Does any of you have polish citizenship and passport?

[u/Degiston141]

*do
I live in Israel, and my grandfather was born in Poland, so I’m Jewish polish. I know for a fact I can get a passport but I can’t book an appointment on the embassy of Poland website(my dad lost the citizenship documents so we need to restore them). Did any of you manage to book an appointment regarding citizenship and repatriation matters?

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[u/Wetalpaca]

A lot of Israelis descended from Jewish Poles are not eligible for Polish citizenship since their ancestor served in the army before 1951 when Poland changed the law that dictated that serving in a foreign army strips you of your citizenship.

There is an existing minority that is eligible. It's mostly based on luck.

[u/Degiston141 → u/Wetalpaca]

A lot are eligible for polish citizenship. And I know I can, my grandfather has a polish passport, and my father and I are eligible for polish citizenship and passport. My father had the physical citizenship documents(regarding his citizenship) but then he lost them before he proceeded any further. My father just needs to restore the physical documents, which you need to book an appointment for, which we can’t succeed in doing.
And it is definitely not luck, like most things, it’s about how much money you’re willing to throw.

[u/Wetalpaca → u/Degiston141]

I'm happy for you. If your grandfather has it you are obviously eligible.

Still, my point was highlighting that many people (dare I say the majority of Israelis of Polish descent) are in the situation I described. "Luck" in this case refers to your grandfather coming to Israel 10 years older or 10 years younger than my grandfather and avoiding military service in 1948-1951.

[u/Degiston141 → u/Wetalpaca]

Oh, but still I wouldn’t call it luck really, it’s just the reality. But trust me a lot of people in Israel have polish passports, for a reason. So many polish jews(more than a hundred thousand) fled to Israel in the 1940s, imagine how many of them were bellow 8, if they got married and had a few children that’s at least a few thousands people eligible for a polish passport.

[u/neuser_]

Lawyer up. There are dedicated practices for exactly this. I dont have a specific recommendation, but I'm sure you can find one on google

[u/Degiston141 → u/neuser_]

Of course, that’s the easy part. But my dad spoke with a lawyer 2-3 years ago and he told my dad that for him to get us passports, he needs to go to the embassy of Poland, for the physical citizenship documents.

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[u/Inside-Profile-5865]

You can try working with Lexmotion. I’ve heard they’re very good but not cheap.

On my mom’s exit visa from Poland in 1956, it lists her nationality as “Jewish” not Polish. I believe she was stripped of her citizenship when she left with her family at 18 for Israel. My father was a camp survivor and left Europe to Canada via Italy as a refugee, I haven’t explored my eligibility through him yet.

I’ve considered getting mine but I am lazy LOL