Guide for New Arrivals
If you have just arrived in Poland or are planning to move to Poland then here are your essential tasks:
- Register in your new town. This is called zameldowanie. This is the first job.
- Apply for your residence card (karta pobytu) once you have been here for 3 months.
- Request a PESEL once you have your karta pobytu
- Get a tax NIP number
You might find these useful too:
Across the rest of the blog you will find other posts about anything from importing a motorbike to opening a company to giving birth.
If you find the articles useful or have your own experiences then comments are always welcome.
Ben
Hi Ben,
I wanted to say than you for your site. I am a british gay man with a polish partner. After long discussions we have decided to relocate back to Warsaw, a descion I am more than happy with. this site has given me confidence for the move and I look forward to your blogs. I will be my new country in April, and very much hope we can meet up one day.
Cheers again
Shane
My employer is already looking for a PESEL and NIP from me. How am I to get these if I don’t have a residence card (as I’ve only been here three weeks)?
Thanks,
Colin
Hi Colin – please see the Guide For New Arrivals which takes you through how to do zameldowanie which you need to get your residence card which you need to get your PESEL. Good luck.
Hi I am planning to move to Poland….What’s are the main jobs for expats? How did you manage to get jobs? Cheers
Teaching English is probably the most common. Apart from that lots of people are self-employed as they have set up their own businesses.
Hi! I am Polish and I’m the teacher of English in the Southerh part of Poland (i.e. Katowice). I’m looking for an English-speaking foreigner who would like to see the system of education in Poland. What I mean is the exchage of experiences in teaching and some visits in Polish schools.
Hi Ben, I just wanted to thank you for putting all this information together. I have moved to Krakow from London for a few years for work. I also want to get a place out here for summers in the future and to learn Polish (my fiancée is from Poland, although she has to stay in the UK for her work and studies).
Without the help of her translation and your guidance I would not have come close to the progress I have made in the past 9 days. It is an administrative nightmare and as much as I chuckled at your take on it, you are spot on. I have a zameldowanie, karta pobytu in production (2 weeks), NIP in the post (2 weeks) a bank account – strangely the easiest thing to get!, and a place to live.
If you want me to answer any questions on my experience, then feel free to email me.
Hi, We’ve bought a place in Poland initially for holidays but with a view to retiring here. A couple of questions, can we buy and register, insure etc a car in Poland without being resident? Any info on obtaining a Polish mortgage whilst non-resident, ie still living in UK?
Thanks for a very useful site. Ian
Hi, no, you can’t register a vehicle without being registered at an address.
Hi – Are we not registered at the address of our home in Poland? ie we pay local taxes, are on the land registry documents and we receive bank and council communication to this address etc etc.