How to come to Poland or any other Schengen Country? Tips and Legal rules for enter Poland and Schengen Zone.

Once you decide to come to Schengen Zone, Your main question should be

Do I need visa to enter Schengen Zone ?

And after this – Where to obtain Visa?

First you need to check if you are one of the Foreigners exempted from a visa requirement when entering Schengen Area for the periods not exceeding 90 days within one 180 day period:

You can check the full list of countries whose nationals don’t need a visa for entering whose list  is mentioned below the video. If you find out that you are in this lucky group of nationalities which don’t need visa then you can skip the whole procedure of applying for visa and book your flight to one of the Schengen Zone country.

1) citizens of the following states are exempt from applying for visa:

Albania (exemption from visa requirement refers only to holders of biometric passports)

Andorra
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina *
Australia
Barbados
Bosnia and Herzegovina (exemption from visa requirement refers only to holders of biometric passports)
Brazil
Brunei
Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (exemption from visa requirement refers only to holders of biometric passports)
Chile *
Montenegro (exemption from visa requirement refers only to holders of biometric passports)
Dominican Republic (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Grenada (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union )
Guatemala
Honduras *
Israel *
Japan *
Canada
Kiribati (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Columbia (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
South Korea *
Costa Rica *
Malaysia *
Mauritius
Micronesia (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Mexico *
Monaco
Moldova (holders of biometric passports issued in accordance with ICAO standards)
Nauru (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Nicaragua *
New Zealand
Palau (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Panama *
Paraguay
Peru (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Salvador Samoa (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
San Marino
Seychelles
Serbia (apart from the holders of Serbian passports issued by Serbian Directorate for Coordination (in Serbian language: Koordinaciona uprava (exemption from visa requirement refers only to holders of biometric passports)
Singapore *
United States of America *
East Timor (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Tonga (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Trinidad and Tobago (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Tuvalu (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Uruguay *
Vatican
Venezuela
The Bahamas
Marshall Islands (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union )
Solomon Islands (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
Vanuatu (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)
United Arab Emirates (exemption from visa requirement shall apply from the effective date of the agreement on exemption from visa requirement which shall be concluded with the European Union)

2) citizens of special administrative regions of the People’s Republic of China

Hong Kong SAR (exemption from visa requirement applies only to holders of “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” passports) *
Macao SAR (exemption from visa requirement applies only to holders of “Região Administrativa Especial de Macau” passports) *

3) British citizens who are not citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the purpose of the EU provisions:
British nationals (Overseas), British Overseas Territories Citizens, British Overseas Citizens, British Protected Persons, British Subjects

4) citizens of units and territorial authorities, which are not recognized as countries by at least one member state:
Taiwan (exemption from visa requirement applies only to holders of passport issued by the authorities of Taiwan and bearing identity card number)

* citizens of these countries or special administrative regions can re-enter Poland pursuant to visa-free traffic without complying with the 180 – day limit, on the basis of bilateral agreements regulating visa-free traffic, concluded by Poland with those countries before the accession of Poland to the EU.

 

2. If YOU ARE NOT citizen of one of those countries which are exempt from holding visa once you crossing the border then you need to have visa for  enter Poland o rany other schengen country.

What are the Rules for stay in visa-free traffic?

Poland is part of Schengen Area. Total stay on the territory of all member states of the Schengen area (including Poland) without the need to obtain visa cannot exceed 90 days within each 180 – day period.

Full list of States of the Schengen area you can find in one of my previous videos.

In the course of stay without the need to obtain visa, a foreigner should have citizenshhip of country which do not need visa for entering Schengen Zone and meet the following conditions:

• have a valid travel document,
• be able to justify the purpose of the planned stay
• not be a person for whom an alert has been issued in the SIS for the purposes of refusing them entry as well as
• is not considered to be a threat to public policy, internal security, public health or the international relations of any of the Member States of the European Union,

Once you establish that you need a visa, your obviouse question is –

Where to obtain a visa?

Visas are issued as Schengen or national visas by a Polish consul. In order to obtain a visa, the interested person should contact a proper Poland diplomatic post or consular office.
Schengen Visa (marked with C symbol) – is issued when the planned stay on the territory of the Member States of the Schengen area does not exceed ninty days within each 1one hundred eighty-day period.
National visa (called long-term – marked with D symbol) – entitles to entry and a continuous stay in the territory of Poland or to several consecutive stays which jointly last longer than ninty days, the period of validity of a national visa cannot exceed one year.

 

What is Territorial competence of a consul?

According to Article 6 of the Community Code on Visas the application for issuing a visa is discussed by a consulate of the competent Member State, in the area of which the person applying for a visa has been staying legally. A consulate of the competent Member State examines the application submitted by a third country national who has been staying legally, but not living in the area of the consulate’s competence, if the person applying for a visa justified the submission of the application in this consulate.

National visa for the purpose of work is issued by the consul competent with regard to the state of the foreigner’s permanent residence, and in the case of a foreigner staying legally on the territory of another Member State of the EU/EEA/Switzerland – the consul whose seat is located in the given state, unless a foreigner justified the submission of the application outside the state of permanent residence

Addresses of Polish diplomatic and consular institutions abroad .

are available at the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which link i will mention in my article at the following link

http://msz.gov.pl/pl/informacje_konsularne/polskie_placowki/placowki;jsessionid=B09D6A361FA9E1B061CECD01940A4A50.cmsap1p

Visa sticker template (which is the same for Schengen and national visas) is available at websites of the PRADO register (PUBLIC REGISTER OF AUTHENTIC TRAVEL AND IDENTITY DOCUMENTS).

If you have any questions about getting legaly to Poland or other european union country please leave me a comment. You are welcome to ask your questions and suggestions about intresting topics related to immigration.

Also i will apreciate if you leave your like and subcribe to my channel to stay updated with all the latest information about immigration in Europe. It was Daria, immigration lawer , thanks for watching and see you the next time.