Has anyone managed to open a Polish bank account from the UK? Ideally I want to find a Polish bank in London to avoid having to go to Poland in the next few weeks.I've tracked down BZWBK which is owned by Allied Irish but I can't see they've got a branch in London. I would have thought with the number of Poles in London there would be one. Any ideas?ThanksHuw

HuwHave a look for the previous thread on this subject a few months ago, it was discussed to death !!Basically use Nordea bank. You can apply online, they send you the docs, take them to Nordea branch in London (pay £100, it must be a cheque !). They have a decent online banking site. No matter what anyone says you CANNOT get the docs done at the Notary, they will not be accepted (the rules were changed on this a while ago). Antony

Hi Antony/Huw,Nordea may have changed their requirements slightly - with the latest Nordea bank account I opened, they confirmed by email that we could get the notarised 'agreement' document (that they send out once you have submitted the completed application form)apostilled at the Foreign Office. This is useful as the FCO have a postal service for apostilling docs, and it saves a journey into London to the Polish Embassy. I am just about to test this out though, with the current bank account application I'm doing so we'll see what happens!NB. It did take nearly 2 weeks of emails to/from Nordea to get their permission to use the FCO apostilling procedure - their initial response was 'Embassy only'!All the bestHelen

Helen, I opened a Nordea account some weeks ago and did it all from the UK with no visits to embassy or London Nordea branches. They accepted an apostilled signature verification. My notary is very good, he gets very rapid turn around for apostilled documents from the FO by using some kind of privileged postal service for lawyers. His fee is £60 for a notarized document with £19 for the appostille. After 3 PS deals, he gives me bulk discount now! and he actually drives to my home in the evenings to do the witnessing. He's a real gem - based in Bristol.

I know this subject has been discussed many times at length but as the goalposts appear to have kept changing I just need clarification on one point. Can the account opening documents be notarised and apostilled at a local Notary or do I have to travel to London? Living in the North of England it's probably cheaper to fly to Poland than it is to get to London!!

Hi Mark My understanding is that the apostille part is carried out by visiting the foreign office. My notary (in London) carries this out on my behalf as part of the service. The alternative is visiting the embassy of the country concerned. Having proved my signature and identity I'm able to send documents to the notary which he can notarise (and apostille if necessary) without me having to go anywhere which obviously saves a lot of time and effort. Huw

Thanks Huw My local Notary in Leeds also has the authority to Apostille so do I really need to go to the Foreign Office in London? Mark

Mark, I suggest you ask him as my understanding is that the notary does whatever he/she needs to do to stamp the relevant docs but then takes them to the foreign office to have the signature verified. Huw

Mark That right the aspostille is just the checking of signatures against an approved list of notaries. In the end I found it easier to get my account set up by visiting Poland. It took about 10 mins in a Nordea branch office and the saving just about paid for the trip. Alan

I think the Notary local to you can organise for the document to be apostilled down in London. All the best