Anyone know about this? Citizenship by descent Citizenship can generally be claimed only by descendants of Polish citizens who left Poland after the country became an independent state in 1918. Also, there can be no break in Polish citizenship between the emigrant ancestor and the descendant. If the applicant's ancestor lost Polish citizenship, such as by becoming a citizen of another country before 1951, the descendant did not inherit Polish citizenship through that ancestor. Application for "Confirmation of Possession or Loss of Polish Citizenship" can be made through Polish embassies or consulates abroad.[3]" Does this mean that if my son's ancestor left Poland in 1920, and was never naturalized in the US, he can claim Polish citizenship? We are looking for international training (academy) and playing opportunities for my son, based on his lineage, and so far Poland seems to be the only option. Since they are a member of the EU, this could open doors for my son. I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on this approach.
It is actually much more complicated than that, so much so that going into details here would take up many pages. My law office provides this service, but I will not post the link here because I do not want to spam the board, but you can research others that do this on-line. However, I will warn you, because the process is complicated and lengthy it is also very costly. Expect to pay at very least $5,000. From my experience everyone that does it for less does not know what they are doing. Of course if your son is very good and has an agent, usually the agent will hire a lawyer to perform this process. You can also try to do this yourself, but I do not recommend it.
In Polish case, this is much more complicated. There are many Lithuanians, Ruthenians, who ended in various Polish kingdoms. Ruthenians became later known as Ukrainians. After that, Prussians came on the scene, Livionians, Belarusians. Polish borders changed a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonization#/media/File:Border_changes_in_history_of_Poland.png Also, lets not forget Gorals, Karaims, Kashubians, Kursenieki, Lemkos / Rusyns, Masurians, Frisians (Dutch-German people), Silesians, etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_minorities_in_Poland So, if someone left Poland as Kursenieki in 19th century, are his family members today Poles? Or do they know about their Kursenieki origins. Personally, I don't understand the real difference between Silesians, Masurians, Kashubians, Kursenieki, Lemkos, Gorals... We can't confuse German Silesians and Polish Silesians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silesians#/media/File:Slunsko_nacyjo.JPG These ones are Polish Silesians, but why are they promoting Silesian identity? I also don't see the major difference between Ukrainians, Belarus people and Russians. Poles seem distinctive, because of the specific type of language. Slovaks and Czechs also too similar for me.