Trouble in Poland!?

Question

So I think I got myself into quite a bit of trouble here. I came to Poland last year in late August to study medicine. Prior to moving to Poland, I have heard that there is a bilateral visa waiver agreement between Poland and the United States. As a result, I didn't feed the need to apply for a student visa as long as I leave Poland every 90 days. I entered the country using my US passport without any student visa. During my 1st school year, I have managed to leave Poland to Berlin three times, with my recent trip being on 5/30. I am planning to leave Poland/ Europe from Warsaw for the summer around mid-July. However, I am starting to get cold feet. The reason being that I only have receipts from two of my trips to Berlin (May and November last year), but not the one in late December of last year. I have called the Polish Immigration office and they said I should be fine. I have also called the Polish border guards regarding this matter. They told me that my receipts for my recent trip to Berlin is good, but it would be better if I have receipts for all trips. My questions is that do you guys think I should just stay in Poland and apply for a temporary residence card? Or should I just risk it and leave Poland during mid-July? These are the documents that I will be bringing to the airport: passport, receipts from two of my Berlin trips, acceptance letter, certificate of enrollment 1st year and 2nd year, tuition receipt, bank statement, insurance card, student ID card.

Answer 1

I think something doesn't quite add up here, are you sure you're not making it up as you go...?



Firstly, the visa-waiver program (VWP) only works for citizens of certain countries to enter the USA. Poland is not even on that list of participating countries, so you're wrong straight off the blocks.



Secondly, US citizens can enter Poland (or the whole Schengen area) for 90 days in any 180 day period without a visa. Going out (even if you actually went out of the Schengen area, which going to Berlin does not qualify!) every 90 days for a short while and returning for another 90 days is straight away a visa violation.



Thirdly, 'receipts for trips' is hardly proof of having left the country. And given that there are no border controls within the Schengen area, you couldn't get your passport stamped with exit and entry stamps even if you wanted to.



Fourthly, I very much doubt that the Polish immigration or border control authorities would say things are 'fine' when you call them. Things clearly are not fine, and even if they were they wouldn't say so on the phone without getting more details first. Besides, I'm assuming you didn't record those phone calls, so how would you ever prove that someone said that to you?



Fifthly, I don't believe your university would have allowed you to enrol without checking your visa status, as they are likely to get major sanctions for allowing illegal students to study there.



Sixthly, if you're so dumb that you are basing your study arrangements on hear-say about some vague visa-waiver arrangement without bothering to look into it a bit more, let alone without realising that such waivers are obviously only ever intended for short leisure or business visits and not for staying for years on end, then I'm pretty sure you're not clever enough to have been accepted into any medical school anywhere!



Ergo, the whole story is clearly BS.

Answer 2

Didn't your school require you to get a student visa before excepting you?

I find that hard to believe they didn't.

I also do not think you will get a resident visa now that you messed up so badly. I have one in Hungary but even in my case, being married for 40 years to a citizen of Hungary being a mother of a citizen, owning property in HU and having funds and income from the US I was still given 90 days to leave the EU because of applying in HU and not applying before I arrived here. It finally worked out in my favor but it was costly and stressful for several months with the mixed up paperwork.

I would stay put if I were you and try to fix this mess before getting deported from another EU country and losing your belongings etc. that are in Poland.

Go to a counselor at your school or into the nearest embassy, or even better yet call the Polish embassy in the US and ask what you can do to fix this before you are deported and unable to return to Poland or the EU for years to come.

Good luck, this is a mess.Again, contact the Polish embassy because they are the only ones to issue you a student visa to their country.

Answer 3

Um... what? How did you manage to do this? Poland is part of the Schengen Area, and so is Germany. The current restrictions are that a US citizen can stay within the Schengen Area for 90 days out of a 180 day period as a tourist. http://poland.usembassy.gov/poland/visa_requirements.html So therefore going to Germany does you absolutely no good in terms of "resetting" your status. Also, as mentioned above, if you stay in Schengen for 90 days and leave... you have to stay out of it for 90 more days before coming back in. It's not a "touch foot outside for one day and hop back in" sort of arrangement.



I'm very confused. The only thing I can think of is that you've just gotten extremely lucky and nobody's looked at your passport very hard, because to my understanding of the Schengen visa rules, you're basically an illegal immigrant at this point.



I would get in contact with the American consulate to see what your options are. If my understanding of this situation is correct, you're in quite a spot and can get in a LOT of trouble for this. Why didn't you get a student visa, or at least do research on what you needed to do in order to be in Poland legally?

Answer 4

Yea you should pay a visit to the American embassy asap. You're an illegal alien.