4 documents that will prove your Polish citizenship (and can be found at your house)

If you’ve just found out that you are eligible for Polish citizenship confirmation, you may wonder what are the documents that prove your Polish citizenship. Since there is no official list of paperwork required by the Polish offices, we have prepared one, based on many years of our experience. Spoiler alert: Polish birth certificate is not on the list! *

* (but why? let’s find out)

Polish passport

It is probably one of the most obvious documents proving Polish citizenship. However, it is worth knowing that passports can be grouped by:

1. the issuing body: Polish consulate or Polish authority (based in Poland),
2. validity: expired or valid passport.

Although it may seem that having a Polish passport of an ancestor is a reliable proof of Polish citizenship, nothing could be further from the truth.

First of all, it is always better to have an expired Polish passport issued by the Polish authority (based in Poland) than to have a valid Polish passport issued by the Polish consulate. Mind-blowing? Definitely. What’s the reason for this? It is because:

1. sometimes consular passports, especially decades ago, were issued groundlessly;
2. valid passports may be issued e.g. on the basis of citizenship granted by the Polish president (which is not extendable to the adult descendants).

No matter what kind of Polish passport you have found, feel free to send it to us for free analysis. We will figure out how to proceed with your case in the most efficient way.

Polish ID (dowód osobisty)

Similarly to a Polish passport, the older Polish ID of your ancestor you have, the better. It can be in the form of a book or card. To put it simply, if the ID was issued before the child of its holder was born, it would be pretty strong proof in the descendant’s Polish citizenship confirmation case.

Polish military documents

Any document proving that your ancestor served in the Polish army may be an excellent proof of being Polish citizen. But, similarly to the above-mentioned documents, there are different kinds of military documents. Not all of them are strong enough to prove Polish citizenship.

If your ancestor served in the Polish Armed Forces under British command in the years 1944-1947, documentation proving this service may not be sufficient to successfully complete the citizenship case.

On the other hand, if you have documents proving that your ancestor served in the Polish Armed Forces under British command in years 1941-45 or a military booklet issued in the years 1918-1939, it may be just enough to have a successful Polish citizenship case.

We encourage you to look for the following documents: military book (Książeczka wojskowa), certificate regarding completing service for the Polish Armed Forces (Polskie Siły Zbrojne – Zaświadczenie o zakończeniu służby) or service contract (Autentyczny odpis umowy służby w wojsku stałym). If your father, grandfather or great-grandfather was serving in the Polish army under British command, it is quite possible that some of these documents are in your family archives.

Polish driver’s license

Not every driver’s license is accepted by the Polish authorities as proof of being a Polish citizen. It is best to have a document that lists the place of residence of its holder. Such driver’s licenses were issued in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Having a military driver’s license (issued during WW2) will be helpful, but not enough to be a sole proof of Polish citizenship.

And what if you don’t have documents that prove Polish citizenship of your ancestors?

First of all, don’t worry. It is still possible to confirm your Polish citizenship even without the documents mentioned above. We can search for other types of documents in the Polish (or British) archives. Or, we can use the documents that you already have. In such a case, the process might not be straightforward, but we have great experience in handling complicated cases, so don’t hesitate to check with us the content of your family archives.

So, since you already know what kind of documents may be game changers in terms of having a successful Polish citizenship application, don’t waste your time and look for them. We can analyze them for you free of charge. Then, we’ll be able to let you know what are the next steps toward your Polish citizenship. Ready, steady, go!