Poland is an attractive country for foreign professionals, but settling here requires professional help as well. Without it you may encounter some difficulties.

Persons moving to Poland for a longer period of time who bring their personal belongings are required to go through customs clearance. This may turn out to be quite a nuisance.

All personal belongings, including cars and children's toys, are subject to conditional customs. The customs duty will not be levied, but its value will be counted and a bank guarantee has to be deposited in the amount of the duty. This guarantee will be returned under the condition that you take everything with you upon leaving Poland, including worn-out and broken things. Do not leave or throw away anything because you will be charged for those items when departing. If your wife's fur coat is stolen and your child leaves a bike somewhere, buy similar, even second-hand things, even at a bazaar, to show them to Polish customs officers.

Not all items may be brought into the country, for example, 100 bottles of your favourite wine, even if you decide to pay the customs duty, because this is a "commercial quantity" and only importers are entitled to bring goods in such quantities.

Especially strict customs regulations apply to cars. In light of Polish customs rules, a car is still a rare and luxury good. If it's stolen, you will pay the duty on the value of the car when it was brought to Poland, not on the actual value.

JSM