did it. The only thing I haven’t mentioned is that the MOMENT YOU GET YOUR TEMPORARY BIKE REGISTRATION YOU ARE OBLIGED TO BUY INSURANCE THE SAME DAY. I found out the hard way – I thought that like in the UK and I presume other countries where logic and commen sense apply, you only need insurance if you want ot use the vehicle. I presumed you don’t need insurance if your vehicle is just sat in the garage. NOT IN POLAND – IF YOU OWN A VEHICLE IT MUST BE INSURED even if it’s off the road for 6 months. I will do another post at some time about insurance because that isn’t so straight forward either…

STEP 1 – TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT- TIME TAKEN: 2 hours

The first thing I did was go to the local office for the department of transport (wydział transportu i komunikacji). I explained to the guy there what I wanted to do, which is basically register my English bike which I bought many years ago in Poland where I am now living and temporarily registered. He told me that I need:

  1. Technical inspection (Badanie techniczne)
  2. Translation of my registration certificate into Polish (tłumaczenie dowodu rejestracyjnego)
  3. VAT declaration from the treasury department (zaświadcienie o zwolnienie z vatu)
  4. Certificate that I am registered in Poland (tymczasowe zameldowanie)

Now they might ask where you are permanently registered to live. If so you will have to explain/argue to them that you aren’t permanently registered in Poland because as a foreigner you can’t be, and that we don’t have such a system/requirement in England.

Also now is a good time to ask where the local translator is. You will have to use an approved translator, so they should either have a list or be able to point you in the right direction. They will definitely know where the German translators are because lots of Poles import cars from Germany. Luckily for me I found an English translator was in the same street.

STEP 2 – TRANSLATION – TIME TAKEN: 45 minutes. Cost 60 zl.

Next I found the English translator to get my registration certificate translated. Had to wait 2 days to collect it and paid 60 złoty. I was charged for 1 and a half pages to do a standard V5C UK registration certificate.

STEP 3 - TREASURY DEPARTMENT VISIT 1 – TIME TAKEN: 45 minutes

Next I went to the treasury department (urząd skarbowy). Unfortunately in Poland you have to report to them everytime you borrow money, lend money, buy a car or fart. I found the department responsible for VAT and explained to them that I want to import my English bike.
They asked for my receipt from when I bought it – documents like this are extremely important in Poland, unlike the UK, where you don’t need to report all financial transactions. This was my first major problem. I had to explain that I bought the bike many years ago from a friend and don’t have a receipt. After a lot of head scratching and phone calls she decided that I had to return with:

  • form VAT-24 - this is a form about importing a vehicle from abroad and paying VAT on it (yes that’s right – unlike the UK in Poland you pay VAT on second hand vehicles)
  • form NIP-3 – this is a form so that I can get a Polish NIP number so that the treasury department can then keep tabs on me
  • a declaration (oświadczenie) signed by me, in Polish, that I bought the bike 4 years ago in the UK where I was living, I used the bike in Poland and I brought the bike to Poland when I moved here.

STEP 4 - TECHNICAL INSPECTION – TIME TAKEN: 1hr. Cost 116 zl.

Time to find a garage where I can get my technical inspection done. I did ask at the transport department but they said that almost all garages do these inspections. I asked at a local tyre shop where I know the owner and he told me about a local garage where they do technical inspections – stacja kontroli pojazdów. I went there and after scratching their heads for a bit, looking at the headlights and looking at my polish translation of my registration certificate they decided they couldn’t do it because ‘they don’t have the data for this motorbike’. What that means exactly I don’t know – maybe they don’t usually do motorbikes or maybe they weren’t confident about doing a foreign vehicle. They suggested another (bigger) garage locally.

So a month later with the weather having warmed up a bit more I went to the second garage. I asked the bloke if he could do an inspection on an English bike and he said sure no problem. He spent about 5 seconds looking at the bike, asked me to show him that all the lights worked and then asked me to follow him inside. To my suprise he sat there for a few minutes and then gave me two certificates:

  1. “Dokument Identyfikacyjny Pojazdu zarejestrowanego po raz pierwszy za granicą“, meaning something along the lines of “ID document for foreign vehicle registered for the first time in Poland”. It has a list of 40 technical points on it such as country of production, country of previous registration etc..
  2. Zaświadczenie o przeprowadzonym badaniu technicznym pojazdu which is basically the MOT certificate.

So it appears that if you can find a garage happy to do the paperwork then as long as your vehicle looks like it doesn’t have any wheels missing and has got lights then this step isn’t a problem. Cost 116 zloty.

STEP 5 – TREASURY DEPARTMENT VISIT 2 – TIME TAKEN: 1 hr. Cost 160 zl.

Went back to the treasury department with my forms filled out as best as I could. The woman at the VAT window was expecting me following my first visit there, so had been informed by her colleagues about the English guy with his motorbike and thankfully I didn’t have to explain everything all over again. She was very helpful and helped me correct my forms. I had to go to a 2nd window to hand in my NIP form, then to the till window to pay a flat fee of 160 złoty. I haven’t quite worked out what that fee was for, I guess for the priviledge of importing a vehicle to Poland. Also for some reason the first till window sent me to the 2nd till window (more queuing), and she did something on the computer then sent me back to the 1st till window to pay (more queuing). Where the logic is in that I don’t know…
After paying I went back the the VAT window, showed her my payment receipt and she told me to come back in 2 days to collect my declaration (oświadczenie) to show I have taken care of the VAT for this vehicle.

STEP 6 – TREASURY DEPARTMENT – VISIT 3 – TIME TAKEN: 10 minutes

As instructed I went back to collect my confirmation that they are happy with the VAT for this bike and they gave me a form called a VAT-25 which they had typed up and put official looking stamps and signatures on. Suprisingly it was there waiting for me and there was no queue. Brilliant.

STEP 7 – TRAN
SPORT DEPARTMENT- VISIT 2 – TIME TAKEN: 1 hour. Cost 188 zl.

Went back to the transport department with all of my documents. Was told that I couldn’t register the bike today because I hadn’t made an appointment. Gave him a sob-story about having a little baby at home and sick wife. Was told to fill out the registration form (wniosek), go to the till and pay 188 zloty. After 15 minutes he emerged with:

  • Temporary vehicle permit (pozwolenie czasowe)
  • My VAT-25 form with a stamp on it that it has been used to register the vehicle
  • A photocopy of my UK registration certificate again with stamps on it
  • A shiny new number plate!

Unfortunately because my temporary residence registration runs out in 2 weeks time I have to go back again then to collect the regular vehicle permit.

STEP 8 – TRANSPORT DEPARTMENT- VISIT 3 – TIME TAKEN: 10 minutes

Got my new temporary residence certificate so returned to the transport department. I was pleasently surprised to find no queue and a helpful attendant. After just a few minutes I got my karta pojazdu and permit no problem. FINISHED!

TOTAL COST: 524 zloty and 6 hours of time

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Posted in bureacracy, vehicles and driving | 12 Comments »

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