Poland proposes tougher rules for foreigners to obtain citizenship

Poland’s interior ministry has presented proposals to toughen the rules for foreigners to obtain Polish citizenship. The new measures would increase the minimum residency period from three to eight years and require applicants to take a test proving they are integrated and sign a declaration of loyalty.

“Being a citizen of Poland is a privilege, but also an obligation towards the state and the community,” wrote the ministry, presenting the new plans. “Polish citizenship is more than just a document; it is a sense of belonging to a community based on values.”

Its proposals come after opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki last week presented his own bill to parliament intended to make it harder for foreigners to obtain citizenship. The interior ministry has invited Nawrocki to discuss their respective proposals later this month.

Poland has over the last decade experienced levels of immigration unprecedented in the country’s history and among the highest in the European Union. For six years running between 2017 and 2022 Poland issued more first residence permits to immigrants from outside the EU than any other member state.

One consequence has been a growing number of foreigners receiving Polish citizenship, which was granted to a record 16,342 people last year, four times more than a decade earlier.

However, that has prompted a growing backlash, including large-scale anti-immigration protests, prompting the government to last year introduce a tough new immigration policy. Nawrocki, meanwhile, won the presidency this year after a campaign promising to put “Poles first”, ahead of immigrants.

On Friday, the interior ministry presented plans for how to toughen the requirements to obtain citizenship. One element would be tests not only assessing proficiency in the Polish language (which is already done) but also immigrants’ “level of integration”, including “knowledge of Polish values, principles, law, and history”.

They would also be required to sign an oath of loyalty to the Polish state.

“The process of granting citizenship…should protect the [existing] citizens of our country and guarantee that those who obtain it are properly integrated,” said deputy interior minister Magdalena Roguska.

Those seeking citizenship must demonstrate that “they have the centre of their lives here, respecting and understanding our culture, traditions, and language, and [that they] are loyal to our country”.

Under current rules, applicants for citizenship must have at least three years of permanent residency in Poland (although that period is shorter in certain circumstances).

The interior ministry’s new proposals would extend that timeframe to eight years of residency (three temporary and five permanent). There would be shorter requirements for so-called “repatriants” or holders of the Pole’s Card, categories that relate to ethnic Poles in former Soviet states.

The ministry also wants all of the new measures to apply not only to people who go through the normal application route, but also to those who take the option of applying directly to the president, who currently has discretion to issue citizenship without the usual criteria.

Last week, Nawrocki submitted his own bill that would raise the residency requirement to ten years. He argued that the current three-year requirement “is one of the shortest in the EU” and that a longer period is needed to “create conditions conducive to fuller integration of foreigners before granting them Polish citizenship”.

In its announcement today, the interior ministry said that it will organise a debate on its citizenship proposals on 27 October, with the aim of “gaining broad support for the proposed changes and avoiding politicising” the issue. It has invited Nawrocki to the event.

In order for any new citizenship bill to pass, it would require both the approval of parliament, where the government has a majority, and the signature of Nawrocki, who is aligned with the right-wing opposition.