The Thai embassy in Warsaw has not reacted to the 31 August rule at all. Its DTV page is dated 25 July 2024, and we opened it on 3 and 4 September: the same text, no announcement, no news item. The e-Visa form is the same one for the whole world, and since 31 August it carries two new documents. A Pole who assembles a package from the embassy site will turn up incomplete.
The site and the form disagree
| On the embassy site (July 2024) | In the e-Visa form (since 31 August) |
|---|---|
| a proof-of-current-location document | removed; proof of permanent residence in the country of filing instead |
| no criminal record certificate | a certificate from the country of citizenship or the country of filing |
| for a foreign national: long-term or permanent residence | “permanent residence”; how the post will read long-term has not been announced |
| a statement for the last month | statements for three months |
What did not change: the fee of 1,575 zloty, the 10 to 15 working days, the 500,000 baht threshold, and the requirement to be in Poland or Ukraine for the whole processing period. That last one predates the reform: anyone currently in Thailand or in a third country comes back first. We assemble the package for the form, not for the site. The embassy has no Polish-language DTV page.
Who qualifies: dowód, pobyt stały, rezydent UE
A Polish citizen needs only a dowód osobisty, both sides: in a case from 2024 no meldunek was required. For a foreign national the site names the karta pobytu, both sides. Two wordings on the card qualify by the letter of the site: pobyt stały and rezydent długoterminowy UE, both open-ended statuses. Pobyt czasowy is issued for up to three years and does not fit under “long-term”; we have seen no cases with a temporary card through Warsaw, and the post has not drawn that line itself. This is an open question, not a no.
A Pole living abroad does not file through Warsaw: from Germany that means Frankfurt, Munich or Berlin, and in Frankfurt an EU citizen needs nothing more than address registration; from Britain it means London, where only ILR gets through.
The KRK certificate: 30 zloty and one trap
The zaświadczenie o niekaralności from the Krajowy Rejestr Karny is issued to anyone, foreign nationals with a karta pobytu included; for a third-country citizen it will hold Polish data only. It costs 30 zloty and is handed over at the counter on the spot. The trap is in the electronic version: e-KRK, at 20 zloty, sends an XML file, and the register itself warns you not to print it, because a printout is not an official document. A visa needs the paper one.
The chain looks like this:
- 1.The paper certificate: the Biuro Informacyjne KRK in Warsaw or an information point at a district or regional court, 30 zloty, on the spot; by post, seven days.
- 2.A sworn translation into English: the register issues certificates in Polish only, and the EU multilingual standard form is good for EU countries only.
- 3.Legalisation at the MSZ: in person by appointment through e-Konsulat or by post, 26 zloty, and by law up to 30 days. An apostille for 60 zloty will not help: the Convention only enters into force for Thailand on 28 February 2027.
- 4.The Thai embassy’s stamp, 80 zloty, two to three working days; the embassy only takes documents already legalised at the MSZ.
An honest caveat. Whether Warsaw requires the certificate to be legalised, and whether it will ask for it at all, the post has not said: it is absent from the site, present in the form, and none of the Poles in our cases has been asked for it yet. No shelf life is set; we work to no older than three months. Steps 1 and 2 we always do, 3 and 4 we keep ready in case of a document request. The reverse order costs more: an e-KRK certificate in hand and nothing that can be legalised.
The fee: 1,575 zloty, not 10,000 baht
Polish sites write “10,000 baht” or “€350”; of the nearly thirty sources we checked, one names the right figure. Warsaw charges 1,575 zloty, which is about 13,950 baht and €364 at the ECB rate on 3 September: almost 40% more than “10,000 baht”, and the most expensive DTV fee in Europe after Bern. Payment is by card, and the fee is non-refundable. The amount is confirmed only by that 2024 page.
Finances: no less than 500,000 baht, which is about 56,500 zloty; it is worth holding a margin for the exchange rate. Statements come in English or with a sworn translation: in an August case the sworn translation was needed for bank documents only, everything else was in English from the start.
Timelines from our cases: 12 and 20 days
Two Polish cases from 2026: 12 days in April–May and 20 days in August; in 2024 a Polish citizen had the visa in ten. We found not a single refusal to a Pole.
Warsaw’s document requests are routine. The first comes to almost everyone: every page of the passport, blank ones included, in one PDF under three megabytes. The second is proof that you really are in Poland: in August one applicant was asked for the boarding pass of the last flight from Thailand to Poland. All of these cases predate 31 August. Since then Warsaw has produced none, and we quote no timelines under the new rules.
Ukrainians through Warsaw
There is no Thai embassy in Ukraine: Warsaw serves Ukraine as well. The proof is a Ukrainian ID card or every page of the passport; the embassy may additionally ask for a valid visa, a PESEL certificate or an entry stamp. You have to be in Poland or Ukraine for the whole process. The criminal record certificate may be Ukrainian instead of the KRK one.
Cases: 9 and 11 days in 2025, but also five and a half weeks, and more than a month in the summer of 2026. The only refusal was an entrepreneur on a FOP with a self-assembled package; the application was cancelled without explanation. The main open question is for a Ukrainian living in Ukraine: by the form the country of filing is Poland, while their permanent residence is Ukrainian. The post has not closed that conflict.
Family and 15 September
A spouse and children under 20; a dependant’s finances are covered by a sponsorship letter and the sponsor’s statement. Per the form they need the certificate too, and Warsaw has announced no age threshold. From 15 September 2026 visa-free entry for citizens of Poland and Ukraine drops from 60 to 30 days, and the five-year DTV becomes the only calm answer.
What to do now
Be in Poland and do not fly out before the decision. Check the wording on your karta pobytu: pobyt stały or rezydent UE and you qualify by the letter of the site; pobyt czasowy and you start with the Preflight Check, which shows where the package will stumble over the form before you pay the fee. Order the paper KRK certificate, not the e-KRK one, and the sworn translation with it. Gather statements for three months, not one. The details and the open questions are on the post’s page, and the state of every consulate is on the board.
If you are not sure whether your residence status qualifies or where to start collecting documents, message Mira: she will check your citizenship and status, tell you which consulate is yours and send you the preparation steps. A package you have assembled yourself can go through the Preflight Check — $300, a written report within two working days; full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.