The Polish Baseball & Softball Association (PZBall) invites players from abroad with Polish roots to play with our national teams. This applies to both softball and baseball and for all ages. The association has a support system in place to help foreign players with the necessary formalities.
- If you are a baseball or softball player and have Polish roots or Polish citizenship, it is possible that you qualify for the Polish national team.
- If you already have a Polish passport you do not have to go through any other administrative processes. All you have to do is report your interest in the national team, and we will put you in contact with the appropriate head coach.
- If you have Polish citizenshipbut you do not have a passport, you will need to apply for a Polish passport. The application is submitted in person at any Polish Consulate after prior appointment www.e-konsulat.gov.pl. To obtain a Polish passport, you must provide a valid photo ID, a Polish birth certificate, and passport photographs. The fee for issuing a passport is currently around USD 132, which is paid in cash when applying for the passport. The waiting time for the passport is typically 4-6 weeks, while a temporary passport can be ready within 2 weeks.
- If you do not have Polish citizenship the first and most important step is to determine if you can obtain Polish citizenship. This process will take some time, but we can help you with this (see below).
- In order to obtain Polish citizenship, you must have at least one parent, grandmother, grandfather or great grandmother or great-grandfather from Poland. The initial stage is finding out how far back and from whom your Polish roots come from, then finding as many documents as possible about your lineage. Polish birth certificates, marriage certificates, immigration documents, documents from the army or other public services, and other such papers can help guarantee success. You can call or email the Polish consulate in your country to ask for details.
- After you find all possible documents, the next step will be to contact us. Tell us about your career as a player and the current status of your application for citizenship. Required will be your birth certificate, your parents' birth certificates, marriage certificates of parents and all persons in the line of relationship to Polish roots, as well as acts of naturalization of Polish ancestors.
- Polish citizenship is acquired through (each of the following methods has a different application process for citizenship):
- Confirmation of citizenship - if your family has not relinquished/lost Polish citizenship, e.g., by joining a foreign army. In this situation, you only need to confirm/document kinship with your Polish ancestors, and your application is submitted to the Voivodeship. There are many rules and laws that prove or eliminate the possibility of confirmation, e.g., when your Polish family emigrated from Poland, and how they found themselves in a foreign country. If this way of obtaining citizenship is not possible, you should apply for:
- Acquisition of Polish citizenship based on Polish roots. If, according to the principles of law, the connection with your Polish roots was lost, e.g., by the emigration of a Polish family before 1921, then the application for citizenship is addressed directly to the President of Poland, who can grant Polish citizenship.
- When applying for Polish citizenship, you must also submit an application for registration of your birth certificate at the registry office in Poland. This document is required together with your proof of Polish citizenship when applying for a Polish passport. This application requires the original of your foreign birth certificate, which must be translated and submitted to the office in Poland.
- PZBall has on board a volunteer who works with players of Polish origin in the process of proving their citizenship. In many cases, the volunteer can also help in obtaining copies of documents from local Polish institutions. The volunteer can advise on steps in this process, help fill out forms, and translate. For clarity, all administrative fees must be paid by the applicant, but in general, most of these fees are quite small. PZBall does not charge for volunteer time, but will gladly accept a donation [click here].
Please feel free to contact us in the event of any questions or to let us know you are interested.
We look forward to having you join the Polish National Team!
Contact us if you have any questions or want to inform us of your interest:
E-mail: pzball[at]wp.pl
Click below if you want to learn more about our national teams:
NATIONAL BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL TEAMS