Descendants of Polish Women Married to a Foreigner before 1951 May Qualify for Polish Citizenship

There has been a lot of misinformation circulating for decades about the requirements to obtain Polish Citizenship by descent. This misinformation began to be disseminated by the Polish embassy in Argentina through an information pamphlet that can be seen below. Since the information came directly from the Polish embassy, this myth took root firmly in the minds of Polish citizenship managers for more than twenty years and deprived thousands of families of obtaining the Polish citizenship that was rightfully theirs.

Today I am going to correct that misinformation forcefully so that all people who were ever denied the opportunity to present their case to obtain their Polish citizenship have the opportunity to do so.

You have no chance to apply for Polish citizenship because a Polish woman married a foreigner before 1951. It is the infamous phrase that the managers said, and it is based on point 2 of the embassy's information brochure:

The disinformation is based on Article 10 of the Polish Citizenship Law of 1920.

Spanish translation of Article 10.

Article 10. A Polish citizen who, having married a foreigner, has lost Polish citizenship, regains it if she submits the relevant application at an administrative office in the place of her residence when her marriage ends and she settles in Poland.

You can find the original article 10 in Polish TOAC.

The misinterpretation of the law is that any woman who married a foreigner (non-Polish) before 1951 automatically loses Polish Citizenship. This is completely false.

The old Polish Citizenship law does not allow a woman to have dual citizenship. So, if according to the legislation of the foreign country, a Polish woman by marrying a citizen of that country acquired her husband's citizenship, then by obtaining foreign citizenship, she lost her Polish citizenship. But the loss of Polish Citizenship is not a direct product of the marriage, it is the product of acquiring the Citizenship of the husband.

There are few countries where this happened and each particular case must be analyzed to see if the woman really acquired her husband's citizenship. There are cases that if the couple married outside the man's native country, for example if they were married in Argentina, the husband's country did not recognize the marriage, and therefore the woman did not acquire the husband's citizenship.

Example where the woman does lose Polish Citizenship: According to Italian law, a Polish woman who married an Italian in 1947 acquires her husband's Italian citizenship. For Poland he loses Polish Citizenship. In this case, perhaps you can apply for Italian Citizenship, you can consult HERE.

Example where the woman DOES NOT lose Polish Citizenship: According to Argentine legislation, citizenship is not acquired through marriage, so women maintained Polish Citizenship even if they married an Argentinean before 1951.

A woman who married an Argentinian man did NOT acquire Argentine citizenship and therefore did NOT lose Polish Citizenship, so her descendants QUALIFY for Polish citizenship.

Here at My Polish Passport we receive rejected cases like this every day. People are amazed when we tell them that they definitely qualify for Polish Citizenship. We have helped clients who cry tears of happiness when they obtain Polish Citizenship because they finally got what was rightfully theirs, twenty years after the first attempt.

We are extremely confident in the correct interpretation of the law. Ask us if you were told you don't qualify because a woman had married a foreigner before 1951. We will take your case and return your 100% money if filing with the Polish government is denied (we have never had a case rejected for this ).