How I moved to the EU: legalization, language, housing and work

The article describes my personal experience. I will tell you how I made the move from $ 1000 in my pocket, how much I earned on my first job, how I discovered the IP and how much tax I am paying now.
Prices are subject to the course: 1 USD = 3.3 PLN

Opole at night, Poland. Photo: Paweł Uchorczak

About 5 years ago, I began to receive information from my friends, which can be quite quickly (within 3-6 months) and without much difficulty legalized in the European Union. I was rather skeptical about this idea, but as time went on, the information flow intensified: it suddenly turned out that even my distant relative had already been a year since I had a permanent residence in a neighboring country.

I was born in Brest (Belarus), on the border with the EU, and going on a weekend shopping in Poland is quite a normal practice for our city. However, in this case it was not about tourism, but quite normal life with the opportunity to legally work and live in Poland with the prospect of getting a passport for 2 years.

After a preliminary collection of information, it became clear that we are talking about the Map of the Pole (hereinafter - KP). My ardor quickly cooled down when it turned out that to obtain it was necessary:

1. know Polish at a conversational level;
2. know the Polish history;
3. have Polish roots: either one of the parents or one of the grandparents or two great-grandparents must have Polish citizenship.

Conditions may be somewhat different, but in my case it was just that.

The fact is that before 1939, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine were part of Poland, and, according to unofficial data, up to 1.2 million Poles can live on the territory of modern Belarus, and up to 2 million on the territory of Ukraine . prompted me to write an article, since Habr can read quite a lot of people from these territories.

Legalization, part one

I did not have documents in my hands confirming my Polish roots. From the thematic forums, it became clear that there is no need for direct confirmation of the roots: rather indirect. In my case it was like this: I managed to find a document confirming that my great-grandfather and great-grandmother were on the voting lists in the Sejm. Since only citizens of Poland could vote, respectively, they also had citizenship. Further I found certificates / birth certificates that confirmed my relationship with these people. This was enough to proceed to the next step.

Language learning

There is a prejudice that you can immediately start speaking in Polish, or at least understand what is being said to you. Unfortunately, this is not the case, even if you speak Belarusian / Ukrainian well, but at the same time you meet Polish for the first time. If you do not believe me, try to immediately understand what they say on the Polish radio.

I came across a good teacher who in a short time gave the basics of the language. In Russian, there was only the first informational meeting, and then - immediately into battle, all in Polish. The first few sessions were difficult, but then things went easier and without much discomfort. In total there were about 30 lessons, one lesson per week (1.5 hours), plus about 1-1.5 hours needed to be spent on homework. In addition to this, listened to podcasts for beginners.

History study

This was a problem, since there is no official information on what exactly you need to know. In the exam, the range in questions can be hundreds of years. And try to learn exactly what you need. Most of the information from the history received from the teacher at the stage of learning the language. The rest of the information had to be searched on thematic forums, where people shared their personal experiences. One of the members of the forum shared his story as an examiner (he is also a consul), taking out a thick folder with new questions on history, pronounced: well, I have questions that are not exactly on your forum.

Exam

To get to the exam, you need to call the Polish consulate and arrange a meeting. There were several problems:

1. need to call in person;
2. telephone conversation, as well as the subsequent exam - only in Polish.

It turned out that calling the consulate was almost the most difficult action in this process. The problem is that there are a lot of callers, and at that time there was only one telephone number. I had to buy several Android phones, on which I turned on the speakerphone and automatic dialing. In this way, I could go about my business and at the edge of my ear to hear if there were any long beeps instead of short ones. It took me two months to dial up the consul.

During the conversation, the person on that side of the wire didn’t like my language level and I was asked to learn some more and call again. Understanding how it threatens, I began to persuade the consular worker to still sign me up in 1-2 months. He promised that I would definitely come back to learning the language. Thank God, I was assigned an appointment, and I waited for day X.

Surprisingly, the exam went pretty quickly and the first time. As soon as I entered the office, the consul took my documents for inspection and offered to tell me a story about myself. I had prepared a text, and from memory I began to slowly retell it. After there were a few questions from the story, after which I heard the cherished words: thank you, you passed the exam.

After passing the exam, you must sign the paper that you consider yourself a Pole and part of the Polish people.

The entire exam was oral and lasted a maximum of 7-8 minutes.

After about three months, I had to visit the consulate again and pick up the plastic itself directly.

The consul will surely ask, why do you need a KP. People give different answers: someone wants to go shopping, someone wants to go to school.

Legalization, part two

KP does not give the right to work and life in Poland. However, at KP, you can get an annual visa, which gives you the opportunity to work in Poland without the need for special permission. Visa is issued for free.

Having KP plus a visa in the passport, it became clear that nothing holds me in place and I am ready for new discoveries. I collected one suitcase of things, closed all the questions, and, having $ 1,000 in my pocket, went to Krakow.

Before departure I booked a flat (one room) for $ 300 per month.

Why chose exactly Krakow? There are quite a few sunny days, and I love cities with beautiful architecture. During the Second World War, Krakow was not particularly destroyed (unlike, for example, from Warsaw), and now it is one of the largest tourist cities in Eastern Europe.

At KP, you can buy a train ticket with a discount of 37%. When buying a ticket just need to say that you need a discount ticket, the basis of benefits - KP. When you buy a ticket, you do not need to show the card, but you will have to show it to the controller on the train along with the ticket.

First job search

I arrived in Krakow on Thursday, and on Friday I began to actively send out resumes. I advise you to go immediately to the website pracuj.pl, because it is there that the largest number of current offers are located. This site works very simply: in the first field you indicate the position you are applying for, in the second field your city (or locality) where you want to work. After you need to respond to the position that interests you, and if you are interested in the employer, he will call you back.

When I left Belarus, I took a set of working clothes with me. What for? Yes, I just had no idea if I could find a job in my profile (PHP Developer), and was ready for physical labor.

However, I decided to first try to find a job as a programmer, since I already had work experience for hire (about 10 months), plus several years of freelancing.

On Friday, I responded to approximately 50 offers, and calls began on Monday. Honestly, I felt very uncomfortable, because it was my first independent contact with people in a foreign country, and talking on the phone is doubly more difficult than face to face. From what I was told on the phone, I understood a maximum of half. However, we somehow managed to negotiate, and from my 50 responses I received about 5 invitations for an interview. Of these, in turn, received one offer.

The company, in which I later started working, after the interview offered me $ 600 net (I asked for $ 1200). I said that I would think about it, and went to the next interview. A few days later I was called back asking what I thought about their offer. I replied that I needed at least $ 900, what would be what to live. After a while they called me back and told me that they were ready to pay me the money. A few days later I went to work.

About 10 days passed from arrival to entering my first job. However, after 8 months, our PHP department was disbanded, and I was unemployed.

Search for a second job

The case was similar: first I looked for suggestions on pracuj.pl, after that - a telephone conversation and an interview.

Found a second job within 2 weeks, the rate is $ 1,800 per month on hand. In this company, I got a very interesting experience: it turns out that if the interview went smoothly, this does not mean that everything will be fine in the process. Dangerous calls began to arrive after a month of work, before the salary. The chief told me that he was not satisfied with my work. The dialogue was about the following:

Operations : Marek, you work too slowly. I ask you to fix and work faster next month.
I : Excuse me, what exactly do you mean?
Operations : Marek, I have no time to explain. Just remember: I'm not happy with you and you should work faster.

Since I am a responsible person, I really did not like this dialogue. As soon as funds were received in my account for the first month of work, I immediately sent an email to the chief, informing me that I wanted to quit, and ask you to tell me what key point I need to bring the project to. Within 30 minutes, he called me back and, apologizing, tried to explain that I misunderstood him: he meant that I needed to provide more often the results of work, and he did not expect me to quickly hit the keys.

He managed to convince me and I continued to work. After a few weeks, it became clear that I would not be able to agree with my boss on work issues (many disputes arose about the architecture of the application, the interpretation of those tasks, etc.) and wrote another letter about the same content as the previous one . The email was sent on Friday after work, and in response the boss suggested two options: either finish the project, or today was the last working day and I can’t go to work on Monday. For my part, the choice fell on the last option.

I worked in this company for less than 2 months.

Legalization, part three

In the presence of KP, you can immediately apply for permanent residence. I did this in Krakow, in the nearest citizenship and migration department. It was necessary to submit: a statement, copies of all the passport villages, 4 photos (like a biometric passport), birth certificate (with translation into Polish), a contract from the place of work and a contract on renting housing.

3 months after the filing, they gave me a permanent residence card with access to the market. KP had to be given away, since you cannot have two cards at the same time

Immediately on the spot, applying for permanent residence, you will be asked to put a special stamp in the passport, thanks to which your stay in the country will be legal if your case is still being considered and the validity of the visa has come to an end. If you decide to leave the country, having this stamp and expired visa in your passport, you will not be able to call back - you will have to get a visa again.

After submission of documents for permanent residence (with KP), you can leave an application for financial assistance in the amount of $ 1,800. I recommend doing this in the new calendar year (in early January), since the budget for this program is limited.

Search for a third job

Through my acquaintances, I learned that a room for rent was rented in Warsaw for $ 180. There was nothing to lose, and within one day made the move. I was looking for a job as described above. It took about 2 weeks to search for a new position, the rate - $ 1800 per month on hands. The employer asked me to open the PI, as in this case the firm saves on taxes.

Opening of IP, accounting, taxes

The SP in Vashava opens one day: it is necessary to bring the completed form to the tax office, and the next day a notification arrives in the mail that it is already possible to work.

You do not need to open any special accounts - a regular personal account in any bank is sufficient, the number of which is subsequently indicated in the contract between the contractor (PI) and the employer.

Accounting can be kept by yourself. However, I did not want to do this on my own, and used the services of an accountant. An accountant costs me $ 45 / month. Once a month I send all my purchases and sales accounts, and in a reply letter I receive quotas for paying taxes. I pay taxes online, which takes no more than 5 minutes per month.

SP can be with VAT and without VAT. I needed to open with VAT. When you negotiate a salary with your employer, you usually operate on a valuable net (without VAT). For example: I want $ XXX net plus VAT.

In addition to VAT (23%), you also need to pay income tax (19%) and the so-called social tax. I don’t know how exactly the social tax is calculated, but it is about 5% of the net amount. Total taxes I pay about 35% (of the total amount, gross).

Taxes can (and should) be optimized. For example, I bought myself a new smartphone for $ 200. This means that it already contains VAT, which equals $ 37 (23%). At the end of the month, I send this purchase invoice to my accountant, and pay taxes less than $ 37.

There are semi-legal ways to refund VAT, but I do not advise using them :)

I recommend opening an account with ING Bank, since this bank has a very convenient application with a clear and intuitive design. Of the documents you need only a valid passport. The account is opened within 30 minutes. The card will arrive in the mail within 8 business days.

Search for housing in Warsaw

After a while, I needed to find a new home (I recommend searching through the olx.pl website). I was limited to a budget of $ 970 / month. The goal is to find a three-room apartment with convenient access to public transport. There are many offers for this money, but all of them are very different in terms of distance from the center, comfort, quadrature, condition, etc. About 10% of landlords do not want to see emigrants among their clients.

After a month of searching, I found a four-room apartment of 109 sq.m. The center can be reached in 25 minutes by bus, which is very good for Warsaw. The price already included all expenses: water, electricity, etc. Since I found an apartment through an intermediary, I had to pay him 50% of the monthly rental price. Plus, in the first month it was necessary to pay double the cost at once - this is a guarantee that I will leave order in the room after myself.

Public transport

Warsaw is divided into two zones in the form of a ring: the first and second (the second includes the first). A monthly ticket costs $ 33 and $ 55 for the first and second zones, respectively. This single ticket can be used in all types of public transport: trams, subways, buses and trains. The exception may be some buses and electric trains at the time when they move away to a considerable distance from the city center.

Transportation is handled by different operators. On a special site you can find detailed statistics. For example, in November 2017, the metro carried about 14 million people, and the entire transport network performed the planned flights by 99.59%.

Personally, I really enjoyed using public transport, as it is cheap and relatively fast. People who live in private houses in the country and work in the center resort to the following scheme: they drive to the nearest free parking (it can be an electric train station that goes through the whole city, or parking near a supermarket), and then to the center get on public transport. To keep the car in the city is quite expensive. For example, a parking space in the center costs from $ 80 to $ 180 / month.

I recommend using the jakdojade.pl application, which will tell you how to get from point A to point B. In the same application you can buy a ticket online.

Refugees

Here I did not meet refugees from Africa, Libya or Syria. Firstly, the state refused to accept them, and secondly, it’s impossible to live on benefits: either you work a lot or you live very poorly. Perhaps this was the reason for the low probability of terrorist attacks on the New Year holidays .

But, there are many immigrants from the countries of the former USSR. The figures are approximately as follows: a million Ukrainians, 100 thousand Belarusians and 10 thousand Chechens. In places of special concentrations of Russian-speaking people, information may be duplicated in Russian.

Search fourth job

It so happened that I and several other people were reduced (we received information about this in one day, with an interval of 5 minutes). Urgently had to look for a new position. By this time, I had a profile on LinkedIn with 1K + contacts (mostly recruiters). I posted a post that I am now unemployed and open to new offers. Among those who responded was an intermediary recruiter who found a suitable position for me. In the process of recruitment, I asked for $ 2,450 for my hands, and under these conditions I was hired. The job search time is 2 weeks.

At the moment I have rested on the salary ceiling, since there is no spoken English and I can work only in firms serving the local market. If you want to earn more in Warsaw (position of PHP Developer), then without English it is unlikely to work.

Citizenship

I have the right to apply for citizenship this year. One of the conditions is language proficiency at level B1. From the previous citizenship is not necessary to give up.

PS If you have any questions - write, and in the comments I will try to answer in as much detail as possible.