A Belarusian waited a year and a half for permanent residency in Poland, then received a letter that his Pole's Card had been annulled four years ago

Piotr (name changed) received his first Pole's Card back in 2012 in Belarus. Since then, much has changed in his life. After the events of 2020, he was forced to leave, first to Georgia, and then to Poland. In 2025, in this country, he submitted documents for a permanent residence permit (stały pobyt), attaching his Pole's Card as grounds. A year and a half later, he received a letter: his Pole's Card had been annulled. The reason is probably an old mistake that had already been forgotten. Piotr shared his story with Most.

It was not difficult for Piotr to obtain the Pole's Card in 2012. His grandfather was a defender of Warsaw in 1939 (his documents were preserved in the family), and his father's passport and Piotr's own documents stated his nationality as Polish. The right to a Pole's Card is granted once, but the plastic card itself is issued for 10 years, after which it is subject to replacement.

In 2022, when his first card expired, Piotr was living in Georgia. He was forced to leave there due to the risk of political repression. Therefore, he applied for a new Pole's Card at the Polish consulate in Tbilisi. No problems arose — and in July 2022, he received a positive decision on the issuance of the Pole's Card.

However, on the day Piotr was supposed to pick up his new card, he received a call from the consulate informing him that a mistake had been made in his surname. They promised to correct it and print a new card, which he would need to come back for later.

— I was already on the bus to pick up the card when they called me. I arrived, but I didn't enter the consulate, — Piotr recalls.

Card Annulled

As a result, he never even saw the document with the error. Four months later, as promised, he received a Pole's Card with the correctly spelled surname. Later, based on it, Piotr obtained a Polish visa at the same consulate, and after some time, moved to Poland.

There, in 2025, he submitted documents for permanent residency — based on that same Pole's Card. Recently, Piotr received a letter from the voivodeship office (urząd), which is reviewing his application. It stated that his Pole's Card had been annulled back in September 2022. Furthermore, the number of the annulled document matches the number of the card Piotr submitted with his documents — the second version, with the correct surname. He was given 14 days to provide a valid document.

Piotr does not know what number the card with the error had or if it differed from the number of the new one. He has already sent a letter to the Polish consulate in Tbilisi asking for clarification on what happened and what he should do next.

The letter from the office (urząd) also suggests another option — changing the basis for obtaining permanent residency from the Pole's Card to Polish origin. In that case, he would have to re-prove his Polish roots.

There is another unusual moment in this story. Piotr is undergoing the legalization process with his minor daughter. She is also applying for permanent residency based on the Pole's Card. However, her document did not raise any questions from Polish officials.

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