It's late, you've just read a news headline about "tougher citizenship rules in Poland", and one question keeps looping in your head: if I get a Polish passport, can they take it back? Maybe you're three years into your karta pobytu and thinking about the next step. Maybe your cousin told you "they can cancel it any time". Maybe you're the one who got citizenship years ago and one bad rumour has you worried.
Let's answer the big question first. Can Polish citizenship be revoked or lost? The honest answer is: far harder than most people fear. Below is what the law actually says, what changes in 2026 and what doesn't, and the one situation where you can lose it.
Can Polish citizenship be revoked? What the Constitution says
Article 34 of the Polish Constitution is blunt: a Polish citizen cannot lose Polish citizenship unless they renounce it themselves. Polish courts read this as a strong guarantee that citizenship, once acquired, is permanent. The state does not take it away as a punishment, and it does not expire. You can read the official procedure on the gov.pl page about renouncing Polish citizenship.
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In plain words, this means three things:
- Poland does not have a general power to strip a citizen of citizenship for crimes, unpaid taxes, political views or bad behaviour.
- Citizenship is not tied to a document. A passport or ID card can expire. Your citizenship does not.
- The only route to losing it in the normal sense is your own decision, followed by the President's consent.
That is true whether you were born a citizen, got it through a Polish parent, or acquired it as a foreigner who lived here, passed the language exam and completed the procedure.
How do you lose Polish citizenship? Renouncing it, step by step
The one lawful way is called zrzeczenie się obywatelstwa — renunciation. It is a voluntary act, and it is not automatic. The President of Poland has to consent.
- You submit an application for the President's consent to renounce citizenship. If you live in Poland, you file it through the voivode (wojewoda) of your region. If you live abroad, you file through a Polish consulate.
- You attach the documents the office asks for. In practice that includes the official form, a photo, and proof that you hold another citizenship, or a promise of it. A person with no other citizenship is not left stateless on purpose, so this proof matters.
- The file goes to the President's office. The President is not bound by any deadline, so there is no fixed answer date. Plan for months, not weeks.
- If the President consents, citizenship is lost 30 days after the date of the decision, or earlier if the President decides so. That decision cannot be appealed.
There is a state fee for filing the application. We found different amounts on different official pages, so we won't quote a number that might be outdated. Check the current fee on your voivodeship's page at gov.pl before you pay anything.
For children: consent given to parents extends to their minor children under parental authority. A child aged 16 to 18 must personally agree.
What does NOT make you lose Polish citizenship?
This is where most of the panic comes from. Here are things people believe will cancel citizenship — they don't.
- Living abroad for years. Moving to Dubai, Germany or Canada doesn't end your Polish citizenship.
- An expired passport or ID card. You renew the document; the status stays.
- Not voting, not paying a bill, not showing up. Citizenship isn't a subscription.
- Getting a second citizenship. Poland accepts dual citizenship and does not ask you to give up your Polish passport when you gain another one.
- Being convicted of a crime. You may face the punishment the court gives you. Losing citizenship is not one of them.
Notice that none of these require you to "do paperwork to keep" your citizenship. That's the difference from a karta pobytu, which has to be renewed and can be cancelled.
What if the application had a mistake or fake document?
Here we need to be careful, because this is where rumours start. The Constitution protects citizenship that was properly acquired. But a decision that was obtained with forged documents or false statements is a different story. Using a fake paper in an official procedure is a crime in Poland, and the authorities can look at how a decision was reached. We found no clear, published rule saying that honest applicants with a small paperwork error will be stripped of citizenship.
Here's a composite example, not a real client. Ravi, an IT engineer from Hyderabad, was worried because his employer's old letter had a wrong job title in his earlier karta pobytu file. His citizenship papers were clean. We checked the file, confirmed the mistake was only in an old residence-permit document and didn't touch the citizenship decision, and he stopped losing sleep over it.
The lesson is simple. Never submit anything you can't prove. If you suspect something in an earlier file was wrong, talk to a lawyer before an office finds it, not after.
Polish citizenship in 2026: what's changing, what's not
You've probably seen the headlines. Here is what is actually the case at the time of writing in November 2026.
- The government has a draft that would raise the residence requirement for naturalization from three years to eight, raise the language level from B1 to B2, and add a history and values test plus a loyalty declaration. It is a draft. Reports say the Council of Ministers is expected to adopt it in the fourth quarter of 2026.
- The President has sent a separate bill to the Sejm. It proposes 10 years of uninterrupted residence and a C1-level exam.
- We found no report that either bill has been signed or has an effective date.
Two important points for you. First, these proposals are about getting citizenship, not about taking it back. Nothing in them reverses the Article 34 rule that a citizen can't lose citizenship except by renouncing it. Second, rules that apply to future applications can still change before you file, so check the current rules the week you apply.
If you're still on the residence-card road, your language level matters earlier than you think. Our guide on the Polish B1 requirement and which TRC needs it explains where the exam actually applies. And while you wait for a future citizenship application, don't let your card lapse — here is how TRC renewal works in 2026.
Your home country may care more than Poland does
Here is the part many people miss. Poland allows dual citizenship, but your original country might not.
India, for example, does not allow dual citizenship. If you become a Polish citizen and take a Polish passport, your Indian citizenship generally ends, and an OCI card is the usual route for staying connected to India. Other countries have their own rules, and some require permission or notification. Zimbabwe, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan each handle this differently.
Before you apply for Polish citizenship, check your home country's rules with its embassy. If you're from India, our note on the OCI card and what it does not replace in Poland is a useful read.
Practical tip: Before you submit a citizenship application, write down three things — your home country's dual-citizenship rule, your property and inheritance rights there, and how you'll travel back to visit family. Do this before the decision, not after.
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