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 over 5 years old must 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 temporary 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 temporary 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 temporary passport to the child,
3. a final and binding family court decision in which the court consents to the issue of a temporary 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.

Fee for a temporary passport issued for the delivery time of the biometric passport is 14 GBP.

Fee for a temporary passport issued for other purpose than to cover the biometric passport delivery time is 35 GBP.

The fees must be paid at the office counter when submitting the 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 receive the temporary passport as soon as possible.

IMPORTANT! If you are planning to travel with your child abroad with his / her temporary passport, check current rules of entry and stay of foreigners in the country of destination. Make sure that it is possible to cross the border with temporary passports and check the required validity period at entry and departure.

You must collect your child's temporary passport in person at the same office where you submitted the application.

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 for in-person collection of the temporary passport. Discuss this option when you file the passport application. 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 your child's new temporary passport to the specified address via a secure postal or messenger service, if possible.

The consul will void the current passport or temporary passport before sending the new one.

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

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Can I get a temporary passport?

A temporary passport is issued only under specific circumstances. It can be obtained by individuals who:

• stay in Poland and abroad temporarily and want to return to their place of permanent residence,
• stay abroad and are waiting for the delivery of a passport issued in the Republic of Poland (if they express such wish and apply for such document), 
• stay in Poland and abroad, in urgent cases of a family member's illness or funeral of which they need to provide evidence,
• stay in Poland and abroad, in urgent cases related to their professional activities of which they need to provide evidence,
• cannot have their fingerprints taken physically, and the impediment is temporary.

Can I apply for a temporary passport for a child if I lost its personal ID card and the child's new passport is waiting to be collected in Poland?

You can apply for a temporary passport for a child at a consulate. Remember to take with you the temporary passport issued by the consul as you return to the country to collect the new one.

I lost my child's passport. What to do now?

If you lost your child's passport or temporary passport, you must immediately inform the passport authority – the authority abroad is the consul.

On the day when you inform the consulate about the loss of passport, the document becomes invalid. 

IMPORTANT! If you find the passport which you had reported lost in the consulate, you should immediately return it to the passport authority (to the consul if you are abroad).