An inheritance in Poland while you live abroad

Under Polish law, an estate passes to the heirs at the moment of death. Nothing has to be claimed for that to happen. What does not happen automatically is the proof of it: before you can sell a house, close a bank account, or be entered in a public register as the owner, you need a document that officially states who inherited and in what shares.

Almost everything that follows is about obtaining that document, and then acting on it. For someone living in the United States, the practical question is usually not whether the inheritance is real, but how much of the process requires being physically present in Poland.

Do you need to travel to Poland?

In most cases, no. A lawyer in Poland can act on your behalf under a power of attorney, and the great majority of steps — filing with the court, obtaining civil-status records, corresponding with institutions, registering ownership — do not require you to appear in person.

There is one significant exception, and it drives the choice between the two routes described below. A power of attorney prepared in the United States generally needs to be notarized, then given an apostille, and then translated into Polish by a sworn translator. Poland and the United States are both parties to the Hague Apostille Convention, so this is a routine administrative path rather than a consular one.

Two routes to confirming your rights

Polish law offers two ways to obtain the document that confirms who the heirs are. They lead to the same practical result, but they suit very different situations.

Stwierdzenie nabycia spadku

Court confirmation of acquisition of inheritance. A court decision naming the heirs and their shares. It can be conducted through a representative, so heirs abroad generally do not need to attend. It is the route used when heirs cannot easily gather in one place, when someone cannot be located, or when the succession is disputed.

Akt poświadczenia dziedziczenia

Notarial deed of certification of succession. Prepared by a Polish notary and usually much faster than court. Its constraint is decisive for families spread across countries: as a rule, all heirs must appear before the same notary at the same time. It is also unavailable where the succession is contested.

For a family with members in Chicago, Warsaw, and London, the notarial route is often impractical for that reason alone, and the court route — slower but manageable from a distance — becomes the realistic option. Where all heirs can be represented and are in agreement, the notarial path can still be worth examining.

The documents that matter

You do not need a complete file to begin. It is usually enough to describe the situation and send what you already have; missing records can often be retrieved from Polish registry offices and archives.

The records that typically matter are:

the death certificate of the person who died
civil-status records establishing your relationship — birth, marriage, and where relevant death certificates for the intervening generations
a will, if one exists, in any form you have it
anything identifying the assets: an address, a land register number, a bank, old deeds or correspondence

Two complications are common in Polish-American families and neither is unusual. Names are often recorded differently across generations — a name Americanized on arrival, or a Polish spelling with diacritics dropped. And records held in Poland may predate borders that no longer exist. Both are ordinary problems with established solutions; they affect the time a matter takes rather than whether it can be done.

Deadlines worth knowing early

Most of Polish inheritance procedure is not urgent. Two points are time-sensitive enough that they are worth raising at the start rather than discovering later.

If you may not want the inheritance

An estate can include debts as well as assets. Polish law sets a period, running from the day an heir learns of their entitlement, within which an inheritance can be rejected. Since a change in the law taking effect in 2015, an heir who simply does nothing is generally treated as accepting the estate with the benefit of inventory, which limits liability to the value of what was inherited rather than exposing personal assets without limit. This is a meaningful protection, but it is not a reason to leave the question unexamined — if you have any indication that the estate carries debt, it is worth raising immediately.

Inheritance tax

Poland's inheritance and gift tax includes a full exemption for the closest family — spouse, children and further descendants, parents and further ascendants, siblings, and stepchildren. The exemption is not automatic. It depends on filing a declaration with the tax office within a period set by law, and the entitlement is lost if that filing is missed. This is the single most common avoidable cost we see in matters that reach us late.

The short version

You inherit at the moment of death; what you need is the document proving it.
Most steps can be handled from the United States through a representative.
The court route works when heirs are spread out; the notarial route is faster but generally requires every heir before the same notary at once.
A power of attorney from the US needs notarization, an apostille, and a sworn Polish translation.
Two deadlines matter: rejecting an unwanted inheritance, and filing for the family exemption from inheritance tax.
Incomplete documents are normal and rarely a barrier.

What happens after the confirmation

If you are the only heir, the confirmation is usually close to the end of the matter. Where there are several heirs, it establishes that you jointly own the estate in defined shares — not who takes which asset.

Dividing it is a separate step, dział spadku, done either by agreement among the heirs or, where agreement is not reached, by the court. Where the estate includes real estate, a further step follows: entering the new ownership in the księga wieczysta, Poland's land and mortgage register. Until that entry is made, the register still shows the deceased as owner, and a sale cannot proceed normally.

This last point is the reason we suggest not postponing a matter that includes property. Each generation that passes without the register being updated adds heirs, and a case that involved three people can involve fifteen a decade later.

This article is general information about Polish law, not legal advice about your situation. Time limits, tax treatment, and the documents required depend on individual circumstances and on the law in force at the relevant time. If you would like to know how this applies to your matter, describe it to us and we will tell you whether and how we can help.