Loss of Polish citizenship by illegitimate daughters
In the judgment of July 19, 2022 (II OSK 2316/19), the Supreme Administrative Court synthetically presented the legal situation of illegitimate children of Polish citizens under the Act of January 20, 1920 on the citizenship of the Polish State.
Pursuant to the provisions of the Act in question, illegitimate children acquired Polish citizenship from their mother. Art. did not apply to them. 13 of this Act, which established the principle of uniform family citizenship. According to this principle, the granting or loss of Polish citizenship had a similar effect on the wife and minor children of the person acquiring or losing citizenship. This provision only concerned situations where the person acquiring or losing citizenship was a man. The acquisition or loss of Polish citizenship in the father's footsteps occurred only in the case of his legitimate children, who derived their citizenship from him. In the light of the above, the acquisition or loss of Polish citizenship by women had no effect extended to their family members, and therefore did not result in the loss of Polish citizenship by their minor illegitimate children. The citizenship status of these children was assessed independently, and their loss of Polish citizenship was determined by meeting the condition set out in Art. 11 point 1 of the Act of 1920 (acquisition of foreign citizenship by them). Due to the fact that the principle of uniformity of family citizenship is not applied to minor illegitimate children, it should be assumed that if they meet the conditions set out in Art. 11 point 1, they automatically lost their Polish citizenship - the effect of losing Polish citizenship was not suspended in their case until they reached the age of majority.
The differences in the situation of Polish citizenship of legitimate and illegitimate children can be presented as follows:
Wedding children:
- acquired Polish citizenship from their father,
- when they were minors, they automatically lost their Polish citizenship when their father lost it,
- in accordance with the view prevailing in the case law, if the conditions under Art. 11 point 1 (acquiring foreign citizenship during minorhood), they could lose their Polish citizenship only when they turned 18 (then the status of their citizenship ceased to depend on their father's citizenship); it is important, however, that the loss of Polish citizenship occurred only when the foreign citizenship was acquired later than the Polish one (persons who obtained Polish and foreign citizenship at the moment of birth (simultaneous acquisition) or obtained Polish citizenship later than the foreign one did not lose their Polish citizenship - more on this topic in the August news on our website).
- acquired Polish citizenship from their mother,
- when they were minors, they did not automatically lose their Polish citizenship when their mother lost her citizenship,
- if the conditions under Art. 11 point 1 automatically lost their Polish citizenship (regardless of whether they were adults or not) - but only if they acquired foreign citizenship later than Polish citizenship.
The above-mentioned judgment was passed in the case of the Complainant, who applied for confirmation of Polish citizenship. The woman was born in 1944 as an illegitimate child of a Polish citizen, thus acquiring Polish citizenship at birth. In 1948, when she was a minor, the Complainant received Israeli citizenship, and a few days later her mother also obtained Israeli citizenship. In the administrative proceedings and before the court of first instance it was found that the Complainant lost her Polish citizenship when her mother obtained foreign citizenship. It was the determination of the moment when the Complainant lost her Polish citizenship that became the essence of the dispute before the Supreme Administrative Court.
The Supreme Administrative Court stated that under Art. 13 of the Act of 1920, the principle "cannot be applied to the loss of citizenship by an illegitimate child in the event of the loss of citizenship by his mother, because it does not result directly from this provision." As a consequence of the lack of connection between the citizenship of an illegitimate child and the citizenship of the mother (analogous to the connection between the citizenship of a legitimate child and its father), the grounds for loss of Polish citizenship under Art. 11 should be applied to the child. For this reason, the Court found that in the present case the Complainant lost her Polish citizenship at the moment when she acquired Israeli citizenship, even though she was a minor at that time. The court emphasized that a norm cannot be derived from the provisions of the 1920 Act according to which an illegitimate child who acquired foreign citizenship during his minority could not lose Polish citizenship at all. This would be contrary to the general principle of exclusivity of Polish citizenship applicable under the then regulations on Polish citizenship.
Justyna Dabrowska
