Poland in Canada

You can file an application to issue a temporary passport for a child with any Republic of Poland consular office you choose. Remember that you must collect the document in the same office in which you filed the application.

An application to issue a temporary passport for a child is filed personally by:

• the mother and the father or, respectively, a legal caretaker or court-appointed guardian, or
• one of the parents or legal caretakers appointed by the court or the court appointed-guardian, provided that they produce:

1. a written consent of the other parent to issue a passport for the child, which contains a confirmation of the parent’s signature by the passport authority (regional governor or consul); the parent may also grant their consent to issue a passport for the child by sending to the consular office’s Electronic Inbox [insert the inbox address here] a letter granting the consent and signed with a qualified electronic signature, trusted signature or personal signature;
   The consent should contain:

1) the name(s), surname, PESEL number, if assigned, and if there is no PESEL number, the date of birth and series and number of a valid document confirming the identity of the consenting parent;
2) the name(s), surname, PESEL number, if assigned, and if there is no PESEL number, the date of birth of the minor on whose behalf an application to issue a passport document is made;

2. a final decision of the court demonstrating that the other parent is not entitled to decide on whether the child is to be issued a passport;
3. a final decision of the family court in which the court grants consent for a passport to be issued to the child without the consent of the other parent;
4. a full copy of the Polish birth certificate demonstrating that the child’s father is unknown (no acknowledgement of paternity or court paternity testing);
5. a copy of the death certificate of the other parent.     

IMPORTANT! A child over 5 years of age must be present when an application for a temporary passport is filed.
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You can make an appointment to file a temporary passport application through the e-konsulat system. As a rule, it is not possible to make a passport appointment by phone. In cases of hardship and urgency caused by random events (such as death of a family member, sudden illness, theft or loss of documents while staying in another country) contact the nearest consulate by sending an e-mail to describe your situation and attach supporting documents. Remember to state your name, surname, place of residence/stay abroad and phone number in the email.

IMPORTANT!  Parents no longer fill out a handwritten application.
You can file an application to issue a temporary passport for a child with a consul in electronic form during a passport visit. A consular employee will file your application using an electronic form and the parents need to confirm that the child’s details are correct by placing their signatures on a dedicated device (signature pad).

• A colour biometric photograph of the child – check what does the photograph have to look like.
  Filing the photograph together with the application is mandatory. You cannot replace the photograph or send it later. If no photograph was attached to your application or the photograph does not comply with requirements, the consul will notify you that your application has been rejected.
• A valid passport document or valid identity card (if issued) confirming the identity and Polish citizenship of the child.
• Valid passport documents or valid identity cards of the parents.
• A full or abbreviated copy of the Polish birth certificate, if the child does not have a PESEL number assigned.

If the application is filed by a legal caretaker or court-appointed guardian, court-issued documents that confirm an entitlement to make an application on behalf of the child should be produced. 

NOTE: if you apply for a passport and there are justified doubts as to the child’s identity, citizenship or other details required to file a passport application, the consul may ask you to submit necessary documents. 

• The fee for issuing a temporary passport for a child while waiting for a biometric passport to be issued is 22 CAD.
• The fee for issuing a temporary passport for reasons other than waiting for a biometric passport to be issued is 59 CAD.
  NOTE: If a temporary passport is issued, reduced fees do not apply (such fees are only applicable to issuing a biometric passport).
• Fees are collected at the cash desk of the consular office when you file the application. The fee is collected in cash, money order, certified bank check (credit cards, debit cards or personal checks are not accepted). Consulate General in Toronto accepts debit and credit cards except American Express.

Remember! If you plan your child to travel abroad using a temporary passport, check the current regulations defining the rules of entrance and stay on the territory of that country. Make sure that your child can cross the border using a temporary passport and for how long it remains valid (when entering and leaving). 

You will receive a child’s temporary passport as soon as possible.

A child’s temporary passport can be collected by either parent (and the legal caretaker or the court-appointed guardian) personally in the office in which the application has been filed.

On the date of collecting the new document, bring the child’s previous passport (or temporary passport) to the consular office – the former passport document will be voided, except for pages containing valid visas, and returned to you.

IMPORTANT! In justified cases, especially when travel to the consular office is particularly difficult, the consul may waive the requirement of collecting the passport document personally. Discuss this when you file the passport application. You will have to cover the cost of mailing the passport.

The consul will mail the temporary passport to a specific address you provided by a mail operator or carrier, taking into account the security of the dispatched document. Your former passport will be voided before the consul has sent a new one.

If you receive a passport document by mail, YOU NEED TO ACTIVATE THE PASSPORT ON YOUR OWN using a dedicated electronic service. In order to activate the passport, you need Internet access, the number of your new passport and the application number (which can be found in the confirmation of filing a passport application).
Consider that you can no longer change the method of collecting the passport from personal to courier once the application has been approved during your visit to the consulate.

Does not apply.

Can I receive a temporary passport?
A temporary passport is issued solely in specific cases. Such passport document can be issued to persons:

• staying outside the territory of the Republic of Poland (if they so wish and file an application for such document to be issued);
• whose fingerprints cannot be physically taken, if this obstacle is temporary;
• in urgent situations:

- to return to the place of residence,
- related to illness,
- related to illness or burial of a family member,
- related to professional activities,
- related to compulsory education of persons who do not have capacity for legal transactions or have limited capacity for legal transactions and are under 18 years of age, to the development of their individual skills, or to provide care to such persons, if necessary;

• staying outside the borders of the Republic of Poland, if they have not been assigned a PESEL number, in particularly justified cases, if circumstances prevent or considerably hinder assigning the PESEL number and issuing a temporary passport is necessary due to the protection of material rights and interests of the person who is to be issued the temporary passport.

I lost my child’s passport. What do I have to do?
If you lost a child’s passport, you need to notify the passport authority (the consul if you are abroad) of this immediately.

Filing a passport loss notice with the consulate means that your document loses its validity as of the date of notifying the consul about passport loss.

You do not need to notify passport loss personally in the consulate if you have a trusted profile, qualified certificate or e-identify card. In such cases, you can notify the loss or damage of your passport document eithee in writing using an electronic form or online via the provided electronic service. 

In addition, you can also notify the loss of a passport document by means of a written letter with a signature certified as your own by a notary.

Remember! If you find the passport whose loss you have notified to the consulate, you should immediately return the document to the passport authority (the consul if you are abroad).