National Criminal Register

The cost of obtaining information concerning both a person and a collective entity in a hard copy form amounts to PLN 30 and in an electronic form – PLN 20.

• by electronic means (basic information at www.krk.ms.gov.pl, access to e-KRK https://ems.ms.gov.pl ).
• in person at one of the National Criminal Register Information Points or at the NCR Information Bureau at ul. Czerniakowska 100 in Warsaw, or by authorizing a third party to come to the National Criminal Register Information Point or to the registered office of the Bureau with a written power of attorney and a filled out and signed inquiry/request.
• you can send the signed and paid form by mail to the National Criminal Register Information Point of your choosing or to the registered office of the Bureau. To that end, download the “inquiry for information about a person”/“inquiry for information about a collective entity” form from the Ministry of Justice website and pay the fee. The fee for the certificate may be paid: by bank transfer to the account of the Ministry of Justice (the account number is given below), in the form of a court fee stamp, purchased e.g. at the nearest courthouse or in cash at any courthouse cash desk. The title of the transfer should indicate the date of issue and the forename and surname of the person or collective entity to which the information from the Register pertains. Proof of payment must accompany the inquiry/request.

Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości, Al. Ujazdowskie 11, 00-950 Warsaw
NBP O/O Warszawa
PL 77 1010 1010 0400 1922 3100 0000
Narodowy Bank Polski
Oddział Okręgowy Warszawa
Plac Powstańców Warszawy 4
00-950 Warszawa
(SWIFT (BIC code) NBPLPLPW for foreign transfers)

At the headquarters of the National Criminal Register Information Office at ul. Czerniakowska 100, 00-454 Warsaw, or at one of the National Criminal Register Information Points.

The list of National Criminal Register Information Points is available on the website https://www.gov.pl/web/krajowy-rejestr-karny in a tab "Materials to download".

Visiting hours for clients:

Monday 8 am – 6 pm

Tuesday to Friday 08:15 am – 4 pm

Cash desks are open:

Monday 8 am – 5:45 pm

Tuesday – Friday 08:15 am – 3:45 pm

The National Criminal Register do not process inquiries sent by electronic means (by e-mail or ePUAP) and by fax.

• You can send a request electronically via the eKRK system if you have a secure signature verified by a qualified certificate, or a signature confirmed by the ePUAP trusted profile.
• You can send the form by mail. To that end, download the appropriate form from the Ministry of Justice website, fill it out and sign. The filled-out form should be accompanied by a confirmation of payment of PLN 30 to the account of the Ministry of Justice. In the upper left-hand corner of the form, indicate the name, surname and address (abroad) to which the certificate is to be sent, or attach sending instructions on a separate sheet. Sending a document abroad entails no additional costs.

Yes. You can authorise a natural person having capacity for legal transactions. Granting a power of attorney is subject to a fee of PLN 17, payable in cash at the cash desk of the tax authority (district/municipal office) with jurisdiction over the place where the document is submitted, or by electronic payment to the account of said authority. The power of attorney must be accompanied by proof of payment of the fee for the power of attorney. Granting a power of attorney to an immediate family member, i.e., a spouse, ascendant, descendant or sibling, is exempt from stamp duty.

Remember!

• The fee of PLN 17 for the power of attorney may not be paid at the registered office of the Bureau located at ul. Czerniakowska 100.
• For documents forwarded directly to the National Criminal Register Bureau at ul. Czerniakowska 100, the fee should be paid into the following account:

Capital City of Warsaw Municipal Office

Taxpayer Service Centre,

21 1030 1508 0000 0005 5000 0070

Since 1 January 2020, the Capital City of Warsaw has been operating a single bank account to which stamp duty payments should be made.

Payments should be made to the account:

Capital City of Warsaw Municipal Office,

Taxpayer Service Centre,

21 1030 1508 0000 0005 5000 0070

Personal data of the person giving the authorisation (the principal) and of the authorised person (including the address of at least one of those persons) and an indication of the scope of the authority.

Example of a power of attorney:

Ja … (name and surname and PESEL number), zamieszkały ... (residence address) upoważniam Panią/Pana... legitymującą/legitymującego się dowodem osobistym (series ... No. ... issued by...) do wszelkich czynności związanych z uzyskaniem zaświadczenia z Krajowego Rejestru Karnego.

The power of attorney must be personally signed by the principal and the original submitted together with the inquiry.

The power of attorney must be prepared in the Polish language.

No. The registered residence, residence or business address is irrelevant. You can approach the nearest Information Point of the National Criminal Register. The same applies to sending requests/inquiries by mail – these can be sent to any of the National Criminal Register Information Points or the National Criminal Register Information Bureau in Warsaw.

We issue certificates in Polish only. All translations are procured by a person requesting a certificate.

No. To have a document apostilled, you should contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (https://www.gov.pl/web/dyplomacja/apostille).

The National Criminal Register does not mediate in obtaining the apostille.

It is a translation aid for a certificate from the National Criminal Register confirming that a person has no convictions. It is issued only upon request of a person who is a national of the Republic of Poland. 

For issuing a multilingual standard form, a fee of PLN 17 is charged.

The registered office of B-KRK is situated in Warsaw (Mokotów district), ul. Czerniakowska 100 (near the intersection of: ul. Czerniakowska and Bartycka). Access by bus lines: 107, 108, 159, 141, 162, 185, 187.

The best way to do so is to address to the National Criminal Register Information Bureau (via traditional mail) a signed letter containing the following personal data: surname, including assumed surname, names, name at birth, date and place of birth, parents’ names, mother’s maiden name, residence address, nationality and PESEL number. You can also apply in person to the lawyer on duty in the headquarters of the Bureau at ul. Czerniakowska 100 in Warsaw, room 41.

It is not possible to obtain information by phone or via email whether the requesting person (let alone a third party) is entered in the Register and when the conviction will be expunged.

A person wishing to obtain information on whether his/her data are processed by the Register and when, if any, his/her conviction will be expunged should send to the NCR Information Bureau a signed letter containing the following personal data: surname, including assumed surname, names, name at birth, date and place of birth, parents’ names, mother’s maiden name, residence address, nationality and PESEL number. Such information can also be obtained in person at the registered office of the Bureau in Warsaw. Obtaining information in such manner is free of charge.

Pursuant to Article 24(1) of the National Criminal Register Act of 24 May 2000, the entities listed in Article 6(1)(1) to (9) and (11) and the central authorities of the European Union Member States requesting information for the purposes of conducting criminal or administrative proceedings are exempt from paying the fee.

Candidates for youth holiday camp supervisors or instructors who are volunteers are also exempt from the fee. They are obliged to provide the holiday camp organiser with information from the National Criminal Register in accordance with Article 92p(8)(1) of the Education System Act of 7 September 1991 (Journal of Laws of 2015, item 2156). A person wishing to take advantage of the above exemption should enclose a letter, prepared by the holiday camp organiser, confirming that he or she is a volunteer who is a candidate for a holiday camp supervisor or instructor.

Moreover, the current wording of the provision of Article 162(7) of the Act of 27 July 2001 Law on the Common Courts System (Journal of Laws of 2019, item 52, as amended) introduces the principle of obtaining a certificate from the National Criminal Record regarding persons standing as lay judge candidates on a free-of-charge basis.

In order to prevent persons who are not lay judge candidates from obtaining information without paying a fee, it is reasonable to require a lay judge candidate to attach to the request a document (certificate or statement) from the entity presenting the lay judge candidate confirming the fact that the person concerned is a lay judge candidate or, in the case of a submission made by a group composed of 50 citizens, from the person first named on the list (Article 162(6) of the above Act).

The regulations governing the operation of National Criminal Register do not specify a validity period for the certificate. In the majority of cases, said period results from the legal instruments that form the basis of the request for information.

Yes, but on the condition that in item 11 of the form, you make reference to a specific provision of law from which the requirement of having a clear criminal record for the employee arises.

Such an inquiry should be signed by a person authorised to represent the entity. If an entity is represented by more than one person acting jointly (e.g., two members of the management board acting jointly), the inquiry must be signed by each of them.

No. The Register issues certificates confirming the legal status as of the issue date of the certificate.

A conviction that qualifies for expungement is removed by the Bureau staff without having to submit a relevant application.

The expungement of convictions by Polish courts takes place in accordance with the rules laid down in the Criminal Code (Articles 76, 106a-108). This depends, inter alia, on the type of sentence, the length of the sentence, the crime for which the sentence was imposed, and the time at which the sentence was imposed.

As regards convictions issued by courts of foreign states, the expungement is not subject to the principles of the Polish law, but to the law of the state that issued the ruling.

In order to make sure that a conviction is no longer recorded in the Register, a letter may be sent to the Information Bureau of the National Criminal Record, containing precise personal data (surname, including assumed surname, names, name at birth, date and place of birth, parents’ names, mother’s maiden name, residence address, nationality and PESEL number) and a request to verify whether the Register still processes conviction data. You can also apply in person to the lawyer on duty in the headquarters of the Office at ul. Czerniakowska 100 in Warsaw, room 41.

As a rule, Information Points of the National Criminal Register and the Information Bureau of the National Criminal Register issue a certificate of clear criminal record “on the spot”. If an investigation is required, the processing time may be extended.

In the case of inquiries made by persons having the citizenship of a European Union Member State, the time for providing information is up to 20 working days from the date of receipt of the request.

Yes. However, an appropriate power of attorney from the person concerned must be produced.

Yes. You need to download the form from the Ministry of Justice, fill it out, sign it and attach it together with a confirmation of payment of PLN 30 (if required).

Yes. In the title of the transfer, you only have to provide the date of the inquiries and the names of the persons to whom they pertain; alternatively (in the case of a large number of inquiries) you may attach a list of persons to whom the inquiry pertains as an attachment to the confirmation of the transfer (e.g., call the transfer “payment for the inquiries dated ........ pertaining to persons from 1 to 100” and attach a list of persons from 1 to 100 with their surnames and names).

As a rule, a certificate is drawn up within seven days. If you send the documents by mail, it can take up to 3 weeks to obtain the certificate, and up to 4 weeks if you send the documents abroad.

Each inquiry is processed individually. It is therefore possible that information from the Register may be sent in separate mail and at different time intervals.

Yes. If the interested party comes from a country which is not a member of the European Union, the same rules of obtaining the certificate as in the case of Polish nationals apply.

However, in the case of a person who is a national of an EU Member State other than Poland, this Register, while issuing information, is additionally required by law to send an inquiry about such a person also to the country of citizenship and attach to the information from the Register information from the register of the country of nationality of the person to which the request pertains. Foreign records have up to 20 business days to provide information. The processing time for such inquiries is therefore extended and by submitting a request in person at the registered office of the Register or Information Point of the National Criminal Register, it is not possible to obtain the certificate “on the spot”.

Yes, in this case the response is given only from the Polish criminal register.

If you also want to obtain information from the records of the country of nationality, a member of the company’s management board, supervisory board or commercial proxy must submit a request for information about a person individually or grant a relevant power of attorney.

Yes, but in such a situation it is necessary to enclose a document translated into Polish by a sworn translator confirming the registration of the company in the register in the country where the entity resides.

Yes, but you must attach a document confirming the appointment of the person as, for example, a member of the management board.

In item 11 you should indicate the procedure or legal basis giving rise to the right to obtain information from the Register. If a person inquiries about himself/herself, he/she does not need to complete item 11.

In item 12 (data type) you should indicate the file from which the information is to be provided. In the case of entities submitting an inquiry, the legal basis indicated in item 11 determines from which file the information may be provided. In the case of a request (that is, if the person inquiries about himself/herself), the type and number of files checked depends on the needs of the requesting person. No extra fee is charged for selecting several files.

There is no need to complete item 13. The extent of the data to be covered by personal information is determined by the provision that requires a certificate from the Register, if indicated in item 11 of the form.

No. The National Criminal Register does not collect certified copies of foreign judgments (or Polish ones). To obtain a certified copy, you need to contact directly the court of the state which decided the case.

No. The Information Bureau of the National Criminal Register does not provide information on detentions outside Poland, nor does it have information on foreign arrest warrants. European Arrest Warrants are collected in the Department for the Execution of Judgments and Probation in the Ministry of Justice.

No. The ECRIS information reflects all data held by the records on foreign affairs.

In the event of a conviction issued by a court in another Member State of the European Union, the conviction will become expunged in accordance with the law of the state in which the conviction was issued. For more information on the expungement conditions, you should contact the court that decided the case.

Yes. The information Bureau of the National Criminal Register acts as an intermediary in obtaining information from foreign registers via the ECRIS system for citizens of European Union Member States.

If you want to obtain a certificate from third countries, please contact these countries directly. The Information Office of the National Criminal Register does not act as an intermediary in obtaining information from third countries in the case of inquiries made by private persons for purposes other than criminal proceedings.

Yes.  In such a case, the Information Bureau of the National Criminal Register should be provided with a sworn translated copy of the register of commercial companies from the country in which the company is registered.

No. There is no international system for exchanging information on collective entities. Such an inquiry must be addressed directly to the records in the country from which the information is to be obtained.