A Polish passport ( pl, paszport) is an international

travel document A travel document is an identity document issued by a government or international entity pursuant to international agreements to enable individuals to clear border control measures. Travel documents usually assure other governments that the beare ...

issued to nationals of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, and may also serve as proof of

Polish citizenship Polish nationality law is based primarily on the principle of jus sanguinis. Children born to at least one Polish parent acquire Polish citizenship irrespective of place of birth. Besides other things, Polish citizenship entitles the person to ...

. Besides enabling the bearer to travel internationally and serving as indication of Polish citizenship, the passport facilitates the process of securing assistance from Polish consular officials abroad or other European Union member states in case a Polish consular is absent, if needed. Every Polish citizen is also a citizen of the European Union. The passport, along with the national identity card allows for free rights of movement and residence in any of the states of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

and Switzerland. According to the 2022 edition of the

Henley Passport Index The Henley Passport Index ( abbreviation: HPI) is a global ranking of countries according to the travel freedom enjoyed by the holders of that country's ordinary passport for its citizens. It started in 2006 as Henley & Partners Visa Restricti ...

, Polish passport allows

visa-free travel A visa (from the Latin ''charta visa'', meaning "paper that has been seen") is a conditional authorization granted by a polity to a foreigner that allows them to enter, remain within, or leave its territory. Visas typically include limits on t ...

to 182 countries and, together with Lithuania and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

, ranks as the 10th most powerful in terms of travel freedom.

Issuance and validity

The passports are issued by the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

and applications are filed at

voivodeship A voivodeship is the area administered by a voivode (Governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval ...

offices which have a passport office. Passports issued since mid-2006 are of a biometric variety, and valid for ten years. The blue cover passports issued up until 2001 and burgundy-cover passports (issued up until 2006) remain valid until their stated expiry dates, however their lack of biometric features inherently means that they have slightly different visa restrictions for travel abroad as they are considered to have insufficient security features by some nations, such as

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

(allows visa-free access only for Polish citizens in possession of a biometric passport). Full Polish passports are issued for a period of ten years, whilst those issued to minors are valid up to an initial maximum of five years. Holders of passports issued before 13 April 1993 who seek to renew their passports require the additional document "Confirmation of Polish Citizenship" issued by their local provincial authority. Temporary passports are issued for a period of one year.

Previous passport designs

Second Polish Republic

The Polish passport from today is much different from those that appeared after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, following the creation of the Second Polish Republic. The first such passports began to appear around 1918 and were of simple paper, design and quality. These lasted until around 1929 when hard covered blue-jacket passports were designed and printed on good quality watermarked paper. These blue passports were used through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and were continued to be issued to Polish refugees after the war from Polish consulates in foreign countries until at least 1947.

Communist era

During the communist

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million ne ...

(PRL) era, another design was adopted around 1952 consisting of the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

, French and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

languages. In addition during this period, the crown of the Polish white eagle was absent from the emblem on the passport cover. Until October 1956, in practice, it was only possible to obtain a passport for a business trip. Regarding the passport application, issued only by a '' Biuro Paszportów'' ( pl) under the Ministry of Public Security, you had to obtain 12 hard to get attachments. The effect of the rigorous passport policy was the practical disappearance of tourist travel from Poland: in 1938 citizens leaving the country for tourist purposes numbered approximately 90 thousand; there were only 181 such people in 1950, not counting party, union and industry delegations, mainly to socialist countries. After 1956, trips abroad became easier; travel agencies such as Orbis were created to organise trips (80% of which was to the countries of "folk democracy"), and on the Polish-Czechoslovak border a tourist convention began to apply, facilitating movement in the mountains. However, an individual trip was still legeally possible only by invitation. At that time, there were two types of passports: individual and collective. In the case of people travelling on collective passports, a special tour guide was available. Before each trip, you had to complete the application and go to a ''Biuro Paszportów'' attached to a local command of the ''

Milicja Obywatelska Milicja Obywatelska (), in English known as the Citizens' Militia and commonly abbreviated to MO, was the national police organization of the Polish People's Republic. It was established on 7 October 1944 by the Polish Committee of National Libera ...

''. Upon arrival, the passport had to be returned to the same place. Later (until 1972) the so-called "passport inserts" enabled travel to European Eastern Bloc countries, which had to be attached to the PRL

internal passport An internal passport or a domestic passport is an identity document. Uses for internal passports have included restricting citizens of a subdivided state to employment in their own area (preventing their migration to richer cities or regions), cle ...

. Initially, they were single use; with time they began to be spent on multiple trips, generally from 1973 with a validity of five years. From 1972, thanks to an agreement with

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, it was possible to go to the latter country only on the basis of a stamp embedded in the ID card issued by any ''Milicja Obywatelska'' command. This resulted in a massive increase in trips to this country from 200,000 in 1971 to 9.5 million a year later. In January 1977, similar regulations were in force for trips to

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

Czechoslovak Czechoslovak may refer to: *A demonym or adjective pertaining to Czechoslovakia (1918–93) **First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38) **Second Czechoslovak Republic (1938–39) **Third Czechoslovak Republic (1948–60) **Fourth Czechoslovak Repub ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

, the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

. During martial law era (1981–1983), the stamps expired and were replaced by new passports with a five-year validity period. From 1984, Polish citizens were allowed to keep their own passports. It was not until December 1988 that long-term passports with 10 years validity and valid for all countries were introduced.

Third Polish Republic

After the fall of communism in Poland, the first post-communist passport design was introduced on 1 January 1992, featuring a navy blue cover. This was later followed with a burgundy-cover machine-readable passport design in 2001, which was issued until 2006.

Physical appearance and data contained

The Polish passports issued since 2006 are burgundy, with the words (''EUROPEAN UNION'') and (''REPUBLIC OF POLAND'') inscribed at the top of the front cover. The Polish white eagle is emblazoned in the centre of the cover, and below this the words , "PASSPORT" are to be found. The Polish passport has the standard biometric symbol emblazoned below the final set of text denoting the document as a passport, and uses the standard

design. Diplomatic passports are also burgundy in colour and of essentially the same design, but the French, English and Polish translations of the word 'passport' are replaced with those for 'diplomatic passport'; , "DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT". Temporary passports have the words , "TEMPORARY PASSPORT" on the front cover and contain 16 pages. They do not bear the biometric passport logo. The statement in a Polish passport declares in Polish and English: ::''THE AUTHORITIES OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND HEREBY KINDLY REQUEST ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN TO PROVIDE THE BEARER OF THIS PASSPORT WITH ALL ASSISTANCE THAT MAY BE DEEMED NECESSARY WHILE ABROAD.'' The Polish statement for which is: ::''WŁADZE RZECZYPOSPOLITEJ POLSKIEJ ZWRACAJĄ SIĘ Z UPRZEJMĄ PROŚBĄ DO WSZYSTKICH, KTÓRYCH MOŻE TO DOTYCZYĆ, O OKAZANIE POSIADACZOWI TEGO PASZPORTU WSZELKIEJ POMOCY, JAKA MOŻE OKAZAĆ SIĘ NIEZBĘDNA W CZASIE POBYTU ZA GRANICĄ.''

Biometric data

The biometric passports contain an RFID chip containing the passport's printed data in a digital format along with the photograph in a JPEG format along with a digital key to verify that the data contained is authentic and has not been tampered with. The data in the chip can only be accessed after using the printed codes on the lower part of the passport's personal data page. The

requires

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

data to be stored on the member state's passports at latest in June 2009. Poland already complies with this European act on collecting identity data, and, since 2006, requires passport applicants to provide fingerprint scans and other information relating to facial features when applying for a new passport.

Languages

The data page/information page is printed in

and English, whilst translation of this information into other official

languages of the European Union The European Union (EU) has 24 official languages, of which threeEnglish, French and Germanhave the higher status of "procedural" languages of the European Commission (whereas the European Parliament accepts all official languages as working l ...

can be found elsewhere in the document. The passport also contains two pages reserved for official notifications which are typically only recorded in Polish.

Visa free travel

Visa requirements for Polish citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of

. Polish citizens enjoy freedom of movement in the

and can travel around the EEA as of right. As of January 2022, Polish citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 182 countries and territories, ranking the Polish passport 10th in the world terms of travel freedom according to the

(tied with Lithuanian and Slovak passports). Polish citizens can live and work in any country within the EU, EEA and Switzerland as a result of the right of free movement and residence granted in Article 21 of the EU Treaty.Treaty on the Function of the European Union
(consolidated version)

Gallery of Polish passports

File:1918 Polish consular validation of a passport - very early example from the young Second Republic.jpg, 1918 Polish consular validation of a passport File:1932 Official Polish passport issued by the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw.jpg, 1932 Official Polish passport issued by the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw File:Paszport1934.png, 1934 Polish passport booklet cover of the Second Polish Republic File:Polish service passport used by an employee at the consulate in Germany 1936-1939.jpg, Polish service passport used by an employee at the consulate in Germany 1936–1939 File:1945 post-war Polish passport.jpg, First post-war Polish passport, used in the second half of 1945 File:Wkladka.paszportowa.okladka.jpg, PRL

(also valid for Eastern Bloc) File:Polish passport cover before 1990.jpg, PRL passport's cover (until fall of communism - 1990) File:Polish passport cover before 2001.jpg, Passport cover 1992–2001 File:Paszport okladka.jpg, Passport cover 2001-2006 File:Pl Passport new.jpg, Passport cover 2007 (non-biometric) File:Polska ePaszport.jpg, Biometric passport cover 2006–6 November 2018 File:Polska ePaszport 2019.jpg, Biometric passport cover 6 November 2018-Present

References

{{Passports

European Union passports Identity documents of Poland