A route Poland offers that Austria doesn't
Built from a real case in our test set, with details adapted so no real person is identifiable. This is what a result page actually looks like.
What was entered
- Born in Argentina, 1980. No other citizenships.
- Great-grandfather born near Ternopil, in the 1880s.
- Family story: "we were Austrian" - passed down, never verified.
Your routes
Austria - Habsburg-era statutory route
Ruled outTernopil was inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire when your great-grandfather was born there - but being a Habsburg subject didn't make him Austrian in the sense the law recognizes today. When the empire dissolved in 1918, people from Galicia became citizens of whichever successor state took the territory, not of Austria. "We were Austrian" is a true family memory and a false legal claim, at the same time. This route is closed for you on that basis.
Poland - confirmation of citizenship (descent)
Need a bit moreThis is the door the family story pointed past. Ternopil became part of interwar Poland after 1918. If your great-grandfather held Polish citizenship under the 1920 Citizenship Act and didn't lose it before his child was born, the line may still run to you - Polish law treats this as a chain never broken, not a new grant. Two facts decide it: whether he held Polish citizenship after 1920, and whether he naturalized elsewhere before his child's birth. We don't have either yet.
- Great-grandfather's Polish birth record (akt urodzenia) - blocking
- His marriage certificate - blocking
- Evidence he held Polish citizenship after 1920 - blocking
- Proof he did not naturalize elsewhere before his child's birth - blocking
- Your parent's and your own birth certificates - blocking
- Apostilles, sworn Polish translation, application form
- Interwar residence registration linking him to Polish, not Soviet, citizenship - blocking
- Any surviving pre-1939 Polish passport, if one exists - settles the case outright
Supporting records (parish books, census entries) are held back and shown only if a required document can't be found.
Next step, if you want one
This report doesn't require you to do anything. If you'd like to be told when a vetted firm can take Kresy-era Polish cases, or want your full report emailed, that's a separate, optional choice on the real result page - not bundled with anything else, and not pre-ticked.