Poland

While Poland may in general be not the best option, in some cases it may be a viable choice, for example:

• if you have the possibility to obtain a citizenship,
• if you’re well-paid white-collar specialist,
• if you’re searching for a relatively fast and cheap option to start HRT and are not willing to DIY,
• as a second option when others would fail.

Keep in mind that political situation in the country may change in the future.

Overview

Why Poland?

• EU and NATO membership
• Lack of rigid criteria for accessing trans healthcare
• Relative stability and public safety
• Low cost of living and relatively stable economy

Why not Poland?

• Little to no legal protection against discrimination for LGBTQ individuals
• Civil partnerships or same-sex marriages are not recognized, only very limited same-sex relationships recognition for cohabitation
• Difficult, costly and non-standardized procedure for changing legal gender marker
• Unless you’re a citizen, stateless or a refugee, there’s no way to change first name
• Strict abortion law
• Possible political issues in the future

Political situation for trans people

For now, transgender people are outside of politicians’ attention, and transgender issues are in general unregulated by law (for better or for worse). Most of political scene consists of various scents of conservatism. Progressives are scarce. In the last years, alt-right has been on the rise.

There is some level of threat that current situation would change – it’s not imminent however.

Access to trans health care

As state of access to trans healthcare reflects access to healthcare in Poland in general, it is recommended to read the Healthcare section first.

Access to trans healthcare in public-funded facilities is almost nonexistent. Public insurance is limited to partial refund on hormones and related doctor appointments. It is possible to access some resources with private insurances, however most transgender Poles pay out of pocket for every transition-related medical intervention.

There are no centralized gender identity clinics, like in some other European countries.

Facebook groups like GWOT, together with mapa.tranzycja.pl (see: #Online resources are the most important resources when it comes to researching Polish specialists.

HRT

While Polish Sexological Society published criteria for accessing trans healthcare (summary by tranzycja.pl), those are only guidelines, reflecting popular sentiment among physicians. Compared to other European countries they are relatively liberal in nature. It is not uncommon for physicians to deviate from them, so it is necessary to get requirements of any specialist before the visit.

„Informed consent”-style procedures are almost nonexistent, but, when using help of relatively sane specialists cost and time necessary to access HRT may be relatively short and cheap – a matter of about 3 months and ~1000 PLN (~260 USD).

While estradiol in injections is not available in Poland, doctors may prescribe it on a prescription that will be honored in Czechia or Slovakia. It’s important though, that it’s only valid for 14 days. They’re relatively cheap.

Fundusz Solidarnościowy im. Milo Mazurkiewicz helps to finance gender-affirming care for trans women.

Surgeries

Mastectomy can be conducted with public insurance if legal gender marker is „male”. Out of pocket cost varies from 15 000 to 25 000 PLN depending on surgeon.

GRS in any form is not covered by public insurance. There are only a couple of doctors performing those surgeries, that don’t have much recognition outside of Poland. Patients’ opinions are mixed. Serbia is a popular destination among Poles who have necessary financial resources.

Gender marker change

Poland has a quite unique legal situation when it comes to change of name and gender marker.

Gender marker

Due to recent ruling of Supreme Court old procedure has been changed. Right now there is no requirement to sue parents, though still it is necessary to go to the court. Much is unknown right now (as of March 2025). It is advisable to take legal advice. Text below was written before this change has happened.

There are no legal acts that explicitly list this as a possibility. However, innovative lawyers thought of a procedure that follows several seemingly unrelated articles in civil law. No matter how absurd it may sound: gender is interpreted as a relationship between child and a parent, and in order to have that relation changed, one must sue their parents. In practice it is a lenghtly procedure, highly dependent on court and judge that is assigned to the case. It may be as easy as rubberstamp, or it may take years and thousand zlotys to finish. Legal advice, especially in non-trivial cases, may be necessary.

If you do have a foreign document that changes your legal marker, you may be able to bypass this madness by asking registry office to apply this change. However, it still may be troublesome.

NGOs listed in this article may be of invaluable help if you’re searching for professional legal advice. Some of them may even represent you in court free of charge.

Name

Name Change Recognition Act says explicitly that it’s applicable to: (a) Polish citizens, (b) foreigners without citizenship, if they live in Poland, (3) refugees, only if that is a matter of their safety. If you don’t fall into this categories, then it may be impossible.

It was not well known until spring of 2024, but it is possible to change first name to a name that does not match your gender marker in the documents. Many Civil Registy Offices are still hesitant and deny it, so it’s important to check before sending application. You have only one attempt to apply for a change. After that, you can’t apply another time unless the situation changed significantly (choosing other name does fall into this category).

Immigration policy

Citizenship Pathway

While birthright citizenship is possible to obtain where a direct lineage can be proven to a Polish citizen ancestor without a break in citizenship in the family chain, there are reports about discrimination in daily life that make this a less-desirable option among European countries. Things have however been recently turning around internally. For example, all of the “LGBT-free” zones in Poland were recently repealed by the courts in Warsaw in early 2024.

Also, unless Poland leaves the European Union, a Polish passport holder can live and work without a visa in any other EU or Schengen Area country. This may be useful for American trans people with ancestors who left Poland due to various historical events, such as the Holocaust, World War II, and the 1968 political crisis. People have reported success in getting Polish passports after proving Polish lineage through an ancestor, which on occasion can be enabled via consultation with professionals such as genealogists.

Polish nationality law also changed numerous times throughout the 20th century, and there are specific rules regarding the sex of your ancestors and when and if they acquired foreign citizenship that may affect your ability to obtain a Certificate of Polish Nationality by jus sanguinis. There are additional laws that exist and previously existed that caused loss of citizenship due to certain actions such as marriage to a non-citizen, service in a foreign military, working in a government job or elected position, and naturalization in a foreign country. The article below goes over changes to birthright citizenship laws between 1918 and 2009 that may affect you. One of the most consequential changes to citizenship laws occurred in 1951, which removed most of the actions that were able to cause loss of Polish citizenship.

• https://polaron.com.au/understanding-polish-citizenship-laws-between-1920-1951/

There is also a graph here to help you determine if you’re eligible for Polish Nationality and therefore a Polish passport.

• https://pgsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Education-Polish-Citizenship.pdf

Going through the birthright process of getting a passport for Poland after getting confirmation of Polish Nationality also does not require any intent to reside in Poland, or any proof of knowledge of Polish language. Learning Polish however is of course recommended if one’s intent is to reside in Poland as this is the primary language of the country. In addition, legal gender change is recognized in Poland and gender-affirming care is available, albeit it currently requires suing one’s own parents to change one’s legal sex, regardless of their child’s age. This can be a formality if the parents are in agreement with their child’s transition, or difficult otherwise. Genital surgery is also not possible internally without first changing one’s legal sex.

Anecdotal report: I contacted a Polish lawyer regarding citizenship via jus sanguinis 2-3 years ago. The estimated cost was USD 6000. I had all birth certificates, professional certifications, marriage certificates, and so on going back two generations in Poland. I was told that my application was likely to be successful, however due to the conflict in Ukraine, it would likely take longer than usual, and immigration was busy with refugees and migrants. I was also told it could be done fully online, they just needed a video chat where I repeated an oath of some type. Finally, I was told that I had the option to register any current marriage by sending them a copy of my marriage certificate to be added to Polish public records.

Languages Spoken

Official language is Polish, and it is native tongue to overwhelming majority of the population. While English is relatively well embraced across population, especially in cities and in business environment, in the long term acquiring knowledge of Polish would help a lot.

In last years, new and relatively large minorities emerged, Ukrainian and Belarussian being the most numerous. In consequence, if you speak Ukrainian or Russian, you may gain access to resources geared for them. There are also sizable communities of English-speaking immigrants/international students, especially from Africa and East Asia.

Community & Support Resources

Online resources

• Tranzycja.pl – comprehensive resource with up-to-date information regarding gender transition, including (but not limited to) medical and legal issues. They provide a map with detailed info about trustworthy medical professionals.
• Facebook groups:
  • Grupa Wsparcia Osób Transpłciowych
  • NieCisowianka
  • HRTawka (mostly offtopic group)
• Discord servers

NGOs

• tranzycja.pl (and their map) Collective behind website of the same name. Go-to resource for gender transition in Poland.
• Trans-fuzja / Trans-fusion The oldest transgender organization in the country.
• Miłość Nie Wyklucza / Love Does Not Exclude

• Lambda Warszawa
• Lambda Polska (Szczecin-based organisation)
• Znaki Równości / Equal Signs
• Tolerado
• Kampania Przeciw Homofobii / Campaign Against Homophobia
• Fundusz Solidarnościowy im. Milo Mazurkiewicz / Milo Mazurkiewicz Solidarity Fund Fund providing financial help for transition needs of transfeminine individuals
• Grupa Nieustającej Pomocy / Perpetual Help Group Anarcho-queer self-help collective.

Cost of Living

Housing Access & Cost

As in many other Western nations, housing is used as an investment vehicle, prices inflated heavily in last 10-15 years. Majority of rental market is in hands of private individuals. Rent control is limited to increases on already signed contracts. There are no protections from discrimination on any basis – in fact, it is quite common to face discrimination for families with children, especially single mothers – due to stricter law on eviction in their case. No rent control. Social/communal housing is scarce.

Important highlights:

• Keep in mind that there are two types of lease agreements – standard and occasional. Read about the difference for example here: https://www.dudkowiak.com/property-purchase-in-poland/property-lease/
• Beware of broker/agency service fee – such firms may charge between 50% and 100 % of the 1-month rent.
• Keep in mind that standard lease agreement concluded for a fixed-term can only be terminated in cases specified in the contract.
• Polish law does not allow the landlord to arbitrarily evict a former tenant who does not want to voluntarily leave the occupied premises – such act is a criminal offense. However, it doesn’t stop landlords from doing so. By law, they should go to court and wait for social housing to be given for tenant.

Healthcare

There is compulsory public insurance. Public healthcare is, however, heavily underfunded, and it is not uncommon for months-long queues to form.

Private sector is pretty developed, and patients pay either out of their own pockets or with private insurance. Many companies provide such medical insurances for their employees.

There are almost no protections from discrimination when it comes to gender identity.

„Conscience clause” exists – medical professional such as doctor or nurse may deny providing certain services for patients. It was established with abortion in mind, however it may be used in other instances. There were some instances of using it to deny providing gender-affirming care, such as providing HRT injections – though it is uncommon.

Keep in mind that Poland has strict abortion laws, for a European country, and some doctors have even stricter beliefs.

Minimum wage & Allowances

Job market and labor law

There are various types of work contracts, but most common ones are falling into following categories:

• Employment contract (Umowа o pracę) and its derivatives Normal contract, with associated benefits like 20 or 26 paid days off, overtime pay, maternity leave etc. Disputes resolved in court, free of charge if initiated by employee. Employers are subject to oversight from State Labour Inspectorate – this institution is in a pretty sorry state and rarely is able to deliver protection.
• Civil law contracts (umowy cywilnoprawne) – includes commision contract (umowa-zlecenie) and specific-task contract (umowa o dzieło)
• „Flexible” type, worker rights are very limited. Termination possible at any time. The remuneration is made only for hours worked. Social payments to ZUS are voluntary if prescribed in contract.
• Business-to-business contracts (umowa B2B) Can be either tax optimization or in order to strip you from your rights. There may be some benefits provided, but only when signed into contract. You’re essentially starting sole proprietorship and sending an invoice to your employer every month.

Internet Access & Cost

Cheap, fast, fiber is available in many places, even in the countryside.

Ease of Travel to Other Countries

• Poland is a member of the Schengen Area, allowing visa-free travel to other 28 members of Schengen Area (all EU countries except from Cyprus, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).
• EU residency may allow work rights in other European countries.
• Good state of train network, budget airlanes and buses allow for relatively cheap and easy intercity travel. Buying tickets for international trains can be tricky, though.