Hi everyone,

I’m currently helping my friend with her process of confirming Polish citizenship and would like help from the community to make sure we’re doing everything correctly and on the right path. I’d appreciate it if you could let me know if there are any holes in our plan or things we are missing. We are currently in the process of gathering documents.

The claim runs directly down the maternal line, starting with her Great-Grandfather. Here is the breakdown using the community template:

1. Lineage Timeline

• Great-Grandparents:
  • Date married: We don’t know the exact date or where, but sometime during WWII.
• Great-Grandmother (GGM):
  • Date, place of birth: 1920, Dęblin, Poland
  • Ethnicity and religion: Jewish
  • Occupation: Tailor
  • Date, destination for emigration: Went to a DP camp in Austria after WWII, then the USA in April 1951.
  • Date naturalized: 1956 (U.S. A-File exists)
  • Date, place of death: 2000s, USA
• Great-Grandfather (GGF) — Anchor Ancestor:
  • Date, place of birth: 1921, Volhynia, Poland (Now Rivne Oblast, Ukraine)
  • Ethnicity and religion: Jewish
  • Occupation: Laborer
  • Allegiance and dates of military service: No known military service we can find.
  • Date, destination for emigration: Went to a DP camp in Austria after WWII, then the USA in April 1951.
  • Date naturalized: 1956 (U.S. A-File exists)
  • Date, place of death: Sometime from the 1990s–2000s, USA
• Grandparent (GF):
  • Sex: Male
  • Date, place of birth: 1947, Austria
  • Date married: 1968, USA
  • Citizenship of spouse: American
  • Date divorced: N/A
  • Occupation: Private sector
  • Allegiance and dates of military service: I don’t know the exact dates, but he enlisted in the U.S. Army for 2 years during Vietnam (Not drafted).
  • Date, destination for emigration: 1951 (Emigrated as a minor child with parents)
  • Date naturalized: Derived citizenship automatically as a minor child when his parents naturalized in the US. Listed explicitly as a minor on the father's naturalization petition.
  • Date, place of death: 2020s, USA
• Parent:
  • Sex: Female
  • Date, place of birth: 1971, USA
  • Date married: Sometime in the 1990s, USA
  • Date divorced: 2020
• Applicant:
  • Sex: Female
  • Date, place of birth: 2000, USA

2. Documentation Status

I am aware we will need certified copies of everything, will have to get the U.S. documents all apostilled, and will eventually need sworn translations of all non-Polish documents.

What we currently have / are actively processing:

• Her U.S. Birth Certificate
• Her Mom’s U.S. Birth Certificate
• Her Mom and Dad’s U.S. Marriage Certificate
• Her Grandfather’s Austrian Birth Certificate (Currently getting the international multilingual version so it will contain Polish translations already.)
• Her Grandfather’s U.S. Marriage Certificate
• Her Grandfather’s U.S. Death Certificate
• Her Great-Grandfather’s A-File (Which will contain the naturalization petitions containing himself and her grandfather.)
• Her Great-Grandfather’s U.S. Death Certificate
• Whatever documentation the Polish IPN holds of her Great-Grandfather. (They didn’t say what they have, just that they have his file. Hopefully, it’ll contain a passport or some other official documentation on that level confirming citizenship before they left Poland for Austria.)

3. Notes and Questions

1. We found a Central Committee of Polish Jews (CKŻP) Registration Card for her Great-Grandfather. It lists his DOB/POB, pre-war address, post-war address, his immediate family, and where he went during the war. We are under the impression this document confirms he was Polish before the war, lived in Poland before the war, and went back to Poland and retained his citizenship after the war. Is this correct? This document is also what gave us the impression the IPN may have a passport for her Great-Grandfather.
2. Will we need to provide a Birth Certificate for her Great-Grandfather? We already contacted the Warsaw archives, Ukrainian Volhynian, and Rivne Oblast archives and they all don’t have it. The U.S. archive worker helping us get the A-Files also said this: “Both files contain a document from the 'Displaced Persons Visa Office' certifying that birth, marriage, and police records are not available 'at this time' (xx/xx/1951). This document is included in the visa packet from the consulate in Austria.”
3. We currently do not know where her Great-Grandparents got married. We know it was sometime around the WWII years. The A-File should provide some information on this, but the archive worker already confirmed a marriage certificate is not included in either Great-Grandparent’s A-File. All of the other supporting documentation says that they are married, we just don’t know where the MC is. Will we need it?
4. Will she need to provide any paperwork regarding her mom and dad’s divorce since she was an adult when it happened?
5. We know we will need a genealogist or lawyer to assist with the IPN request. Does anyone have any recommendations?
6. If our understanding is correct, this should be a straightforward case. Would it be advised to work with lawyers or a service to help with the final application?
7. Also, what's the average timeline people are seeing these days? I saw a few posts saying their decision took almost 2 years.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this and help us out!