Information for people whose ancestors emigrated before 1918

According to current data from Statistics Poland and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of members of the Polish diaspora and Poles living abroad is estimated at more than 22.1 million. In the United States alone, the figure is around 10 million, and in Brazil around 3 million. There are no reliable data showing what proportion of these groups are descendants of people who emigrated from Polish lands before 1918–1920, but they constitute a very large part of these communities. In most cases involving such persons, proceedings cannot be successfully pursued for practical reasons (cases involving emigration shortly before Poland regained independence, i.e. in the years 1916–1918, are to some extent an exception).

Due to the very large number of inquiries we receive from descendants of people who, before 1918, emigrated from territories that were incorporated into the Polish State in the years 1918–1920, and the practical impossibility of successfully pursuing most of them, we must make an exception for this category of cases to our standard offer of a free assessment of the prospects of pursuing proceedings.

Accordingly, we kindly inform you that our law office:

1. Does not take on cases involving persons whose ancestors emigrated from Poland before 1905.

2. In cases involving persons whose ancestors emigrated after 1905 (but before 1918), the analysis is ALWAYS provided as a paid service, with a minimum fee equivalent to the cost of one hour of consultation.

Exception: the above rules do not apply to cases involving persons whose ancestors did emigrate before 1918, but who possess original POLISH passports or other POLISH identity documents issued to those ancestors abroad by Polish diplomatic missions, embassies or military missions.