Polish Citizenship
Polish citizenship is transmitted from parents to their kids. The place of birth does not matter, and there isn’t a generation limit for the passing on of citizenship.
Polish citizenship is transmitted from parents to their kids. The place of birth does not matter, and there isn’t a generation limit for the passing on of citizenship.
How to get the Polish citizenship
In Brazil, the citizenship law is based on the ius soli principle (“land right”), being the place of birth the determining factor when it comes to having citizenship. Meanwhile, polish legislation bases itself on the ius sanguinis principle (“blood right”), which means that the polish citizenship passes on from parent to child. Therefore, the place of birth doesn’t matter and there is no generation limit for it.
The competent organ to make decisions relative to the polish citizenship confirmation is the WOJEWODA – Province Chief of Government, which takes into account the last place of residence of the requiree in Poland. When the requiree has never lived in Poland, the public office responsible for the process is the WOJEWODA MAZOWIECKI (Chief of Government of Mazovia Province – with headquarters in Warsaw).
It’s important to point out that the decision concerning polish citizenship has declaratory character. That is, the Wojewoda declares, based on the procedures which were done and the documents given, if the requiree possesses or not the polish citizenship. The declaratory character discards the possibility of free interpretation of what was presented, because the Wojewoda doesn’t establish or create a new legal state, it only confirms an already existing legal condition: positive, in case the requiree is granted the polish citizenship; or negative, when the citizenship can’t be proven because the requiree lost it or turned in incomplete and/or insufficient documents (therefore not being able to prove if the requiree lost or never had the polish citizenship).
While evaluating the possibilities of starting a polish citizenship confirmation process and preparing the according documentation, a few aspects of the polish legislation must be taken into account:
Poland has three laws on citizenship, them being:
January 20th 1920 law – This law was introduced soon after Poland regained its independence (nov/11/1918), and it established that a polish citizen is every person who was borned and lived in polish territory when the country gained its independence. It was the most rigid of all the citizenship laws (but not more than other european laws at the time). It allowed for the citizenship inheritance to be passed on only from the father’s side of the family and there were many circumstances which led to the loss of citizenship.
January 8th 1951 law – The most important change was the introduction of the possibility of inheriting citizenship by the mother’s side of the family, just as it already happened with the father. The law also limited the situations in which citizenship loss was automatic.
February 15th 1962 law – Current polish citizenship law. It determines that citizenship is automatically passed on if at least one of the child’s parents are polish (they must have such nationality at the moment the child is born).
The only way to lose citizenship is getting an authorization from the polish president after asking to give up the nationality (for example: in order to become a national in a country that doesn’t accept dual nationality or previous citizenships).
