Why making money is traumatic
Dear Editor,
First of all let me congratulate you on putting out a highly enjoyable column called Red Tape Hot Box, which is so accurate that it reflects almost everything that we foreigners face in our daily lives here in Poland. Another problem foreigners face, even after five to seven years of residency, is the yearly trauma of residency cards.
In all western European countries, foreigners are given residency status after four years of continuous stay, and they get lifetime visas and a chance to apply for citizenship (if they want it). In Poland, foreigners have no status except for the yearly visa renewal, which is not guaranteed.
We have been residing in Poland for five years and are running a small business which has hired Polish nationals and paid all the government's taxes. Even after this, when we have to renew my husband's visas (as the owner of the company), he is asked to fork out tons of documents each year about his employees' ZUS payments, company returns, affidavits, etc. Ask someone who has gone through the process, and you will understand what I mean.
The meldunek is an-other joke in this country, and even if you own your own apartment, the gmina gives you a meldunek only for the period during which you have your visa.
Then come the questions about the company's performance. If your CIT2 (corporate income) tax returns show bad performance in a month, regardless of what you have been doing in the past and though you may have a chance to improve the performance of the company by the time the CIT 8 (corporate tax annual reconciliation) is made, you are immediately threatened by being issued a shorter residency visa. The logic here is that if you have a low profit, you will close the company and leave, or if you have a low profit, you are not fit to do business in Poland!
Neither the fact that there is a recession worldwide nor the fact that one is still persevering to run his business in the face of all odds holds any steam! After this ordeal, one asks himself why he does not opt to settle in a country with a more humane approach like the UK, where after all the contributions one makes to the economy he is rewarded with a firm residency status in the country and made to feel wanted by the adopted country. It is not uncommon to hear immigration officials greeting returning resident foreigners at Heathrow with a "welcome home, sir." Not like here at Okęcie where even after you have a residency card, they still spend no less than five to 10 minutes searching through the computer with a very uncooperative expression in the hope of finding something that is wrong with you or the card.
We know that there are thousands of foreigners like ourselves who have absolutely no rights or status after so many years of living here. If one of us were to fall sick and we could not run our business, we would have to immediately pack up and leave this country since our visas are issued on the basis of the company being run successfully.
Having no other status to fall back on, accepting the yearly renewal is ironic since the foreigners who have paid social security and health payments for all the Polish and foreign employees in their companies are offered nothing by the government in terms of lifetime visas or citizenship.
I am sure Poland will have to change all this when it enters the EU, and each of us foreigners will have a voice and a door to knock on where we will be heard.
Smita Hansal
Warsaw
First of all let me congratulate you on putting out a highly enjoyable column called Red Tape Hot Box, which is so accurate that it reflects almost everything that we foreigners face in our daily lives here in Poland. Another problem foreigners face, even after five to seven years of residency, is the yearly trauma of residency cards.
In all western European countries, foreigners are given residency status after four years of continuous stay, and they get lifetime visas and a chance to apply for citizenship (if they want it). In Poland, foreigners have no status except for the yearly visa renewal, which is not guaranteed.
We have been residing in Poland for five years and are running a small business which has hired Polish nationals and paid all the government's taxes. Even after this, when we have to renew my husband's visas (as the owner of the company), he is asked to fork out tons of documents each year about his employees' ZUS payments, company returns, affidavits, etc. Ask someone who has gone through the process, and you will understand what I mean.
The meldunek is an-other joke in this country, and even if you own your own apartment, the gmina gives you a meldunek only for the period during which you have your visa.
Then come the questions about the company's performance. If your CIT2 (corporate income) tax returns show bad performance in a month, regardless of what you have been doing in the past and though you may have a chance to improve the performance of the company by the time the CIT 8 (corporate tax annual reconciliation) is made, you are immediately threatened by being issued a shorter residency visa. The logic here is that if you have a low profit, you will close the company and leave, or if you have a low profit, you are not fit to do business in Poland!
Neither the fact that there is a recession worldwide nor the fact that one is still persevering to run his business in the face of all odds holds any steam! After this ordeal, one asks himself why he does not opt to settle in a country with a more humane approach like the UK, where after all the contributions one makes to the economy he is rewarded with a firm residency status in the country and made to feel wanted by the adopted country. It is not uncommon to hear immigration officials greeting returning resident foreigners at Heathrow with a "welcome home, sir." Not like here at Okęcie where even after you have a residency card, they still spend no less than five to 10 minutes searching through the computer with a very uncooperative expression in the hope of finding something that is wrong with you or the card.
We know that there are thousands of foreigners like ourselves who have absolutely no rights or status after so many years of living here. If one of us were to fall sick and we could not run our business, we would have to immediately pack up and leave this country since our visas are issued on the basis of the company being run successfully.
Having no other status to fall back on, accepting the yearly renewal is ironic since the foreigners who have paid social security and health payments for all the Polish and foreign employees in their companies are offered nothing by the government in terms of lifetime visas or citizenship.
I am sure Poland will have to change all this when it enters the EU, and each of us foreigners will have a voice and a door to knock on where we will be heard.
Smita Hansal
Warsaw
