The Washington Post

The Washington Post: a consular convention in force:



"Oh, sure. There is a consular convention in force between the US and Poland that has been there since the Nixon presidency: see TIAS 7642, or 24 U.S.T. 1231, or 1972 U.S.T. LEXIS 253, or http://travel.state.gov/poland_treaties.html



It was signed in Warsaw on May 31,1972 and came into force on July 6, 1973. It guarantees to any US citizen the right of departure from Poland on completion of his or her visit, on the basis of his or her legally held American passport - with none of this Polish chauvinist nonsense of the exclusively Polish citizenship, allegedly inherited by infinite generations of Americans from their Polish ancestors for all time.



However, while not game enough to formally renounce the convention, Poland has decided it will not comply with it. To date, they have got away with it, mainly because State Dept. has had more important matters to occupy their time.



The abrogation of the 1972 consular convention by Poland has been disguised by a not very clever technicality. Poland unilaterally dropped the visa requirement for US citizens in 1991, hoping to induce the US to do the same.



When this did not happen, because the record of compliance with US visa laws by Poles visiting the United States is nothing short of shocking, Poland decided (incidentally, that decision came during Mr Sikorski's tenure as Deputy Foreign Minister responsible for Polish consular affairs), that they would no longer respect clauses of the consular convention which are technically dependent on American travellers being in possession of Polish visas. Thus while the US State Department considers the 1972 Convention to be fully binding as a whole, Poland choses to ignore the key clause:



"Persons entering the Polish People's Republic for temporary visits on the basis of United States passports containing Polish entry visas will, in the period for which temporary visitor status has been accorded (in conformity with the visa's validity), be considered United States citizens by the appropriate Polish authorities for the purpose of ensuring the consular protection provided for in Article 29 of the Convention and the right of departure without further documentation, regardless of whether they may possess the citizenship of the Polish People's Republic."
"