Polish citizenship by descent: the passport your family never gave up

A passport is a right, not a permission. If you receive one through your ancestry, you are not asking for anything; you are taking back what belongs to your family. Which countries open this route and how far back they look is set out in the overview of citizenship by descent. Poland holds a special place among them: it has no generation limit and no deadline, and for Germans with roots in Silesia, Pomerania, Greater Poland or Galicia it lies closer than any other country of descent.

Who holds Polish citizenship by descent

Poland's current Citizenship Act of 2 April 2009 is short and clear. Under Article 14, a child acquires Polish citizenship by birth if at least one parent is a Polish citizen. Where the child is born makes no difference. A child born in Hamburg, Chicago or Toronto is Polish if the mother or father is Polish at that moment.

From this follows the most important sentence for every descendant: in Poland, citizenship by descent is not granted, it is confirmed. If your grandfather never lost it and passed it on to your father, and your father still held it when you were born, then you have been Polish since your first day.

The law sets no limit on generations. Whether the chain runs over two, three or four generations does not matter, as long as every link holds. You do, however, have to document each generation, and each one is judged under the law in force when it was born.

Article 3 of the Act governs how Poland treats you from then on. A Polish citizen who holds another citizenship has the same rights and duties towards Poland as someone who is Polish only, and cannot invoke the other citizenship with legal effect before the Polish authorities. To Polish officials, you are Polish.

Polish citizenship requirements across the generations

The requirements do not come from a single statute but from four. Poland has rewritten its nationality law several times since the state was reborn, and each generation of your family is assessed under the law in force when it was born.

Up to 1951. The first law, of 1920, tied the citizenship of children born in wedlock to the father alone. During this period, a Polish mother who had married a foreigner did not pass her citizenship on to her children born in wedlock. If your line runs through a grandmother before 1951, check it with particular care.

From 1951 to 1962. The 1951 law passed on citizenship by birth if both parents were Polish, or if one parent was Polish and the other unknown. Children of one Polish and one foreign parent fell under separate rules, which for a birth abroad depended on how the other state handled the reverse case. These years call for the closest look.

Since 1962. The 1962 law made every child of one Polish and one foreign parent Polish by birth. Within three months of the birth, the parents could jointly declare that the child should receive only the other citizenship. Today's law requires just one Polish parent.

How to find the records for each of these generations, from German register offices to Polish parish registers, is shown in genealogy for your passport. How citizenship passes down the generations in general, and where it breaks off, is described in passing on citizenship.

When the chain breaks: grounds for loss before and after 1951

A chain holds only if no link lost citizenship before having the next child. How it could be lost depended, once again, on the year.

Until 1951, Polish citizenship was lost under Article 11 of the 1920 Act by acquiring a foreign citizenship, or by taking public office or serving in the military of a foreign state without the consent of the Polish government. Under Article 13, the loss generally extended to the wife and to children under 18. The same article contains an important exception: anyone liable for active military service could acquire a foreign citizenship only with the permission of the Minister of Military Affairs; otherwise, Poland continued to regard him as Polish. For many emigrants of those years, that very sentence decides the case.

From 19 January 1951, the principle was reversed. Under the 1951 Act, a Polish citizen could acquire a foreign citizenship only with the approval of the Polish authorities, and only such an approved acquisition led to loss. The 1962 Act kept this rule. Anyone who naturalised in Germany, the United States or Canada after 1951 without such an approval therefore remained Polish under Polish law and passed citizenship on to their children. Separately, a person living abroad could be stripped of citizenship by an act of the state.

For families regarded as German before the war, the 1951 Act contains a particular hurdle. Under its Article 4, a person was not Polish who held Polish citizenship on 31 August 1939, lived permanently abroad and was of German ethnicity, unless their spouse was Polish and lived in Poland. Similar rules applied to people of Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian ethnicity, and to those who acquired another citizenship under an agreement when the borders shifted.

For families who resettled in Germany in the decades after the war, the answer stays open until someone has checked it. Many assume that everything lapsed the moment they left. Leaving alone was not enough, though: what counts is whether a formal ground for loss applied, such as an approval to change citizenship.

Poland has explicitly closed one chapter of its history. Article 65 of the 2009 Act declares void the resolutions of 1946 that stripped General Władysław Anders, and the generals and officers who joined the Polish Resettlement Corps, of their citizenship, as well as the later resolutions against Stanisław Mikołajczyk and three other men. These resolutions are deemed to have had no effect from the outset. Where there is reasonable doubt about the citizenship of someone affected by either of the 1946 resolutions, or of their descendants, the passport or identity card authority refers the case to the voivode, who decides within 30 days.

How confirmation by the voivode works

In Polish, the procedure is called potwierdzenie posiadania obywatelstwa polskiego: confirmation that you hold Polish citizenship. It is governed by Articles 55 to 58 of the Act.

1. Find the competent authority

Responsibility lies with the voivode, the government's representative in the region where the person concerned lives or last lived in Poland. If there was never a residence in Poland, the voivode of the Masovian Voivodeship decides. If you live abroad, you do not have to travel to Poland: you file the application through the Polish consul responsible for where you live, who forwards it with all the documents to the voivode.

2. Put together the application and records

The application gives your details and those of your ancestors up to the second degree, meaning parents and grandparents, along with the circumstances that matter for the assessment. Poland's missions in Germany ask for:

• the application on the official form, filled in in Polish only
• civil status records and documents proving the Polish origin of your parents or grandparents: birth, marriage and baptism entries, plus copies of their Polish documents
• proof of every change of name, such as marriage certificates or name change decisions
• your valid identity document, in the original, for inspection
• your full birth certificate showing your parents' names, if you were born outside Poland
• a record of your marital status

Records in other languages need a translation into Polish by a sworn translator or by the consul. For some records from EU states, the multilingual standard form under Regulation (EU) 2016/1191 is enough instead; other EU records carry an apostille. The consul certifies copies.

3. Submit and pay

You hand in the documents in person, after booking an appointment through the e-Konsulat system, or send them by post. For postal applications, the missions require originals or officially certified copies. At Poland's missions in Germany, the application fee is €100, payable in cash or by debit card.

4. Decision and appeal

The voivode decides by formal decision. The law gives him six months for this, counted from the day the application reaches him. If he confirms your citizenship, you hold the document that officially closes the chain. If he refuses, you can appeal to the Minister of the Interior within 14 days of service, lodging the appeal through the voivode who made the decision.

The process page sums up the route to a second passport, from the first check to the handover.

From the decision to a Polish passport

The decision is not yet a travel document. For the passport you need a Polish birth certificate, and that comes from transcribing your German birth certificate into the Polish civil register, a step known as transkrypcja.

You apply for transcription at the consulate or directly at any civil registry office in Poland, in person or by post. You need the original birth certificate showing your parents' names, your parents' marriage certificate if they were married, and a sworn translation. A birth certificate from an EU state on the international form needs no translation. The fee is €60. If one parent has no Polish birth certificate and the parents' marriage is not registered in Poland, it is best to include that parent's birth certificate as well. Otherwise the Polish entry lacks details, and that gap can hold up both the PESEL number and the passport.

With the Polish birth certificate you apply for the passport, in person at a Polish consulate of your choice, with a biometric photo and the proof of identity and Polish citizenship the consul asks for. For adults, the passport costs €140 at the missions in Germany; pupils and students up to 26, pensioners and holders of the Karta Dużej Rodziny (Large Family Card) pay less, and from age 70 it is free. You collect it from the same consulate; on request, the consul can also send it to you for €7 postage.

Poland has been a member of the EU since 1 May 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 21 December 2007. With a Polish passport you therefore hold a second EU passport: its value lies not in extra destinations but in a second, independent citizenship with all the rights of an EU citizen.

If citizenship was lost: restoration, Karta Polaka, the President

If the chain has broken, the road to Poland stays open. The Citizenship Act has three further doors, and the Karta Polaka opens a fourth. Which one is open to you depends on who lost the citizenship.

Restoration. If you yourself lost Polish citizenship before 1 January 1999, under the loss provisions of the 1920, 1951 or 1962 Acts, Article 38 gives it back to you on application. Excluded are those who, between 1 September 1939 and 8 May 1945, voluntarily served in the armed forces of the Axis powers or held public office there, and those who acted against Poland or took part in human rights violations. The application goes through the consul to the Minister of the Interior. Citizenship is acquired on the day the decision becomes final, so it has no retroactive effect: children born earlier do not become Polish through it. If your parent or grandparent is still alive and lost citizenship before 1999, they can take it back for themselves, and children born after that are Polish from birth again. If the consul or the minister doubts along the way whether citizenship was lost at all, the application goes to the voivode under Article 44. If the voivode finds that it never lapsed, he confirms it.

Grant by the President. Under Article 18, the President can grant Polish citizenship to any foreigner. The application expressly asks for details of parents and other ancestors who were Polish, and of any former Polish citizenship. The President is bound by no deadline, and there is no appeal against the decision. The consular fee in Germany is €450.

Karta Polaka. The Karta Polaka confirms that you belong to the Polish nation. It goes to anyone who is of Polish nationality in the ethnic sense, or who has at least one parent or grandparent or two great-grandparents of Polish nationality, who has at least a basic knowledge of Polish and cultivates Polish traditions, and who makes a declaration of belonging before the consul. Anyone who is already Polish or holds a permanent residence permit in Poland cannot get it; it is therefore the route for those whose chain has broken. It is not citizenship, but it is a bridge: it exempts you from the work permit requirement and from the consular fee for an application to the President. Anyone who has received a permanent residence permit in Poland because of Polish origin or the Karta Polaka can be recognised as a citizen under Article 30 after just one year of uninterrupted residence, with proof of Polish at B1 level.

If you are thinking of moving to Poland for this route, everyday life in the country is covered in moving to Poland (in German) and, for retirement, in retiring to Poland (in German).

German and Polish dual citizenship: advantages and disadvantages

For Germans, the situation has never been better. Anyone who became Polish and German by birth has always held both. And since 27 June 2024, acquiring a foreign nationality on application no longer costs you German citizenship either, so restoration or a grant will not cost you your German passport. What German law allows in detail is set out in the article on dual citizenship for Germans.

When people ask about the disadvantages of holding German and Polish citizenship, they usually mean three things:

• Poland sees only the Pole. Under Article 3, you cannot invoke your German citizenship before Polish authorities. In Poland you have all the rights and all the duties of a Polish citizen, including those you would not have as a German.
• Paperwork. Confirmation stands or falls on documents covering up to four generations, with changes of name, place names in three languages and archives on both sides of the Oder.
• Tax when you move. If you actually move to Poland, check the tax side first in the tax overview for Poland (in German) and under taxes.

The advantages weigh more. A second passport is a right that nobody can take away from you because a government changes its mind. It is your lawful way forward if your first passport is lost, stolen or held abroad. And it carries on: under Article 14, your children are Polish from birth, wherever they are born, if you were Polish when they were born. Which other passports you can pass on to your children is covered under family, and the other reasons for a second passport under why a second passport.

If, alongside Poland, you also have roots in the Baltic states or in old Hungary, it pays to look across the border: the routes for descendants are set out in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Hungarian citizenship.

No Polish ancestor? Other routes to a second passport

If you cannot prove a Polish chain, you have two alternatives. The first is naturalisation, in Poland for example through recognition after three years of permanent residence with a stable income, housing and Polish at B1 level. It is by far the cheaper route and often the better one in the end, but it demands years of real life in the country.

The second is citizenship by investment. It buys you the time naturalisation takes, and the two routes do not exclude each other: why you should pursue them in parallel is explained in CBI and naturalisation. The open programmes with their investment amounts, fees and timelines are under programmes.

Frequently asked questions