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Guide · Citizenship

When is Polish citizenship restored rather than confirmed?

Portrait of Natalia PrzewoźnikBy Natalia Przewoźnik, Trainee Attorney

Confirmation says that citizenship never stopped. Restoration is for the opposite case: a person held Polish citizenship, lost it, and asks for it back. The two procedures have different authorities, different applications and different results, and the first question in every case is which of them applies.

Reading time about 5 minutesLast reviewed September 2026Applies to people whose Polish citizenship was lost before 1999

Key points

  • Restoration is available to a person who lost Polish citizenship before January 1, 1999 under the provisions listed in Article 38 of the Citizenship Act.
  • The decision is made by the Minister of the Interior and Administration, not by a voivode and not by the President.
  • From the United States the application goes through the Polish consul for your place of residence, in person or by mail. The consular fee is USD 59.
  • The Act excludes people who served the Axis powers between 1939 and 1945, acted against Poland or took part in human rights violations.
  • Citizenship returns on the day the decision becomes final, and the Act does not extend it to the applicant's children.

What is the difference between confirmation and restoration?

Confirmation answers the question whether citizenship passed down the family line and was never lost. Restoration starts from the opposite finding: the person was a Polish citizen, then stopped being one, and now applies to have that status back. The Act calls such a person a foreigner, because at the moment of the application they are one.

Which route fits is decided by the history of the family, not by preference. Our guide on which citizenship law applied in each period sets out what could end citizenship in a given year, and our guide on confirming Polish citizenship covers the other route.

Who can have citizenship restored?

Article 38 sets one condition of time and one of legal basis. The loss must have happened before January 1, 1999, and it must have happened under one of the listed provisions: Articles 11 or 13 of the 1920 Act, Articles 11 or 12 of the 1951 Act, or Articles 13, 14 or 15 of the 1962 Act. Those are the provisions on acquiring a foreign citizenship, on foreign public office or military service, on deprivation of citizenship, and on the loss extending to a wife and to children under 18.

Przywrócenie obywatelstwa

Restoration of citizenship. A decision of the Minister of the Interior and Administration that gives Polish citizenship back to a person who lost it. It is not the same as confirmation, which only states that citizenship was held all along.

Who is excluded?

Restoration is not available to a person who, between September 1, 1939 and May 8, 1945, voluntarily joined the forces of the Axis powers or their allies, or took public office in their service, or who acted to the detriment of Poland, in particular its independence and sovereignty, or took part in violations of human rights. It is also refused where restoration would threaten the defense or security of the state or public safety and order.

Where do you file from the United States?

The application goes to the Minister of the Interior and Administration. A person living outside Poland files it through the Polish consul for their place of residence, and the consul forwards it to the minister without delay. Polish consular offices in the United States accept the application in person or by mail, and the fee for accepting it is USD 59.

The stamp duty for the decision itself is PLN 1,000 under the schedule to the Stamp Duty Act, a rate that has applied since August 1, 2025.

What does the application contain?

The Act lists the contents: your data and address, a statement that you held Polish citizenship in the past together with the circumstances in which it was lost, the address of your last place of residence in Poland before the loss, and a curriculum vitae. You attach documents confirming identity and citizenship, documents on any change of name, any documents you hold on the loss of Polish citizenship, and a photograph. There is an official form for the application.

The circumstances of the loss are the heart of the case. They decide whether the loss fits one of the provisions listed in Article 38, and that is exactly what the minister examines.

What does the minister check?

Before deciding, the minister asks the Chief of Police and the Head of the Internal Security Agency, and other authorities where needed, whether restoration would threaten the defense or security of the state or public safety and order, and whether the applicant acted against Poland or took part in violations of human rights. The minister may also ask the President of the Institute of National Remembrance for information.

What if it turns out you never lost it?

That happens more often than people expect. If the documents raise a doubt whether the applicant is in fact still a Polish citizen, the case goes to a voivode, who opens proceedings on confirmation of citizenship. Where the voivode confirms that citizenship is held, the restoration application is not taken further, because there is nothing to restore.

Two more rules keep the procedures apart. An application for a grant of citizenship by the President filed while restoration is pending ends the restoration proceedings, and an application for restoration filed during recognition proceedings suspends those until the restoration case is decided.

When does citizenship come back?

On the day the decision on restoration becomes final. The Act does not extend restoration to the applicant's children, so each person applies for themselves, and what it means for the next generation depends on when those children were born.

How we help

We establish first which route the family history calls for, because an application filed in the wrong procedure costs months. Where restoration is the right one, we gather the documents on the loss, prepare the application and the statement of circumstances, and handle correspondence with the ministry from Poland.

This article is general information about Polish law, not legal advice about your situation. Legal basis: the Act of April 2, 2009 on Polish Citizenship (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 1611), Articles 23, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44 and 45, which refer to Articles 11 and 13 of the Act of January 20, 1920 on Citizenship of the Polish State (Journal of Laws 1920 No 7 item 44), Articles 11 and 12 of the Act of January 8, 1951 on Polish Citizenship (Journal of Laws 1951 No 4 item 25) and Articles 13, 14 and 15 of the Act of February 15, 1962 on Polish Citizenship (Journal of Laws 1962 No 10 item 49); the Stamp Duty Act of November 16, 2006 (consolidated text, Journal of Laws 2025 item 1154), schedule, Part I item 26. The consular fee and the option of filing by mail come from the information published by the Polish consular offices in the United States, checked in September 2026. Fees and requirements change, so verify them before filing.

Sources

This article is based on the acts listed below. Each link opens the text published by the Polish government, checked on September 20, 2026. Acts in force open as a consolidated text; historical acts are marked as such, with the date they stopped applying.

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