I don’t remember if I’ve already told you this but I’ve been trying to establish myself in Poland. You know, doing stuff like getting a Polish address (meldunek), ID card (dowód osobisty) and all that bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo. And compared to other countries, I have to say that the Polish system is quite complicated. The biggest challenge so far has been the “meldunek.”
What is this “meldunek”? It’s a leftover from the communist days - basically a law that requires every citizen and resident in Poland to have a registered domicile somewhere. And of course, the government needs to be notified where that domicile is. There are two types of “meldunek” – permanent (pobyt stały) and temporary (pobyt czasowy). The permanent kind is noted on a person’s national ID card (dowód osobisty), though you can also get an ID card without a permanent address.
My first ID card was like that – it simply said “brak” (none) in the space asking for my address. Most Polish citizens who live abroad and don’t maintain addresses in Poland have “brak” written on their ID cards, too. It simply means that we don’t have a “meldunek” in Poland. And I guess if you are a homeless person, you’d have “brak” on there too, but then I’m not so sure if homeless people bother to update their ID cards.
Now, if you plan to have an official (permanent) domicile in Poland, you need to register it with the government. Normally, it’s done with one of the sour-faced ladies at City Hall. You go there, fill out a paper, sign that paper, the owner of the place where you want to live needs to bring appropriate documents confirming that he/she indeed owns the place, the owner signs the paper you filled out too, and together you go to City Hall to register your new address. Assuming you don’t have a previous address in Poland, you don’t need to do anything else. If you had a previous address somewhere you would need to de-register
yourself first at the old place, and then register yourself at your new place. That registration is called “meldunek” and when you are doing it, you “meldujesz się” – you register yourself.
Once you have your permanent meldunek, you need to put that address on your national ID card (only citizens get those, foreigners get some other type of card). Though I read somewhere that starting next April this will no longer be required. Even if you register yourself at a new place, you will only need to notify the Tax without getting a new ID card. But don’t hold me to it, things tend to change rather quickly in Poland. For all I know, next year we might have to leave our fingerprints and give a stool sample when
changing the “meldunek.”
Anyway, last month I got my meldunek in Gdańsk. I applied for a new dowód osobisty, too. And some weeks after that, I got a very nice letter. My very first letter to my new address. It came from the Prezydent Miasta Gdańska (the mayor of Gdańsk), Mr. Paweł Adamowicz. The guy wrote to welcome me to the city and wish me health, professional successes and happiness in my personal life. A very silly thing but it made me smile. It was a nice gesture.
And needless to say, the letter began with “Szanowna Pani.” LOL!
"
