Poland in the UK

You can apply for a passport at any Polish consular office. Please note that both the application and collection of your new passport must be completed at the same office.

IMPORTANT! Honorary consuls are not authorized to issue passports.

Yes, you must file a passport application for your child in person. This can be done by:

• Both parents or legal guardians/caretakers, or

• One parent or court-appointed guardian/caretaker, provided they present one of the following:

1. A written consent from the other parent (or legal guardian) authorizing the issuance of a passport for the child, which must include a confirmation of the signature's authenticity from a notary, consul, or a passport department official authorized by the province governor. The consenting parent (legal guardian) may also grant consent by sending a letter to the consular office’s Electronic Inbox (ESP), which must be signed with a qualified electronic signature, trusted signature, or personal signature.

2. A final and binding court decision stating that the other parent (or legal guardian) has no right to make decisions regarding the issuance of the passport.

3. A final and binding family court decision permitting the issuance of a passport for the child without the other parent's consent.

4. An unabridged copy of the child’s Polish birth certificate indicating that the father is unknown (e.g., there has been no recognition of fatherhood or judicial establishment of paternity).

5. A copy of the death certificate of the other parent.

IMPORTANT! Children under 5 years old do not need to be present when submitting their passport application.

You must schedule your appointment to apply for a passport through the e-Consulate system.

IMPORTANT! Parents (legal guardians) no longer need to fill out the passport application in paper. The passport application will be filed electronically during the visit in a consular office. A consular officer will file your application using an electronic form. Parents (legal guardians) will just need to confirm all the data are correct and sign the application on a dedicated device (signature pad).

• A colour biometric photograph – read what the photo should look like.
  Filing the photograph together with the application is mandatory. You cannot replace the photograph or send it later. If no photograph is attached to the application or the photograph does not comply with requirements, we will notify you that the passport application will have been rejected.
• Valid passports or national ID's of the parents (legal guardians).
• The child's passport / temporary passport or its identity card (if issued) confirming his / her identity and Polish citizenship.
  IMPORTANT! If you apply for a passport for your child and there are justified doubts as to its identity, citizenship or other details required to file a passport application, the consul may ask the parents to submit additional necessary documents.
• Bring an abridged or unabridged copy of a Polish birth certificate if the child does not have its PESEL number.
• If the passport application is filed by legal guardians / legal caretakers, court-issued documents confirming their entitlement to make an application on behalf of the child need to be presented as well.

If the application is made by one of the parents (legal guardians), please provide us with one of the listed below documents:

1. a written consent of the other parent (guardian) to issue a passport to the child containing the confirmation of the signature's authenticity by a notary, consul or a passport department official authorised by the province governor; the parent (guardian) may also grant his / her consent to issue a passport to the child by sending to the consular office’s Electronic Inbox a letter granting that consent; the letter needs to be signed with a qualified electronic signature, trusted signature or personal signature,
2. a final and binding court decision under which the other parent (guardian) has no right to make decisions about issuing a passport to the child,
3. a final and binding family court decision in which the court consents to the issue of a passport to a child without the other parent's consent,
4. an unabridged copy of the child’s Polish birth certificate stating that the father of the child is unknown (there was no recognition of fatherhood or judicial establishment of paternity),
5. a copy of a death certificate of the other parent.

The passport fee for a child under 5 is 31 GBP.

The fees must be paid at the office counter when submitting your application.

Accepted forms of payment: cash, postal order made out to the appropriate consular office, credit and debit cards (except at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Belfast), cheque (only at the Consular and Polish Diaspora Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London).

You will not pay for the child's passport if:

• your child stays in a nursing home or a residential care facility and its travel abroad is related to a long-term treatment or a surgery,
• your child's passport has a technical fault.

When you apply for a child's passport, a consular officer will give you an estimated collection date. You will also receive a written confirmation of the passport application. On the receipt you will find the passport application number, which is useful if you want to track the progress online (See if the passport is ready). 

If you need the child's ID document urgently, for example because of a travel at short notice, you should additionally apply for a temporary passport for your child, that will cover the waiting time for the delivery of its biometric passport. You will get it sooner than the biometric one. 

IMPORTANT! If you are planning to travel with your child abroad with its temporary passport, check current rules of entry and stay of foreigners in the country of your destination. Make sure that you can cross the border with a temporary passport and check the required validity period (at entry and departure).

You must collect your child's passport in person at the same office where you submitted the application. One parent or legal guardian can collect it.

On the day of collection, please bring your child's previous passport or temporary passport to the consular office. It will be voided (except for pages with valid visas) and returned to you.

IMPORTANT! In justified cases, especially if traveling to the consular office is particularly difficult, the consul may waive the requirement to collect the passport in person. Discuss this option when you submit the passport application. If approved, you will need to submit a reasoned written request to the consul (a special form is available at the consular office) and cover the postage costs. The consul will then send the new passport to the specified address via a secure postal or messenger service, if possible.

The consul will void your child's current passport or temporary passport before sending the new one.

IMPORTANT! We do not send passports to citizens residing in Poland. Additionally, passports issued by a domestic authority (province governor) cannot be sent to individuals living abroad.

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How to obtain the first passport for a child born abroad?

First, you need to register a foreign child birth certificate in Poland to obtain an abridged or unabridged copy of a Polish birth certificate. The Polish birth certificate is necessary to obtain the PESEL number, which is then entered into a biometric passport. The PESEL number cannot be assigned without a copy of the Polish birth certificate.

How to obtain the PESEL number?

The consul applies for the PESEL number to be issued in connection with a passport application for a child who is not yet a PESEL number holder. 
Please remember that the consul does not apply for the PESEL number to be issued under any other circumstances besides the issue of a passport or a temporary passport.

What if only one parent can apply for the passport in person?

The parent (legal guardian) who cannot apply in person may consent to the issue of the document by writing a statement of consent. Authenticity of the signature on the statement needs to be confirmed by a notary or a passport authority (a consul or a province governor). The parent (legal guardian) may also grant his / her consent to issue a passport to the child by sending to the consular office’s Electronic Inbox (ESP) a letter granting that consent. The letter needs to be signed with a qualified electronic signature, trusted signature or personal signature.

What if one or both of the parents have invalid passports, personal IDs or do not have any ID documents and want to apply for a passport / temporary passport for a child?

Lack of a valid identity documents prevents a person from being identified correctly. If a parent (legal guardian) has no valid passport / ID document, it is impossible to identify him / her. In this case, the consul cannot take a parent's consent to issue a passport to a child. The parents (legal guardians) will have to obtain passports or personal IDs first.