u/PaulHinr

A while ago, I asked here in the subreddit if anyone knew exactly how to submit an application to the IPN.

u/ThePetro from getpolishcitizenship.eu sent me a DM and submitted the application that same day.

There were several updates along the way, and u/ThePetro always sent them to me within just a few minutes.

Today, the case has finally been concluded, so I wanted to take the opportunity to publicly and personally say thank you once again.

Before this, I only knew him as an expert from the comments. Now, having had personal experience working with him, I can wholeheartedly recommend him.

This is probably the biggest change we’ve made to r/prawokrwi’s automation since we introduced it.

We’ve replaced the sub’s old AutoMod setup with a custom-built bot. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up, so a lot of the things that were difficult or impossible to handle with AutoMod are now much easier.

A few of the new features:

• !case <citation> - mention a court judgment by its citation (for example, II OSK 464/20) and the bot will reply with a short plain-language summary and a link to the full text. You can also just include the citation naturally in a comment and it should pick it up automatically. It only responds once per thread, so discussions shouldn’t get flooded with bot replies.
• !cases - browse the judgment database, organised by topic.
• !progress - progress-tracker information should now be updated more quickly and consistently.
• There are also a few new easter eggs hidden somewhere. We’re not going to spoil those.

The existing features haven’t gone away. Eligibility template checks, the pre-1920 ius soli flagging, redirects for recurring topics such as processing times, service providers and military service, as well as commands like !template, !faq, !paradox, !1920, !KP and the others all continue to work as before.

The main difference is what’s happening behind the scenes: the same general functionality is now running on a more robust setup.

Thanks for bearing with us while we got everything working properly. If you notice anything behaving strangely, please let us know through modmail.

- The Mod Team

Please review our flair rules, which are available in the pinned „Start Here“-Post.

If you are asking whether you or a family member qualify for Polish citizenship, you must use the Eligibility flair and complete the eligibility template.

The template is not optional. Polish citizenship confirmation depends on specific dates, locations, military service records, and naturalization timelines. Abstract discussions, vague queries about success rates, or debates questioning the template’s necessity do not help determine eligibility. They only clutter the subreddit and make it harder for contributors to provide accurate advice.

If your situation involves unique circumstances, those nuances can be addressed once the foundational facts required by the template are provided. Posts that bypass the template or debate its usefulness will be removed.

Thank you for helping us keep r/prawokrwi organized and helpful for everyone.

What's new

• Use !progress to pull up the latest processing-time snapshot (queue status and longest-waiting cases) without hunting through old threads.
• !assessment (or !tool) now links straight to the interactive self-assessment tool, which is worth running through before putting together an Eligibility post.
• AutoMod now quietly flags comments that read like AI output and holds them for mod review against Rule 4 without automatic removal. The !AI command still works for manual callouts.
• Comments that look like service-provider self-promotion get held for review rather than posting directly to the feed.
• The pre-1920 ius soli detector now covers a few additional jurisdictions, including Australia and several Latin American countries.

What's gone

The "Voivode" Easter egg is dead. Again. Turns out a subreddit about Polish administrative divisions talks about Polish administrative divisions a lot, so following "voivodeship" which got dropped last time, "Voivode" is now officially retiring too. We should really stop being surprised by this.

- The Mod Team

Small but notable changes to AutoMod this month:

What's new:

• Posts flaired "Research question" are now automatically snapshotted, just like Eligibility posts. No more vanishing threads.
• The Italy redirect is no longer automatic. If someone wanders in asking or comparing with Italian CBD, just type !italy and AutoMod will do the rest.

What's gone:

• The "voivodeship" Easter egg has been quietly retired. It was funny in theory. In practice, it turns out people mention voivodeships a lot in a subreddit about Polish citizenship. Who could have seen that coming.

That's it.

— The Mod Team

Hi all,

I’m researching the fate of my great-grandfather, a miner and steelworker from Upper Silesia, who was almost certainly deported by Soviet forces in early 1945 during the mass deportations of Upper Silesian civilians to the USSR as part of the Tragedia Górnośląska.

The last official evidence that he was still alive comes from a Wehrmacht document from January 1945 concerning one of his 17-year-old sons, who had been compulsorily conscripted. The document lists my great-grandfather at his home address in Upper Silesia. After the Soviet occupation a short time later, he disappeared and was never heard from again. No death certificate exists.

I have already checked Dariusz Węgrzyn’s Księga Aresztowanych, Internowanych i Deportowanych z Górnego Śląska do ZSRR w 1945 roku and found no entry for him, although I’m aware that this may simply reflect gaps in the surviving documentation rather than proof that he was not deported.

I’d now like to submit a formal request to the IPN in Katowice to determine whether any documentation relating to him exists in their holdings. I have a few questions for anyone who has gone through this process:

For a deceased relative with no death certificate (presumed deceased based on age and wartime disappearance), is the standard wniosek o udostępnienie dokumentów dotyczących zmarłej osoby najbliższej under Article 30 of the IPN Act the correct procedure?

The IPN service description states that a death certificate or a court declaration of death is generally required, but also mentions an exception where the death is a fakt znany organowi z urzędu.
I think it’s quite obvious that my GGF isn’t alive anymore, but is the IPN really that generous as to recognize this without formal proof?

I live in Germany and have access to an EU qualified electronic signature under the eIDAS Regulation. Has anyone successfully submitted an Article 30 request to IPN electronically using a qualified electronic signature, or does IPN still insist on a notarised handwritten signature (or certification through a Polish consulate) for this type of application?

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

As our community continues to grow, it’s becoming clear that our rules need to be more precisely defined to keep pace. However, instead of making these decisions behind closed doors, we want to involve you directly in shaping the future of the subreddit.

Specifically, we’d like to get your input on how providers should participate in r/prawokrwi going forward.

We highly value the expertise providers bring, but we also want to keep discussions transparent and free from advertising or client acquisition in the comments. Providers already have excellent visibility through custom user flairs (including their websites) and our official Service Provider Master List.

To improve consistency and address recent community feedback, we’re considering a more structured approach to Rule 5.

The Idea: A “Two-Stage” Model
In general, all interactions in the comment sections should follow two steps:

Stage 1 – Public Contribution: Any assessment or advice must be given openly in the thread. Comments should provide real, case-specific value and stand on their own.

Stage 2 – Private Transition (Limited Exception): A move to private communication is only appropriate if the case requires reviewing sensitive personal documents (for example, certificates or records) that should not be shared publicly due to privacy reasons. In those specific cases, providers may point users to their contact details indirectly, but not post direct emails, links, or active calls to action.

The reason we want to avoid direct linking and contact details in the threads is the high risk of impersonation and spam. Without this restriction, anyone could easily create an account impersonating a legitimate provider. Restricting these channels protects both our users from scams and the hard-earned reputation of the providers themselves. By keeping links strictly confined to user flairs and the official provider list, we ensure that the mod team has thoroughly reviewed and verified the link in advance.

Allowed Example: "This requires a look at the actual certificates. Since these shouldn't be shared publicly, feel free to check the service provider master list or my flair for contact options."

Not Allowed Example: "Send the files to info@agency.com and we will review them for you."

The goal is to allow legitimate, complex cases to move forward privately while preventing regular comment sections from turning into aggressive acquisition channels.

Additional Question: Provider Recommendations

Separately, we’re also looking at threads where users explicitly ask for provider recommendations (e.g., "Which agency should I use?"). Should providers be allowed to mention themselves in those situations, or should visibility remain limited to their flair and the directory? We’re currently leaning towards the latter to avoid these threads turning into a race of who can spam their own links first, but we would love to hear your views on this.
⸻
We’re aiming for a solution that keeps discussions useful and trustworthy, while remaining fair to providers and easy for us to apply consistently.

Thanks for your input!