An Indian national who stayed in Poland with forged documents for about a year has been banned from entering Schengen Zone countries for two years after being detained by authorities in Poland.
According to the Border Guard Officers, the 25-year-old stayed in Poland for 272 days from November 2023 without holding a visa or other valid documents permitting him to remain legally in the EU’s borderless area, Schengen.News reports.
The foreigner informed the Border Guard officers that he had a Polish residence card entitling him to stay in the territory of the Republic of Poland and presented a temporary residence permit for inspection. The residence permit presented for inspection raised doubts among the inspectors as to its authenticity. During the verification of the authenticity of the document, it turned out that the permit bore signs of forgery.
He argued that further activities confirmed that the Indian national had never been granted a temporary residence and work permit in Poland. He said that in Poland, the Indian national worked in the food industry, in the Nowy Targ district.
The 25-year-old admitted to forging a document. He also agreed to be sentenced without a trial. The Indian citizen was sentenced to six months of imprisonment with a conditional suspension of the sentence for a period of two years and a fine of PLN 1,500.
The Commander of the Border Guard Post in Tarnow decided that the Indian national was obliged to leave Poland within 30 days. At the same time, he banned the man from re-entering the Schengen Zone countries for a period of two years.
Indians Among Nationalities With Largest Increase in Poland’s Social Insurance System
When planning to travel to Poland, consequently to Schengen Zone countries, citizens of India are subject to visa requirements at first.
A large number of Indian nationals chose to travel to Poland for work purposes. The figures from Notes from Poland revealed that Indians were among the ten nationalities with the largest increase in Poland’s Social Insurance System (ZUS) last year.
In 2023, the number of internationals registered in ZUS increased by 6 per cent, reaching 1.13 million. Immigrants accounted for about 7 per cent of all those in the system.
The national groups that saw the most significant increase in Poland’s Social Insurance System in 2023 were Belarusians (21,264), Ukrainians (13,407) and Indians (4,588).