What to Do When Someone Dies in Poland

The phone call no one prepares for. A spouse, parent, or friend has died in Poland, and you're standing in a country where every official form, every office clerk, and every legal deadline operates in Polish. The next 72 hours are critical — miss a registration window and you create problems that take months to untangle.

Here's exactly what to do, in order.

The First 24 Hours: Secure the Medical Death Card

Before anything else, a doctor must formally pronounce the death and issue the karta zgonu (medical death card). How this works depends on where the death happened:

• At home: Call emergency services or the deceased's primary care physician. The responding doctor examines the body and issues the karta zgonu on the spot.
• In hospital: The hospital's medical staff handles the paperwork internally.
• Sudden, violent, or suspicious death: The police and regional prosecutor take custody of the body. A forensic autopsy is ordered — family consent is not required under Article 209 of Poland's Code of Criminal Procedure. The forensic department issues the karta zgonu once complete.

If the cause of death is a listed infectious disease, the body must be buried or cremated within 24 hours. The registration deadline also shrinks to 24 hours.

Register the Death Within 3 Days

Take the karta zgonu to the local Civil Registry Office (Urząd Stanu Cywilnego, or USC) that has jurisdiction over the place of death. You have three calendar days from when the karta zgonu was issued.

Bring:

• The karta zgonu
• The deceased's passport or Polish ID card
• Your own identification

The registrar enters the death into Poland's electronic civil registry and issues one free abridged death certificate (odpis skrócony aktu zgonu). For international estate matters, also request a full copy (33 PLN) and a multilingual abridged copy (22 PLN) — you'll need these for banks, embassies, and courts in your home country.

Report to Your Embassy or Consulate

Foreign nationals should report the death to their home country's embassy or consulate in Poland. US citizens need a Consular Report of Death Abroad (CRODA) to settle estate matters back home. British citizens should contact the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Don't delay this — consular offices can take days to process paperwork, and you'll need their documentation for everything from insurance claims to repatriation.

Freeze Bank Accounts and Stop Benefits

Within the first month, notify the deceased's Polish banks. Individual accounts are frozen immediately upon notification, and any powers of attorney expire the moment of death. Using an ATM card or online banking credentials after the death is a criminal offense under Polish law, even if you held a valid power of attorney before.

Contact ZUS (Poland's Social Security Institution) to stop pension or benefit payments. Any state benefits deposited after the date of death are clawed back automatically.

What Comes Next

Once the immediate crisis passes, you face three major deadlines:

• 6 months: Decide whether to accept or reject the inheritance. Missing this defaults to acceptance with limited liability.
• 6 months after probate finishes: File Form SD-Z2 with the tax office to claim full inheritance tax exemption for close family. Miss this deadline by even one day and the exemption is lost permanently.
• 12 months: Claim the 7,000 PLN ZUS funeral grant using Form Z-12.

Each of these has its own paperwork, offices, and traps for English speakers. The Someone Died in Poland guide walks through every step with translated form examples, deadline trackers, and bilingual scripts for communicating with Polish officials.

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