REGISTRATION OF FOREIGN VITAL RECORDS
In order to acquire a Polish passport for people born outside of Poland it is necessary to register a foreign vital record in a Polish registry office. If after birth there were changes in the marital status (marriage or divorce) then these events should also be registered.
The application for registering a foreign birth or marriage certificate may be filed in any registry office. People residing outside of Poland may also take advantage of the Polish consul in registering a marriage certificate. Both spouses take part in the proceedings.
If the foreign marriage certificate does not include information concerning the surnames of the spouses after marriage then both spouses may file a written statement concerning which surname they will use after the marriage. The same concerns surnames of children born from that marriage.
The application must include the original foreign marriage certificate together with its sworn translation (multi-language abridged copies of birth, marriage, and death certificates issued in accordance with Convention on the Issue of Multilingual Extracts from Civil Status Records prepared in Vienna on September 8th 1976, do not need to be translated). Documents filed together with the application for registering a foreign marriage certificate are not returned.
The administrative fee for the registration is at PLN 50.
Applications for registering foreign civil status records are handled immediately; however, if handling the case requires a preliminary investigation - not later than within a month, and especially difficult cases - not later than within two months since the day of filing the application.