Documents for the Pole's Card: a case with a birth certificate translation

An applicant for the Pole's Card was proving Polish origin through a great-grandmother: he had gathered birth certificates from three generations, an archival statement from the registry office, and an old church birth record. At the interview with the consul it turned out that some of the translations were not formatted the way they are expected here, and the documents were asked to be redone.

Which translation is needed

For the Pole's Card, documents are translated into Polish by a translator the consul recognises: in practice this is a translation by a Polish sworn translator (tłumacz przysięgły) or a translation certified at the consulate itself. A Russian notarised translation may not be accepted by the consul. The format must be clarified with the specific consulate in advance — requirements differ slightly between missions.

Archival and old documents are a separate difficulty. Church records, statements on Soviet-era and pre-revolutionary forms, documents with faded text and barely legible seals require careful work: illegible fragments are marked, obsolete place names are given in both historical and modern form, abbreviations are spelled out. Speed is contraindicated here.

How to prepare

Build the genealogical chain and, for each link, find a document confirming kinship and changes of surname. Obtain duplicate certificates and archival statements from the registry office where originals have been lost. Then order the translation from a translator the consul recognises, consistent in the spelling of surnames across all generations.

Give the names of Polish ancestors in Polish spelling (Jan, not Yan; Wójcik, not Vuytsik), checking against surviving Polish documents if there are any. And book a consultation at the consulate in advance with the list of documents — that saves a trip if something is missing.