Introduction: The Question Behind the Question
"Do I need to nostrify my diploma?" is one of the questions I hear most often from English-speaking clients. And in the majority of cases, the honest answer is: probably not — at least not the full formal procedure. Poland recognises a great many foreign degrees automatically, and people regularly put themselves through months of paperwork that nobody actually asked them for.
I am Monika Sypniewicz, a sworn translator of English registered with the Polish Ministry of Justice (TP/58/09, on the official list since 2009), working from ul. Ruska 41/42 in Wrocław. Diplomas, transcripts, and diploma supplements pass through my hands every week — for job applications, university admissions, and nostrification proceedings. In this guide I will lay out the three paths to having your degree recognised in Poland, help you figure out which one you are actually on, and explain exactly which documents need sworn translation and in what order.
The Three Paths to Recognition
Path 1: Automatic Recognition (Most People Stop Here)
Under Polish higher education law and a network of international agreements, degrees from many EU, EEA, and OECD countries are recognised in Poland by operation of law. A bachelor's or master's degree from the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Australia, Canada, and a long list of other countries is treated as equivalent to its Polish counterpart for general job market purposes — no procedure, no application, no fee.
What an employer will typically want in practice is simply a sworn translation of your diploma into Polish, so the HR department can read it and put it in your file. The same usually applies when a foreign degree appears in your karta pobytu application or other immigration paperwork. If this is your situation, you can skip straight to the section on translations below.
Path 2: A Statement from NAWA
Sometimes an employer, a professional body, or a university wants more than your word (and your translated diploma) — they want an official confirmation of what your degree corresponds to in the Polish system. That is the role of NAWA (Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej, the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange).
NAWA issues written statements describing a specific foreign diploma: whether it entitles the holder to continue education, what Polish degree it corresponds to, and on what legal basis it is recognised. The statement is an information document, not a formal administrative decision — but in practice it is exactly what most institutions are looking for when they say they need "official confirmation" of a foreign degree. NAWA's free online qualification tool is also a useful first check for typical diplomas from a given country.
To request a statement, you submit the diploma and supporting documents to NAWA — and here too, foreign-language documents need translations, with sworn translations being the safe standard.
Path 3: Formal Nostrification at a Polish University
Nostrification (nostryfikacja) is the full formal procedure in which a Polish university examines your foreign degree and issues a certificate confirming its equivalence to a specific Polish diploma. You only need it for regulated outcomes:
- Continuing education where the foreign degree is not automatically recognised for that purpose — for example, admission to certain graduate or postgraduate programmes;
- Doctoral studies in some configurations of foreign degrees;
- Regulated professions — where Polish law requires a recognised Polish-equivalent degree as a condition of licensure.
The procedure is conducted by a university that runs degree programmes in the relevant discipline. The university reviews your diploma, transcript, and programme content, may ask you to sit additional examinations or complete differential coursework if the programmes diverge significantly, and then issues (or refuses) the nostrification certificate.
The fee is set by each university but capped by regulation at approximately 50% of a professor's base salary rate — which in recent years has meant somewhere in the low thousands of złotys. The cap moves whenever the underlying salary rate moves, so check the current amount with the university where you intend to apply. Universities can reduce or waive the fee in justified cases, and it does not hurt to ask.
Timing: once you submit a complete application, the university is required to resolve it within a statutory deadline of 90 days — but that clock excludes the time you spend supplementing documents or sitting any required exams. Realistically, plan for one semester from first contact to certificate.
Which Documents You Need — and Which Need Sworn Translation
For a nostrification application, the standard file looks like this:
- The diploma itself — the original or a certified copy, with apostille or legalisation (see below);
- The transcript of records or diploma supplement — showing courses, grades, and credits across the whole programme;
- Sometimes: a thesis abstract or course descriptions — if the nostrifying university wants to compare programme content in detail.
All of these must be submitted with sworn translations into Polish (tłumaczenie przysięgłe) prepared by a translator registered with the Polish Ministry of Justice. An ordinary translation, or a certified translation made in your home country, will not be accepted — if the difference between these is unclear, my complete guide to sworn translation in Poland explains the Polish system from the ground up.
I translate English-language education documents personally. For diplomas in German, Italian, French, Dutch, or Ukrainian, I arrange sworn translations through trusted sworn colleagues for those languages — one point of contact, the same standard of care.
Apostille First, Translation Second
This ordering question trips people up constantly, so let me be unambiguous: get the apostille (or legalisation) on your diploma before you order the sworn translation.
The apostille is attached to the original document in the country that issued it — for a US degree, typically the Secretary of State of the issuing state; for a UK degree, the FCDO. Once it is attached, it becomes part of the document, and the sworn translation then covers both the diploma and its apostille. Do it in the other order and the Polish institution receives a translation with an untranslated apostille stapled to it — at best you pay for a supplementary translation, at worst the file bounces and you lose weeks.
Whether you need an apostille at all depends on the institution: nostrifying universities generally require it for the diploma, while an employer reading your CV almost never does. The full decision logic — including which countries are in the Hague Convention and what legalisation looks like for those that are not — is in my guide on apostille vs. sworn translation in Poland.
Two Special Cases Worth Knowing About
School Certificates Go Through the Kuratorium
Everything above concerns higher education diplomas. Secondary school certificates — for example, a foreign high school diploma you need recognised before applying to a Polish university — follow a separate track through the regional education authority (kuratorium oświaty). The logic is similar: many certificates are recognised automatically by law or treaty, and the rest go through a recognition procedure at the kuratorium. Sworn translations of the certificate and grade lists are required there too.
Regulated Professions Have Their Own Procedures
If you are a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, lawyer, architect, or member of another regulated profession, nostrification of the degree is only one piece of the puzzle — and sometimes not even the right piece. Regulated professions have separate professional recognition procedures run by the relevant ministry or professional chamber, with their own document lists and exams. Before commissioning any translations, ask the body that licenses your profession in Poland exactly which documents they want and in what form. I am happy to translate to whatever specification they give you — it is much cheaper to ask first than to translate twice.
What the Translations Cost
My pricing for education documents is straightforward:
- Higher education diploma (English): from 120 PLN as a fixed price per document;
- Transcripts, diploma supplements, course descriptions: billed per standard page (1,125 characters), from 55 PLN per page from English into Polish — full rates on my pricing page;
- Thesis abstracts: also per standard page, quoted individually based on length.
A diploma is quick — usually ready the next business day. Transcripts and supplements are denser: a typical diploma supplement runs to several standard pages, so a complete nostrification package (diploma + supplement) is usually ready within a few business days. Send me scans of everything at once via the contact page and I will quote the whole package within about 30 minutes during working hours, with a firm delivery date — no surprises.
A Quick Decision Guide
- Applying for a normal job? You most likely need nothing more than a sworn translation of your diploma. Check whether your country is on the automatic recognition list — it probably is.
- Employer or university wants official confirmation? Get a NAWA statement for your specific diploma; translation of the diploma will be needed along the way.
- Continuing education, doctorate, or regulated profession? Formal nostrification (or the professional recognition route). Apostille the diploma at home, then order sworn translations of the diploma, supplement, and anything else the university lists.
- Recognising a school certificate? Head to the kuratorium oświaty, not a university.
And if your move to Poland also involves swapping your driving licence — another document that needs a sworn translation, and on a stricter deadline than your diploma — my guide to exchanging a foreign driving licence in Poland walks through that process step by step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need nostrification to work in Poland?
Often not. Degrees from most EU, EEA, and OECD countries are recognised automatically for general employment purposes — an employer can simply accept your degree, and in practice asks only for a sworn translation so the documents in your personnel file are in Polish. Nostrification becomes necessary only when the law attaches specific consequences to the degree: admission to further studies, doctoral programmes, or licensure in a regulated profession. If nobody has explicitly told you to nostrify, check the automatic recognition rules before starting the procedure.
What is a NAWA statement?
It is a written confirmation issued by the National Agency for Academic Exchange describing what your specific foreign diploma corresponds to in the Polish system and on what legal basis it is recognised. It sits between doing nothing (automatic recognition) and full nostrification: faster and lighter than the university procedure, but more authoritative than your own assurances. Most employers and many universities accept it as sufficient confirmation.
Which documents need sworn translation?
For nostrification: the diploma, the transcript of records or diploma supplement, and any additional documents the university requests, such as a thesis abstract — all into Polish, all by a Ministry-listed sworn translator. For a NAWA statement: the documents you submit with the application. For ordinary employment: usually just the diploma. When in doubt, ask the receiving institution for their list before ordering anything — and if they are vague, send me what you have and I will tell you what clients in the same procedure have typically needed.
Apostille first or translation first?
Apostille first, always. The apostille is attached to the original diploma in the issuing country and becomes part of the document; the sworn translation then covers the diploma and the apostille together as one complete file. Translating first means the apostille arrives untranslated, which most institutions will ask you to fix — a wholly avoidable second round of paperwork.
How much does a diploma translation cost?
From 120 PLN as a fixed price for an English-language higher education diploma, ready the next business day. Transcripts and diploma supplements are billed per standard page from 55 PLN, and because supplements tend to be dense, the supplement usually costs more than the diploma itself. I always quote the exact total for the whole package before starting, so you know the full cost upfront.
Let Me Take the Translations Off Your Plate
Recognition procedures involve enough institutions already — the translations, at least, should be the easy part. Send scans of your diploma and transcript through the contact page, tell me which path you are on, and I will come back with a quote and a delivery date within about half an hour during working hours. I will make sure your package arrives complete, correctly ordered, and accepted the first time. I look forward to working with you.