Parliament of RP amended Polish Charter

Decision about the benefits in cash for those who claimed for the permanent residence and who have had a Polish Charter, will be given not by the starosts but by voivodes- assumes the amend made on Tuesday evening by the Parliament Polish Charter.

According to the head of LPG (The Commission of Connecting with Poles Abroad) Michał Dworczyk (PiS), the act of passing this authorisation to voivodes results from the fact that they (voivodes) are making decisions on the permanent residence. Dworczyk claims that this change will cause improvement of the process of granting benefits.

436 MPs was for the amend of the Polish Charter, no one was against this idea, one person abstained from voting.

Earlier, before the Tuesday debate, representatives of all parliamentary caucuses declared their support for the project amend. However, MP of the PO party, Joanna Fabisiak, was criticising some bequests of this project, she pointed out for instance, that the amount of money provided for 2017 and earmarked for the Polish Charter owners’ benefits that want to settle down in Poland are too low. But, Kukiz’15 club demanded the reinforcement of controlling of granting those benefits.

The Polish Charter amend project and the foreigners’ bill has been prepared by the commission of connecting with Poles abroad.

At the beginning of September the amend of Polish Charter entered into force, it aims to make easier for its owners to settle down in Poland and seek citizenship. According to the Ministry of Interior and Administration’s estimates, amend of the Polish Charter may cause several of dozens of thousands Poles from the East to come back to their country.

The owners of Polish Charter that come to Poland with intention to settle down, will get a Permanent Residence Card for free, after a year they will be given Polish citizenship, and meanwhile they can count on some help during the adaptation period- for example, they can claim for benefits in cash for covering the costs of managing and current livelihood for 9 months, bailout to flat renting, intense learning of Polish or for vocational training. The program is to start in 2017.

The Polish Charter witnesseth the membership to the Polish nation. It is granted to people with Polish heritage who are living in 15 countries abroad on the East, which were formed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, that do not accept double citizenship.

People seeking the Polish Charter have to prove their bound to Polishness- this includes at least minor knowledge of language, prove that one of parents or grandparents or both great-grand parents had Polish citizenship. It is also possible to show the confirmation from a Polonia organisation about Polish cultural and language activity.