Jurisdiction

People of Ukrainian nationality

Judgments of courts:

• Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of September 18, 2025, Case II OSK 1805/24

  The court emphasized that civil status records are official documents and constitute a sufficient basis for finding that the applicant and his ancestors are of Ukrainian nationality. Since the applicant's grandfather and father lived outside Poland on the date the 1951 Citizenship Act entered into force and were of Ukrainian nationality, Article 4(2) of that Act applied to them.

  The fact that the applicant's grandparents never submitted a declaration of renunciation of Polish citizenship is irrelevant in light of the clear wording of Article 4(2) of the Act of January 19, 1951, on Polish Citizenship (Journal of Laws of 1951, No. 4, item 25), cited above. The reason why the party's grandparents lived abroad on the date this provision entered into force is also irrelevant in the case at hand. In proceedings to confirm Polish citizenship, the administrative court does not examine the legality of the relocation of the applicant's ancestors, but only the conditions for the acquisition or loss of citizenship by the applicant or their ancestors.

• Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of August 26, 2025, Case No. II OSK 1777/24

  Nationality is not an element of marital status, but when stated in an official document, it enjoys the protection of Article 76 § 1 of the Code of Administrative Procedure. A party that denies the veracity (authenticity) of an official document or claims that the statements, declarations, and certifications contained therein by the authorized entity from which the document originated are inconsistent with reality must prove this fact.

  This means that the loss of citizenship by the party's grandfather occurred pursuant to Article 4 § 2 of the Act on Nationality of Citizens. of 1951. Correct factual findings lead to the conclusion that the foreigner's ancestors were of Ukrainian nationality. According to this provision, the grandfather, who permanently resided outside Poland, lost Polish citizenship by operation of law on the date the 1951 Act entered into force, i.e., January 19, 1951. This Act served as a legal instrument for implementing the concept of a nationally unified state. This provision allowed for the application of a legal instrument for regulating the structure of Polish citizens, appropriate to the given historical and political conditions. The premises for the creation of legal institutions relating to the concept of citizenship were primarily related to the subsequent changes in borders after World War II and the new political principles of the state (see Supreme Administrative Court judgment of December 19, 2017, file reference II OSK 586/16). As a result of the changes in borders, migration of Polish citizens occurred, depending on nationality. In the case of the party's ancestors, who were of Ukrainian nationality, they were evacuated to the territory of present-day Ukraine.

  At the same time, the 1951 Act did not regulate the issue of how the loss of citizenship by the father affected the citizenship of the minor child (who was not yet alive on the relevant date, i.e., August 31, 1939). The complainant's position is that the 1920 Act could not determine the complainant's father's citizenship, as it ceased to be valid on the date the 1951 Act entered into force (Article 17, paragraph 2, point 1). It is therefore necessary to derive the father's status from the interpretation of the provisions of the 1951 Act. Specifically, a child could only have Polish citizenship if both parents held it or if they had not chosen foreign citizenship for the child (if one was not a Polish citizen) – Article 6, point 1 and Article 8 of the Act. of 1951. This Act further established the principle of a single citizenship for a Polish citizen. Thus, the child's citizenship was permanently linked to the citizenship of the parent. Therefore, the party's father, born in 1949, and his father were treated under Article 4, point 2 of the 1951 Act as persons who were not Polish citizens

• Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of 19 December 2017, II OSK 586/16

  The concept of nationality is not the same as the concept of citizenship. Citizenship is understood as a legal relationship that assumes the existence of two interacting subjects of the relationship - the individual and the state. It should be emphasized that the concept of citizenship differs from the concept of nationality, it is related to the internal conviction of belonging to a specific national group. The very definition of citizenship contains an aspect that makes it impossible to identify it with the concept of nationality, i.e. it does not indicate the ethnic origin of this person and is independent of his nationality. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that a child of both parents declaring nationality in an indisputable way (...) will have Polish nationality.

• Judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw of 13 January 2015, IV SA/Wa 1770/14

  Pursuant to Article 4(2) of the Act, Polish citizenship was lost by persons living abroad (including in the former territory of the Second Republic of Poland, and now the former USSR) if they were nationals (...). On 8 May 1958, the Convention between the Government of the People's Republic of Poland and the Government of the USSR on the Regulation of Citizenship of Persons with Dual Citizenship, signed in Warsaw on 21 January 1958, came into force. This convention finally regulated the issue of Polish citizenship by persons residing in the territory of the USSR who had Polish citizenship on 31 August 1939.

• II OSK 738/13 - Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court in Warsaw

  The mere fact of baptism in a Greek-Catholic parish located in Polish does not indicate either the Polish nationality or the Polish origin of the baptized person.

• Decision of the Supreme Court of 4 November 2011 III SW 155/11

  Polish citizenship was lost by all persons, regardless of their nationality, who on 31 August 1939 had Polish citizenship, and on the date of entry into force of the Act of 8 January 1951 on Polish citizenship, i.e. on 19 January 1951, they lived permanently abroad, if, in connection with the change of the borders of the Polish State, they acquired citizenship of another country in accordance with an international agreement. This provision applies to the loss of Polish citizenship by residents of the territory of the Polish State subject to the change of state sovereignty on the basis of international agreements concluded by Poland before the date of entry into force of the Act of 8 January 1951 on Polish citizenship. Although the legislator did not explicitly define these agreements, it undoubtedly refers to the eastern territories of Poland, where the change of state sovereignty was legally made in the agreement of 16 August 1945 on the Polish-Soviet state border (Journal of Laws of 1946 No. 2, item 5).

• Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of 9 September 2011 II OSK 1965/10

  A person who had Polish citizenship on 31 August 1939, but who permanently lived abroad and is of Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian nationality, is not a Polish citizen. The applicant did not submit or indicate any specific evidence to rebut the presumption of Ukrainian nationality of his mother resulting from her statements contained in the above-mentioned civil status records. The mere explanation by the applicant in the course of the court proceedings that his mother's declaration of having Ukrainian nationality was made under the influence of fear for his life and that of his family, without indicating evidence to that effect, cannot effectively undermine the authorities' findings regarding this fact.

• Judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court of 9 September 2011 II OSK 1965/10

  A person who had Polish citizenship on 31 August 1939, but who permanently lived abroad and is of Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian or Estonian nationality, is not a Polish citizen.

• Judgement of the Supreme Administrative Court (until 2003.12.31) in Katowice of 27 April 2000 II SA/Ka 1700/98

  The loss of Polish citizenship was determined not by the imposed nationality, but by the actual nationality