If your parents, grandparents or great-grandparents were Polish citizens, you may already be one too. We trace your family history, find the records in Polish and foreign archives, and obtain official confirmation of your Polish citizenship, the first step to a Polish and EU passport.
Request an initial assessmentWe work with descendants of Polish emigrants living in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, South Africa and elsewhere. Many of our clients' ancestors left Poland between the two World Wars, during or after the Second World War, or in the emigration waves of 1968 and the 1980s.
Polish citizenship passes from parent to child regardless of where the child is born, and Polish law sets no fixed limit on the number of generations. If citizenship was never lost along the line, you do not need to apply for it. You need to prove it, and have it confirmed.
Our Kraków team works in English every day. Our managing partner is admitted to the bar in both Poland and New York, which helps when Polish and American records, naturalisation files and legal concepts have to be read side by side.
For people who are already Polish citizens by descent but have no Polish documents. A voivode (regional governor) issues a decision confirming that you hold Polish citizenship. For applicants who never lived in Poland, this is usually the Masovian Voivode in Warsaw.
If an ancestor lost Polish citizenship, for example by foreign naturalisation before 1951, other options may still be open:
A citizenship confirmation case usually runs in three stages. You decide after each one whether to continue, so you do not commit to an application before you know whether it has a realistic basis.
We review the family information and any documents you already have, analyse each generation under the citizenship law in force at the time (1920, 1951, 1962 and 2009 acts), identify risks such as foreign naturalisation or military service, and tell you whether confirmation is realistic and which documents are missing.
We locate and obtain the records that prove your ancestor's Polish citizenship and the line of descent: civil registry and parish records, residence registers, identity documents, military records and, where needed, records from archives in Ukraine, Lithuania or Belarus covering pre-war Polish territory. The cost depends on how many documents need to be found.
We prepare and file the application, compile the evidence, arrange translations and legalisation, represent you before the voivode, respond to any requests for further evidence and see the case through to the decision. The Stage I fee is credited against this stage.
* Fees are net and do not include VAT (where applicable) or case costs, such as stamp duties and official fees, archive search charges, legalisation or apostille of documents, and sworn translations. We confirm the fee for each stage in writing before work begins.
The confirmation decision is the key that unlocks the rest. After it is issued, the usual steps are:
Transcription of your foreign birth certificate (and marriage certificate, if any) into the Polish civil register, which gives you a Polish birth certificate.
PESEL number — the Polish identification number, assigned when your birth certificate is entered in the Polish register.
Passport application in person at a Polish consulate or a passport office in Poland, where your fingerprints and photo are taken. The passport is collected in person as well.
Often, yes. Polish citizenship passes by descent (ius sanguinis), with no fixed limit on generations. If your ancestor was a Polish citizen and the citizenship was passed down without being lost along the way, you may already be a Polish citizen. In that case you do not apply for citizenship – you apply to have it confirmed.
It is an administrative decision issued by a Polish voivode (regional governor) stating that a person holds Polish citizenship. For applicants who have never lived in Poland, the competent authority is usually the Masovian Voivode in Warsaw. The decision is the basis for transcribing your birth certificate, obtaining a PESEL number and applying for a Polish passport.
Usually not by descent alone. The modern Polish state and its citizenship law date from 1918–1920, so emigrants who left earlier generally never became Polish citizens. There are exceptions, and other routes (such as the Polish Charter or a grant of citizenship) may still be open, so this is worth checking in an initial assessment.
It depends on when. Under the 1920 citizenship act, acquiring a foreign citizenship generally caused the loss of Polish citizenship, which is why the date 19 January 1951 matters. Naturalisation after that date generally did not cause loss. Foreign military service, marriage of a Polish woman to a foreigner before 1951 and the parent's status at the child's birth can also be decisive. Each link in the chain is assessed under the law in force at that time.
Poland does not require you to renounce another citizenship. In Poland you will be treated solely as a Polish citizen. Whether your other country permits dual citizenship depends on that country's law.
No. Confirmation of citizenship requires no language test and no residence in Poland. We act under a power of attorney, so the whole procedure can be run remotely. You will only need to appear in person at a Polish consulate or office when applying for the passport itself, because fingerprints and a photo are taken.
Document retrieval usually takes from a few weeks to several months, depending on the archives involved. The confirmation procedure before the voivode commonly takes many months and can take longer in busy offices. After confirmation, transcription of the birth certificate and the passport application usually take a few additional months.
Our work is typically divided into three stages: initial assessment (EUR 400–800), archive searches and document retrieval (usually EUR 500–1,500, depending on the number of documents) and the citizenship confirmation application (EUR 2,500–3,500, with the Stage I fee credited). Prices are net, exclusive of VAT where applicable and of case costs such as stamp duties, official fees, archive searches, legalisation or apostille and sworn translations.
Generally yes. Once your citizenship is confirmed, your children usually hold Polish citizenship by descent as well, and their status can be confirmed in the same or a follow-up procedure.
If confirmation is not possible, other routes may be available: restoration of citizenship for people who lost it before 1 January 1999, recognition as a Polish citizen after residence in Poland, the Polish Charter (Karta Polaka) for people of Polish descent, or a grant of citizenship by the President of Poland.
This page provides general information as of October 2026 and does not constitute legal advice. Whether citizenship can be confirmed depends on the documents and the law applicable to each generation in your family.
Every case starts with an initial assessment of your family history. We tell you whether confirmation is realistic before you commit to the next stage.
Request an initial assessment