Whether a married person must produce a marriage certificate in order to secure employment or a residential apartment [POL33133.E]

In a 2 November 1999 telephone interview a consular officer at the Polish embassy in Ottawa stated that there is no requirement for a married person to produce a marriage certificate in order to secure employment or rent a residential apartment.

The following information was provided on 2 November 1999 by the owner of the Krakow-based real estate agency Realnosc. The owner has been an attorney at law for many years and is a licensed real estate agent. She is a member of the Polish Committee of Professional Responsibility of Real Estate Brokers, and a member of the Committee for Professional Ethics of Malopolska Region in Poland. She has owned the law firm and real estate agency for 11 years. The views expressed here are based on her experience in professional practice and her position as an independent professional person. She does not belong to any political party.

The owner first qualified her comments by stating that the situation is not uniform across Poland:

Where municipal government representatives are mainly representatives of Solidarity and ZCHN (Union of Christian-National Party) the situation is different, and where the percentage is mainly left wing, the situation is different. The situation is worse in smaller towns, particularly where there is high unemployment.

Cases where the employer requires production of marriage certificates are in towns with high unemployment rates. Maybe it is because the married worker will work more and more reliably for less salary, and will not take medical certificate and so on.

The same situation pertains to renting. For persons of different sex who do not have a marriage certificate, it is difficult to rent a common flat.

It concerns the whole of Poland. It concerns private flats. Co-operative societies don't have flats for rent. Hotels and pensions [rooming houses] are very expensive. Private pensions also don't rent common flats to such persons.

Research Directorate efforts to acquire additional and/or corroborating information from Poland-based human rights groups and real estate agents were unsuccessful within the time constraints of this Response.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References


Attorney-at-Law and Real Estate Agent, Krakow. 2 November 1999. Correspondence.

Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Ottawa. 2 November 1999. Telephone interview with Consular Officer.

Additional Sources Consulted


Four oral sources contacted.

Electronic sources: IRB databases; WNC; RefWorld; Internet sites, including:

Global Legal Information Network (GLIN)

Internet Law Library

Law Library of Congress

Poland Today

UK Home Office country assessment

The Warsaw Voice

Warsaw Business Journal