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On April 3rd, I have an appointment to obtain German citizenship, and on April 8th, I am flying to Poland for a work trip.

As part of the naturalization process, I will need to relinquish my permanent residence card for Germany. This means I will not have enough time to obtain a German ID card or passport before my departure to Poland. I do have color photocopy of residence permanent which is still valid till 2033.

After April 3rd, I will hold dual citizenship and still possess a valid passport from my original country. However, this passport would normally require a visa for travel to both Poland and Germany from outside the EU. Since I will have given up my permanent residence, I will have no proof of a visa.

Unfortunately, postponing my citizenship appointment is not a viable option, as I have several travel plans outside the EU after I return. Delaying the process further would also mean that my security clearance would expire, requiring another security check before I can get my citizenship. Therefore, this timing is ideal—except for the conflict with my trip to Poland.

I am aware of the express passport option in Germany but this is still risk it will not arrive in time.

According to Wikipedia:

For flights within the Schengen Area (either between Schengen member states or within the same Schengen member state), law enforcement agencies, airport authorities and air carriers are permitted only to carry out security checks on passengers and may not carry out border checks.[Such security checks can be conducted through the verification of the passenger's passport or national identity card

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Area

If this information is accurate, I should be able to travel without a visa. I will be flying with LOT Polish Airlines. Based on my past experiences, including recent flights to Lithuania with Lufthansa, my passport and visa status was not checked, and my permanent residence permit was not required.

Would it be possible to fly to Poland and back without presenting my Visa or should there be anything I should be concerned about?

Update

I successfully travelled from Germany to Poland and back without a visa. Airline only asked for identification which my foreign passport was sufficient as long as it was not expired.

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    Are you aware that there is a document called "vorläufiger Personalausweis"? Commented Mar 14 at 12:48
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    And that it can be issued on the spot. Commented Mar 14 at 20:03
  • FWIW, I've had at least two colleagues who would travel in and out of Schengen having neither visa nor a residence because Polish authorities would take forever to actually grant the resident status. So they would just travel with their work contract and a confirmation that they have in fact applied for residence. One of them had trouble in the Amsterdam airport once, but generally it worked okay for them. Granted, this was a couple years back, and control can be more strict now (and they looked white or east Asian, this unfortunately can be a factor, I imagine...) Commented Mar 17 at 2:20
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    I look pretty german till I open my mouth so maybe it will be fine. @tomasz Commented Mar 17 at 11:12
  • @guest12356 i wasn't actually aware of that. I was planning to apply only for passport not for ID since you need either passport or ID in Germany but I will consider applying for ID if I can get the temp ID with it. Commented Mar 17 at 11:12

3 Answers 3

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In the "normal" scheme of things (provided you're not flying with Ryanair or other equivalent we-want-to-checks-document-we-don't-need-to airlines), yes, this would be perfectly possible. As you point out, as part of your air travel, while you may be asked for ID, they're not supposed to check for visas/permits.

You may stumble on a random check (by police or immigration), but this would be exactly the same as being randomly checked anywhere in Germany (it gets a bit more complex if the check happens in Poland, but police/immigration are usually easier to deal with than airlines). Make sure you have evidence of your previous residence permit and of your naturalisation process (they will probably give you some certificate after your appointment, won't they?).

However, there's the issue of "temporarily reintroduced border controls".

Germany has this one in effect on your travel dates:

Country Duration Reasons/Scope
Germany 16/03/2025 – 15/09/2025 Serious threats to public security and order posed by continued high levels of irregular migration and migrant smuggling, and the strain on the asylum reception system. The impact of the global security situation (including Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East) on security and migration; land borders with France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and the Republic of Poland.

The good news its that it only mentions land borders, so there shouldn't be issues there, but some countries can be a little overzealous. But again, that's police/immigration, not the airline. The only issue there is that it could take a little while to sort out, so add some buffer just in case.

Note however that this should apply only when coming back to Germany rather than on your way to Poland. Poland have not announced any reintroduction of border controls.

Also note that if you travel with Ryanair (and possibly a few other LCCs), they often insist on all non-EEA passengers going through a documents check and will refuse boarding if you don't have the required paperwork. They shouldn't, and there's been some info saying they stopped doing so, but I wouldn't trust them.

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  • they will give a citizenship certificate not exactly sure what the english name is but that is what I would use to apply for the passport. I can surely take the with me to Poland. Commented Mar 17 at 10:42
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Even if it is unlikely that you run into problems when travelling with your original passport, there is a simple solution to avoid any risk:

Apply for a temporary, German id card. These are issued immediately by your municipal authorities for a €10 fee.

If you for some reason should end up in a situation with the police or authorities in Poland and can't demonstrate your right to be there, you should assume that it might be a tedious and lengthy process to clarify that you are indeed a German citizen.

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    FWIW, the German Personalausweisgesetz requires citizens to be in possession of an ID Card (or passport) so the OP may have to get a temporary ID Card anyway. Commented Mar 15 at 13:24
  • @MisterMiyagi OP has a passport from their original country. Commented Mar 17 at 11:21
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In my experience (2020-2021) LOT does control visa/residence permit on the registration desk also for passenegers traveling within the Schengen area. I do not know if they perform similar checks at the boarding in the case you avoided the check-in desk.

I know that precisely because I know they should not, and never hand my residence permit before being explictly asked why am I a traveling without visa.

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