How to Get Married in Poland

How to get married in Poland and have a Polish wedding

Finding a Polish lady friend might not be as hard as jumping through the maze at the Polish government offices to actually make your marriage legal.

How to marry a Polish citizen

There are two types of Polish marriages, Polish civil marriage, and Church marriage. If you have a Polish church wedding this is legal. I will explain the Church wedding, as this is more common in Poland.
As with any official or significant event in your life you need to learn to be patient and collect paper. All church documents must be up to date in the last 6 months. All Polish government documents must be up to date in the last 3 months.

Polish Government

1) You need a letter from you Embassy, saying you can get married or they do not have the information regarding this. This is free.

2) You need your birth certificate translated into Polish. You can order a copy of your birth certificate from the Internet. Then you have to go to an official Polish language translator and translate this into Polish. This is about 100 Polish zloty. Or better if you have a Polish Akt Urodzenia then the process goes much easier, and its only 20 Polish zloty. You get his from Urzad Stanu Cywilnego in Polish

3)Then you go to a Polish court with your future wife/husband and partition them to marry a Polish citizen . This will cost about 100 Polish zloty. You will need an official Polish translator if you do not speak the Polish language. This will take about a few months or more in a city and much quicker if you do it in the Polish countryside.

4)At the end of this, you get a piece of paper from the Polish court that says you can marry a Polish citizen. And you take this to the priests. (After you are married by the priest you take another Piece of Paper and bring it to Urzad Stanu Cywilnego, this is some Polish office where you simply register your church marriage. Urzad in Polish is a Polish government office.)

The Catholic Church marriage

1) You need to go to classes over four weeks, these classes are kind of interesting and in Polish, so if you are learning or want to learn Polish, here is your chance and the classes are fun. Your there with a bunch of other Polish couples.

Then you have to meet together as a couple twice with a layperson from the church and each individually once.  After this process, you will get a piece of paper with 7 stamps. You each need this. I think this only cost about 30 Polish złoty and the counseling is actually solid advice, not this crazy media pop psychology you might get in the west.
2) You need your birth certificate and your baptism certificate, you need your confirmation certificate or a letter from your priest back home that says you were confirmed (This is the only document that does not need to be to update).
3) You make an appointment with the main church office in your town with all your papers. They check it.
5)Your future wife’s priest and your priest will need to announce, in her and your church, that you will be married. These announcements occur on three Sundays.
That is it.You are all set for your Polish wedding.
How long does this take? It depends on you. I would say 6 months is good but if you wan to do it in 3 months I think this can be done.

Can you pay anyone to make this go faster? No.
Can I get married in the church without the government paper? Technically yes. But it would not be a legal Polish wedding and I do not know if this done. But in the eyes of the Church, you are married happily ever after.

So what do I need again to get married in Poland?

1) A court decision that says you can marry a Polish person

2) Birth certificate

3) Baptismal certificate

4) Church wedding preparation certificate

Author: Mark Biernat


407 thoughts on “How to Get Married in Poland”

  1. Thank you for the request .But i need one thing more .I’ve got a statment that confirme that my country Kosova does not issue that kind of document .The statment starts with :


    This is to confirm that Martial Status Cerificates,together with British Certificetes are the only documents required to perform a marriage.

    Civil status Department does not issue certificates of capacity to contract marriages.

    The Birth and Marital Status Certificates of Mr.Pajtim Haskaj signed and stamped by the authorized person-Mr.Sami Shatri were issued in Tstog Municipality in accordance with the Rules and Procedures.The aforesaid certificates are valid.

    Why only Poland does not accept this document ,while the other EU states accept it. I’m waiting for you response .

  2. Thank you for the request. But I need one thing more. I’ve got a statement that confirm that my country Kosovo does not issue that kind of document . The statement starts with :

    To whom it may concern:

    This is to confirm that Martial Status certificates,together with Birth certificates are the only documents required to perform a marriage.

    Civil status department does not issue certificates of capacity to contract marriages.

    The Birth and Marital Status Certificates of signed and stamped by the authorized person- were issued in Tstog Municipality in accordance with the Rules and Procedures.The aforesaid certificates are valid.


    1. First you have to spell check and grammar check you comments, like no space after the period, second please do not include you personal information. Sorry I do not know who is writing what and I get a lot of comments.
      OK I think Poland should accept this. This is what they accepted for me. I was a foreigner just like you. And Kosovo is a European country. If they do not accept this there is something else going on. Can you afford a lawyer in Poland? Ask the court directly the next steps. They have to research this. They did for me. They check the state I lived in and where I was born in the USA and the laws that govern marriage. They are not singling you out. I know Poland they are by the book and what is on paper in the law. They are following a procedure. They will not deny you the right to marry a Polish citizen if the marriage is real. You have to have your future wife ask the court directly the next steps. She is Polish and speaks Polish and she has to be your advocate if you can not afford on. Look up the laws in Polish yourself hey are all in the Codex and most likely online. I look up all the legal stuff I need myself and am my own lawyer.
      Also go to the Polish office of foreigner affairs, it is their job to help you. Let me know when you come back from this office and what your girlfriend finds out from the courts and you from the Polish codex.

  3. Is it possible to get married outside of a church? How do people who are not Catholic get married?

    1. Sure civil marriage is the first step for any marriage, that is the marriage license. After that you decide if you want the ceremony in the Church or the public office. Read my post on marriage in Poland and the same rules apply for civil or religious. Let me know if you have any questions.

  4. My Dear Friends
    I wish for all nice evening and especial warm greeting for Mr.Mark Biernat.
    I need some information concerning my marriage with a polish girl, we are in love from 3 years ago and we decided to marry this year, and really I’m very confused from a lot of information which I got from the internet and I need anyone have experience who can provide me with the accurate info that help me.
    In short I knew that for marriage in office I should have the following documents which should be translated into Polish language
    1- paper that prove I’m single and I never married before.
    2- original copy from my birth certification.
    3 copy of passport.
    And I’m already have all above document but my problem that when I will go to Poland I will go with tourist visa “30 days” and I need to know if the above document which I have are enough or there is some document still required, and this duration of my visa 30 days is enough to complete my marriage or not. And if there is any advice for me, anyone help and i will be appreciate any help
    NB: I’m Egyptian Citizen.
    Thanks for all and best Regards.

    1. Marriage in Poland is not super easy. Even for me, I was Polish in family and American and it a lot of running around. You need to get permission for a court. This could take 4 months. You need to be realistic. 30 visa will not do this. Ask your future wife to go to the marriage office and make sure the timming is right. Submitt the papers before you go and when you need to go to court, then vist. Your girlfriend as to lead the charge on this or it will not work, I promise.

      If you have proof of income, and all documents like educational degrees when you appear in front of the court for permission it would not hurt. But I do not think it is needed, the judge just checks marriage laws in Eygpt compared to Poland regarding your age etc and see if you can marry.

      Your visa will be hard as they will require insurance and income even if you are married. I know the Polish courts are not giving visas as easy any more. I am on your side but I want you to have no illusions. You need to make money to live in Poland even if you are married.

      I know it is unfair, but I had to do the same to bring my family to the USA. Just because I was married would not get me a visa. They want to see money. Your girl has to really be proactive with all this.

      1. Thanks Mr.Mark for your quick answer but you still not answer my question, may be I don’t ask it in the proper way, all what I need to know the 30 days of my visa will be enough to take marriage in an office, I mean when I want to marry in office first I should go with my girl to present my papers in the office after this they give time for marriage, in general they give time for marriage more than 30 days or they give time less than 30 days or the 30 days will be enough for them. By the way I have Polish family, my eldest brother he life in Poland and he has his own work and he already became Polish citizen now, but the matter is different between me and him because he moved to Poland from 15 years ago but everything changed now.

        1. Egyptian civil marriage in Poland depends on permission from the Polish court. I want to help you and sorry for the confusion over how to get married in Poland. The basic problem you have is you have no marriage certificate. Without a marriage certificate which is a licence or permission to get married, there can be no marriage civil or religious in Poland. You need a official paper from the marriage office in Poland that says you are legally permitted to marry in Poland.
          Once you have that you can get married the next day I think.
          So if you have a marriage licence, you can get married in a few days.
          The question is do you have this marriage licences?
          If the answer is no. Then you need to take it to the marriage office and apply and wait for your court date, which could be up to six months or even more. Ours was about four months wait once we applied.
          Your bride to be needs to get all this together as they only speak Polish there. In official Polish offices they can not speak English. Believe me I tried. I have a Polish last name and they do not care. It is not about you being from Egypt, it is about the rules. Although I have to say you being from Egypt they might not treat you the same as me. They may make it difficult. At least this is what people say.
          So let your girl handle all the paperwork. Apply for the marriage licence even if you have to do it via mail with signatures etc.
          Then wait for the court date. Once you have an OK from the Polish court, run to the marriage office and get the document you need. Then run get a civil marriage.
          If you have only 30 days do everything before the court date and come to Poland for the court appearance. This is what I would do, but also contact the office of foreigner affair and they can help you and they speak English a bit.

  5. Mr.Marek really I want to thank you from all of my heart, I want to tell you I don’t leave any website in the internet to check about this problem and I discovered something new that this 30 days of waiting depend on the main officer in the USC and we can make the request to reduce the timing of waiting and we would pay around 39 PLN for this request and this man will see the request and the reason,may be he can accept at least to reduce it even 3 days and make it 27 day. Anyway when I read in all offices info about my marriage I found the following:
    1- Translated copy from my birth certification.
    2- passport copy.
    3- translated paper which prove that I have never married before.
    4- Paper which prove that the law of my country don’t prevent me from marrying from polish girl and my government accept this marriage.

    NB: I would like to mention that I have Egyptian friend he went last year to Poland and he married from Polish girl in period of 27 days so there is hope.

    1. Nod, there is always hope. I think the only hard part is the court to approve this. They are seeing more and more marriages from abroad so, maybe it can be done faster. The main thing is the courts are backed up with work. If you can find out from your friend how he did it I would be interested so I could convey this to others. For me, someone who was Polish and American it took time and it was a bit of wait.
      The documents you listed above are correct.

  6. Yes Yes, thank you very much Mr.Mark

  7. My fiance and I want to get married in Turkey then we will move to Poland so my question is:
    What does she need to do, while she only has a bank account?

    1. The reason I your comment disappeared is, I usually delete comments that are not punctuated properly (not using capitals like poland instead of Poland), sorry. I fixed your comment the best I could but still do not understand the question. Can you please rephrase this or elaborate on this.

  8. First of all great site full with information and FAQ about marring a Polish national.

    I have still some doubts though, My Polish fiancee and me are planning to get married and live in Poland (currently we are in Asia). I have been looking all over the web about what would be the visa situation. I read that she has to sing a letter that she will take care of my expenses and be like “financially responsible for me”, but I want to get a job and work.

    Do you know how does that process works? If after submitting marriage documents takes some time till get a job permit? How much time? etc.

    1. You need to get a visa for the country of Poland, and after that you can get a work permit. If you live in Poland it will be faster than if you do it remote. She has to support you 100% or you have to provide income and assets to prove that you and support yourself, either way she is responsible for you if she brings you into Poland. If she is Polish she should go to the Uząd and find the facts out for you. There are a lot of steps and in your case since you are not married and writing remotely, it is better she do the leg work than I about working and living in Poland. When you are married you have to move there to get a visa basically. So when that happens let me know.

  9. I am going to ask that my son (Pakistan national) who was living in Paris fall in love with a Polish woman and he crossed the Border of Poland illegally and captured. Now he is in a Border Detention cell at Poznan City. Can he or that woman with whom he likes to marry can do some thing to release him from Detention Cell and get marriage in Poland.

    1. The good news is nothing bad will happen to him. He will sit in one of these cells and eventually be released. Poland is an EU country and they must operate under EU law. On the other hand, there is no reason why you can justify staying and not getting deported from the EU. He can not get married if he is arrested or deported. In Poland you need a lot of legal documents. I am American and Polish and had a Green Card and now a citizenship and it took me like half a year to get the paper work done, actually more. If he is illegal he will not be granted a marriage licences.
      But the good news is nothing bad will happen to him. The conditions are good in the cells and he will most likely be deported unless he has a smart lawyer and can fingure out an way out of this all.

  10. Hi,
    I am a both Canadian and Polish citizen. I do not have a dowod osobisty or Polish passport. Me and my fiancee (Polish citizen) are planning to have civil marriage in Poland this summer 2013. I am curious if my Canadian passport where it states that I was born in (Slupsk, Poland) would suffice for civil marriage along with my birth certificate from Poland. Any information is greatly appreciated. Thank You.


    1. I think you need a birth certificate and that is it. You should be in the system already. This is what I think you need. You could also just call the Uząd. But I check some Polish government website and they said present your Dowod. However, I do not think that is the law. The law is if you are Polish citizen than you can get married. Even the people who work there do not know this and may tell you different. The issue you is are you the same person on the birth certificate as on your Canadian passport and they will be asking you all kind of questions. So it will not be easy at first. The law I think talks about Polish citizens getting married not a Dowod. I would get the wheel moving now. Basically it is 30 days and you pay something. But if they give you a hard time you might have to get some Polish ID, even if that is not the law in my understanding.

  11. Hello,
    My fiancee and I are getting married in Poland. Neither one of us is a Polish citizen. I have arranged a church and priest. How do I obtain a marriage license, and what else do we need to do? Our birth and baptism certificates are being faxed over to the church.

    1. All you need is a marriage license in hand and that is really it. With it the Church and the government have a treaty which will allow you to have the ceremony. Without it except in rare cases of timing it is not allowed. I recommend you world with someone on the ground in the area you will be married. The court has to approve foreigners being married in Poland. My first step is to go to the Uząd or government office where the marriages take place and they will have a list of things. Mostly birth certificate and IDs and permission from your embassy that you are able to get married legally, all embassies that this letter. You need to work with someone to make this flow unless you are no in Poland and can walk there yourself. You can also contact the office of foreigners in Poland.
      Poland is a beautiful place to get married. I recommend it, there are just a few tricks at the government office.

  12. Can anyone give me some advice my daughter is getting married in Poland they are both British and was born in the UK,
    can they have a church of England wedding?

  13. This information is very useful, but what about when two foreigners, as in my case, Greek citizens, want to make civil marriage in Poland. I know I need to produce a birth certificate and certificate of non-impediment. We need something extra?

    1. If your an EU citizen it is much easier. Basically a certificate of non-impediment and birth certificate.

  14. Hi,

    Very useful information above, just want to check my understanding relating to my individual circumstances.

    I am from the UK, previously un married and bapitised into the church of England. I am marrying a Polish lady who is a baptised and confirmed catholic in the church of the Parish she grew up in, she is also previously unmarried. We both live together in London presently and she has not lived in her local Parish for 10 years. As I understand it we need to:

    1) I need to get a letter from the UK government stating that I have not previously been married.
    2) I need to translate my birth certificate into Polish
    3) We both need to attend a Polish court and ask for permission to marry. I need to bring the documents from 1 & 2. Does my fiance need to bring anything or will these be on reocrd as a Polish citizen? The court then gives us a piece of paper saying I can marry a Polish citizen
    4) We need to get a certificate of attendance for a wedding preparation course translated into polish
    5) We need to bring the wedding prep certificate and the certificate saying I can marry a Polish citizen to the main church office in the town we’ll be married in (szczecin). We also need to bring the translated birth certificate from step 2 and a translated record of my baptism (which I obtain from my local church)
    6)We make arrangements with the specific priest who will marry us, it will not be possible to attaned mass in that church many times/ at all prior to the wedding as we live away. Will this be an issue?
    7) Is it an extra complication that I am anglican, does this require more paperwork?

    Is this about right? What is your point of view on the questions I ask in point 6 & 7. Many thanks in advance,


    1. Hi Tim,

      This is just my personal experience having married a Polish woman in Poland last year.

      1) Yes. A certificate of no impediment from your council /authority. If you can find a translator in Poland and send copies of the documents in advance it is cheaper and easier. You will probably need the translator to attend your meeting with the local authority (usually the local rathaus or town hall) where you register your intent to marry so that they are satisfied that you have understood everything.

      2) Yes.
      3) Not sure if it is a court. As above, we attended the local town centre which is the equivalent of the council or local authority but it might vary region to region.

      4) Yes. This is for the Priest. For us it didn’t have to be a Catholic pre wedding preparation course.

      5) That’s right. Plus as mentioned it is good to have the translator there as well. I recall out translator stamping the documents to say that she was an official translator.

      6) Yes that’s correct. My wife was required to go to confession. We attended mass and also organised a brief dress rehearsal with the Priest in the days leading up to the wedding. Personally I think it is good to try and attend mass even just once in the days leading up to the marriage. This helped me get a better feel for the environment before the wedding. A Polish mass and customs are of course very different to CoE! As you may already be aware, you will have to agree certain things with the Priest before they allow to marry you. We didn’t, but you may wish to have the translator present for the meeting with the church as well, but this may not practical…

      7) The only complication is that you will have to promise that you won’t impede your wife from bringing your children as Catholic rather than CofE. You won’t have to take confession and also can’t take communion at the wedding. Obviously you will have to rely on a favourable priest who will be willing to marry you, but this is becoming more common and I can’t foresee that you will have any problems.

  15. Hello Mark,

    First of all, I would like to thank you for helping so many lovers around. I am sure you are getting alot of wishes.
    I have already read what you have wrote to many. I will rephrase it and in case I miss something, please correct me. I hope you wont have to write longer post for me.
    I am an Indian Citizen with Indian Passport. Me and My fiance are together from 4 years and visiting each from 4 years. This year her parents visited us and and both parents now want us to get married. I dont need citizenship nor I want visa in near future since I have a very good job here. But we want to register our marriage in Poland just in case for future if we want to relocate.

    From what you have wrote: I understand I need-

    1) Birth Certificate (Converted in Polish)
    2) My Passport ( No idea if it is needed to be converted as well)
    3) My Single Status Certificate from Indian Government ( not sure if they issue any)

    I would be going to her for a month in 2-3 months. If could please let me know what other documents would I be requiring.

    My Fiance has told me that if I send all the documents to her plus power of attorney to her for representing me in court. Court will give the permission (Not sure how much correct it is)

    It would be really helpful if you could put some light on it.



    1. Yes that is correct a power of attorney will do and that seems to be all you need. Of course Polish law is complex and who knows at the end of the day what curve ball they will throw at you, but really if you are married, you are married, you do not really even need to registrar it in Poland. But if you intent to live there someday it will help with the paperwork.

  16. Hi, I’m Irish and marrying a Polish man, we decided to get married in Poland. My main concern is can i get married with an English speaking priest? Although this thread has opened my eyes to other problems…
    I love Poland but do not speak the language. Is it possible for it to be done in English?

    1. Yes there are scores of English speaking priests. For example in Krakow the Dominicans run an English language church where we were married. Most of the orders Jesuits and Franciscans etc have English speakers as they are international organizations.

      1. Thanks for such a quick and helpful reply! This forum is excellent!

    2. Tara, I think also if you find a church you like but nobody there speaks English, you can find and English speaking priest and bring him there, most churches will let you do that.

  17. I actually knew an American guy that married a Polish girl and didn’t have the court decision. They eloped and got married in Kiev, then came back to Poland. They had to go to the immigration office and answer some silly questions (separately, and the answers had to match)in order to validate their marriage.

  18. I am getting married in Ireland in a registry office and then we are doing the church
    in Poland, I am wondering what documents I need to translate into Polish.

    1. The Church is flexible and works with you especially in a progressive city like Krakow. Since it is a universal church (rather than a national church) many of the priests and administrators speak and accept English. I believe I just had to show the documents of baptism and confirmation from my church in the USA. Your local parish will have this. I showed the documents to the priest in English and did not have it translated.

  19. Myself and my fiance are from Northern Ireland and would like to get married in Kraków, Poland next June. We would like some advice on how to go about booing the ceremony and getting in touch with an English speaking priest. Any help would be much appreciated!
    Thanks in advance!

  20. I am an American citizen planning to marry a Polish citizen. We are still debating on whether to get married in the US or Poland. If we do get married in Poland, do I need to be present for the entire process? I’m a little lost.

    1. You need to be present for the steps of going to the Urząd and ceremony. I think it does not matter with either country it is where the family and friends are. The steps are similar with maybe one additional hoop to jump though in the Polish system. First make up your mind based on the life and experience of your wedding day you personally would like to have, then worry about the steps.

  21. Hi Mark

    I’m quite grateful that I came across this website.
    I’m from Indonesia and currently in Poland to marry my fiancé who’s a Polish national. All documents are ready in our hands, however his local civil office rejected our registration because I have only one name. It is quite common for Indonesian to have only one name (without surname)

    We have explained to her that on my British college certificate (I was studying in England before) stated Dahlia Dahlia as well as my Polish National visa, but again they refused to adapt that method on the registration system

    Now we are very frustrated and asking other civil office if they can register us on their local office. I am very pessimist and if only there is one certain rule or court decision with the same case as mine that we can hold onto and show the civil office so we can proceed with registration – then that will be very useful

    Thank you for your advise and I look forward to your response.

    Yours sincerely

  22. Myself and my partner both Irish both Catholic have planned to get married in Krakow on the 6th march 2018 we want a church wedding but we are having trouble getting a church as it is lent is it possible to get married during lent

    1. Code of Cannon law does not prohibit marriage during let from my understanding but in most church dioceses they do not perform the ceremony unless someone is pregnant. You will have to talk to the priest in the church. Do you know choose a church yet, And congratulations?

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