The only constant thing, – is change. We change our home address, our mailing address, we change our business address. Much less often, but it also happens, we change our e-mail address. What to do to make sure that letters addressed to us go to the new address?
In this article:
- How to redirect mail to another address?
- What is an Electronic AWIZO?
- Postal power of attorney to receive registered letters
- Extension of time to receive letter
- Parcel tracking – Poczta Polska
- eSbox – an alternative to a virtual office?
Redirection of mail to another address – Delivering Polish Mail
Forwarding, – this is a service of the Postal Service that will help you receive letters from different addresses in one place. It will be most useful if you and/or your company have just changed address. Checking the mailbox at your old address can be a nuisance. Asking new tenants to send mail is uncertain and cumbersome.
For each such address you need to set up a “Deliver“. This must be done at the post office, where you will confirm your identity in front of the lady at the window. An ID card will be sufficient for an individual. In the past, this was not the case, and you could receive other people’s letters, as the portal niebezpiecznik.pl had the opportunity to check. In the case of Economic Activity (DG) – it is worth having a printout from CEIDG, and in the case of commercial companies – KRS. If you don’t have a printer – you can show the relevant register entry online from your phone – this often works.
Print“Request for Delivery” https://www.poczta-polska.pl/hermes/uploads/2018/05/druk-nr-99_dosylanie.pdf, print and complete at home/office. They are usually also available at the window at the post office. With the completed“Request for Forwarding“, go to the post office so that the lady can confirm your identity. The Polish Post Office allows you to redirect letters for a maximum of 12 months, and after that it is worth repeating the maneuver. If you plan to redirect correspondence from more than one address, – it’s worth embracing the forms at home, – because sometimes at the post office they do not have enough.
Request for backhaul – completed template
The cost of such an application on the day of writing the article was 6,00 PLN. Thereafter, each letter sent is paid separately.
You can also complete Post Office E-Forms via the Internet form https://eformularze.poczta-polska.pl/zadanie-dosylania/ – the plus side of this solution is that you don’t have to pay, but you still have to go to the post office to confirm your identity. You have 14 days to do this:
e-form request for backhaul
It is also possible to do everything remotely, using a trusted profile. In this case, you will not need to go to the post office:
Choosing a trusted profile as a method of confirming identity
Detailed price list of the service: https://cennik.poczta-polska.pl/plik,1/cennik_oplat_dodatkowych_16032020.pdf
Redirection of Post Office mail – ideas on how to use redirection of letters from the court and other places
I set myself a reminder in the calendar, which comes to me every year with addresses from which I want to redirect mail to my current address. And if you move – add your last address to this list and that’s it.
If“redirected mail” comes to me, – I also sometimes ask the sender to change my address to the current one.
Details of the entire process and what the Post Office may want can be found here.
If your new address is “more permanent” – it is a good idea to respond to all letters sent from different places and inform about your new mailing address. However, if this is not your “destination” address – you can simply maintain the forwarding of correspondence and possibly consolidate it slowly.
Not all letters will be sent to you at the new address. Unfortunately, the most sensitive ones will remain at the old post office. You can check the exact list of types of such letters at the above link under “Important!” > “Service not included”.
If you can’t get these letters normally, it would at least be useful to know about them.
Electronic AWIZO of registered letter
Registered letters very often relate to official matters, and their importance increases as we grow, because over time we have more and more to lose in the case of an unfavorable (although sometimes wrong) administrative decision. It is worth knowing that an unclaimed registered letter is considered delivered. Even worse, the office recognizes that we not only received such a letter, but also learned and understood its contents. The time to receive a registered letter is usually 14 days. It may turn out that we are on vacation and cannot receive such a letter. In such a case, we have two options: an extension of time to pick up the letter or a postal power of attorney. Whichever you plan to do, it is worth asking the Post Office to send us an email or text message (I recommend email) in case a registered mail/registeredletter/AWIZO comes to us. The Post Office formally calls this “Request to receive notices in electronic form” and marketing-mildly calls it “eAWIZO“, you can find more on the Postal Service website: You can find detailed information about this service of the Polish Post Office here: https://www.poczta-polska.pl/epoczta/einfo/awizo/
Once you start eAWIZO, you will receive an email or SMS about all eAWIZO letters that come to your address. This is also worth setting for all addresses. Here it is worth noting the rule: “In the case of letters in criminal, civil, court-administrative, administrative, tax, and letters in a case of violation of public finance discipline, you will receive a paper notification.” Unfortunately, this means that we may still not be informed about these most important letters. The post office interprets this provision differently even within the same post office, sometimes they send and paper AWIZO and email/SMS, and sometimes they send only paper. So it does not give us 100% certainty, but it always increases the chances of success.
You can request an electronic AWIZO from the post office directly using the following printout: https://www.poczta-polska.pl/hermes/uploads/2013/10/druk_nr_97_e-awizo-skład.pdf.
eAWIZO template
We take the completed document to the post office. If we are an individual, we will need an identity card, in the case of a company, additionally an extract from the KRS (commercial companies) or CEIDG (business activity).
You can also fill out the Poczta Polska eforms electronically using https://eformularze.poczta-polska.pl/eawizo/
Screenshot of the eAWIZO form
In this case, we will not have to pay the PLN 6.00 application fee, but you will still have to go to the post office to confirm your identity.
It is also possible to do everything remotely, using a trusted profile. In this case, you will not need to go to the post office:
Choosing a trusted profile as a method of confirming identity
In both cases, if we use a virtual office – then we should give our office address there. We should be a little more careful if our virtual office has a postal power of attorney and receives all registered letters for us, so that it does not turn out that the office will not be informed of the incoming mail. Alternatively, set a rule in your email to automatically send notifications of registered letters to the virtual office.
Now you are already getting information about AWIZO. Unfortunately, this does not mean that you will easily receive such a letter. The AWIZO usually lies in the post office for 14 days, so if you are on vacation, on a business trip or simply live in another city – you have a problem. In such cases, you can use the help of friends or the services of a professional virtual office. The formalities involved are worth dealing with before you leave, because it is impossible to grant power of attorney from abroad. However, you can do it while you are in Poland, using any post office.
Postal Power of Attorney – authorization to collect registered mail Polish Postal Service
You can authorize third parties to receive AWIZOwed letters (except criminal cases). To do this, again, you must go to the post office and post the proof (and KRS/CEIDG, if applicable). This option allows your trusted person to pick up the letter that came to you at a specific address to a specific post office, on your behalf. It is very worthwhile to sensitize such a person to necessarily immediately send a photo/scan of such a letter to you. Receipt of a letter by a friend counts as if it was received by you, including all the consequences (e.g., the running time of filing a protest within 7 days). That’s why, for example, in our virtual office we peel registered letters ourselves directly from the post, so that the scan is with our client first thing in the morning, not when the letter carrier comes to us.
How to fill out a Postal Power of Attorney?
Allowing someone to collect your letters is can be done by filling out a Postal Power of Attorney form at the post office https://www.poczta-polska.pl/hermes/uploads/2018/05/druk-nr-88_pelnomocnistwo-pocztowe.pdf
postal power of attorney template
This form is best filled out looking deeply into the eyes of the “lady at the window,” because crossing out in it, as in elementary school, disqualifies the document and you have to fill it out all over again. Most often people get confused when entering dates in the from field (it should be at least tomorrow) and the name of the post office. So, it is worth being patient and having some printed forms with you. Remember that you need to provide the number of your trusted person’s ID card or other proof of identity.
Once the postal power of attorney is posted and paid for, it is a good idea to make a note for yourself of where and on what date it was submitted. Usually the post office scans such a power of attorney and sends it to the post office, responsible for the address indicated on the power of attorney. However, they sometimes forget to do so and/or lose the power of attorney. Therefore, it is advisable to go to the destination post the next day and confirm whether the power of attorney has arrived and what its number is. Power of attorney numbers usually look like this number/year (e.g., 217/2020) and apply to the post office in question.
Power of attorney at the post office – what’s the catch?
The list of mail described in the application, unfortunately, is incomplete. Sometimes it happens that the clerk at the post office does not agree to issue a letter, even if you have a power of attorney. It is worthwhile to complete the “other” field with:
- ordinary mail
- registered mail
- declared-value letters
- ordinary postal parcels
- postal parcels with declared value
- COD shipments
- amounts of postal remittances, checks, PZWs
- court, treasury and all other consignments
As of recently, due to COVID-19 the procedure has been simplified and you can submit a postal power of attorney using a qualified signature https://media.poczta-polska.pl/pr/493751/poczta-polska-upraszcza-procedury-odbioru-korespondencji-dla-firm. Although this would seem to be an ideal solution, I strongly advise against it, due to the rule: “However, it should be borne in mind that, in accordance with current regulations, mail sent by courts and prosecutors’ offices cannot be issued to an attorney who has been granted a postal power of attorney submitted using a qualified electronic signature.” Which means that in really crucial and important matters (e.g., a letter from the KRS) we will not be able to use such a power of attorney.
Ideas on how to use a postal power of attorney
If you plan to register your company with a virtual office and they are to receive your letters – make sure they request you to give them a postal power of attorney.
It is worth giving such power of attorney to several trusted people. If you run a company, – then it is also worth giving it to your lawyer, this way the lawyer will be able to deal with the most important matters in your absence.
Authorization to receive a registered letter Polish Post Office – if you have several addresses in different cities – you can authorize in each city a different person who happens to live there.
The above steps actually take care of most of the problems with receiving mail. If you move more often or simply do not want to mess around with such things (involve friends, etc.), – it is worth giving your virtual office as your mailing address everywhere.
Storage of correspondence
If we are planning an extended trip, and we have neither a virtual office nor someone else to whom we can safely entrust the collection of letters. You can still think about contracting the post office for longer storage of our letters. In this case, I don’t have much experience and have to rely only on official information and reports from friends.
The general idea is quite simple – after two weeks of receiving the AWIZO, the letter does not return to the sender, but stays at the post office for an additional two weeks. This means that we actually have time to receive such a letter for almost a month. I don’t know what the legal effect of delivering such a letter would be (whether it is considered delivered after two weeks), but at least you will be able to familiarize yourself with the contents.
To make such an instruction, you can go to the post office, but he did not count on them having such a form in stock, so it is worth downloading it from https://www.poczta-polska.pl/hermes/uploads/2018/05/druk-nr-100_przechowywanie.pdf
Request for storage – template
There is also a little more information in this form about what shipments how long will be kept.
Unfortunately, again there is a rule: “Storage does not include letters in criminal, civil, judicial-administrative, administrative, tax, and a letter on violation of public finance discipline proceedings,” which significantly reduces the usefulness of this data.
Postal Service e-forms can also be submitted electronically using the link https://eformularze.poczta-polska.pl/zlecenie-przechowywania/:
Storage request – eForm.
After filling out the form, you will need to appear at the post office to confirm your identity. Although the aforementioned restrictive formulas are not here, they still apply.
The Polish Post Office officially calls this document“Request for Storage” and you can read more about it on their website https://www.poczta-polska.pl/paczki-i-listy/odbior/przechowywanie/
Tracking shipments
If we have received an AWIZO, theoretically always, and in practice very often, we have a registered shipment number on the AWIZO:
Sample AWIZO
By noting down the number of such an AWIZO for yourself , you are able to check when and at which post office the letter was posted; when it was received by the addressee, or was returned to the sender. This information is especially useful if we are bound by administrative deadlines. Often we have to respond to a letter, or we can appeal a decision within 7 days. In this case, the time limit begins to run on the day of receipt. The hour is not important, – only the date matters. Therefore, as part of the MIŚ package works we collect parcels directly from the post office, so that you do not waste precious hours waiting for the letter carrier. In our case, you will find the registered mail number in the name of the scanned letter:
The name of the file containing the scan of the letter
This makes it easy to tell when it was received from the post office, we scan on the fly, – we know that this can be very important. Using the number provided, you can also easily trace the shipment by going to the Tracking of shipments – Polish post office https://emonitoring.poczta-polska.pl abroad.
A screenshot of the Post Office’s parcel tracking
From here we can easily download some key information:
- Post Office from which it was sent – we can know the city of the sender by this
- What time it was sent – offices usually send at the end of the day, – just before 16:00-16:30 (depending on the working hours of a particular office)
- whether and at what time it was received
There also appears the possibility of indicating to the post office the day when it should try again to appear with this letter at your premises:“Take advantage of redelivery“. This option is an additional fee (as of the date of writing this article – PLN 4.50) and can be especially useful if you do not like standing in line at the post office.
We can also find parcel numbers on the receipt. By keeping track of such a number, we are able to confirm when exactly a particular letter was received. This date can again be useful if we require the addressee to respond within a specific number of days of receiving the letter:
Sample receipt
Such a yellow paper returns to our mailbox when the letter is received by the addressee. We can also keep track of the letter if we write down the register number of the letter when we send it to the post office.
eSkrzynka – expires 30.09.2020. (The second edition of the service expires on 30.09.2021).
The eSbox allows you to receive registered letters without leaving home and waiting for the letter carrier. All you need to do is log in with your trusted profile at https://eskrzynka.poczta-polska.pl/ and you would already be able to receive scanned letters instead of paper. The service seems to be very forward-looking and at some point could deprive virtual offices in Warsaw and beyond of most of the work they do. On the website we should give the Polish Post Office the power of attorney to open our mail:
Screenshot of the Postal Power of Attorney
Here, unfortunately, we again have the rule: “Postal service by means of electronic communication at the delivery stage does not apply to mail: 1) sent to or sent by: Courts and Tribunals; prosecution and other law enforcement agencies; bailiff; 2) whose sender has excluded the possibility of delivery in this manner.”. This makes this service useless for companies and more active people, because even a letter from the National Court Register verifying our address cannot be delivered by such a method (the post office for some reason considers the court registry as a court).
We add the addresses of interest and mark all consents:
eInbox after replenishment
Four working days later, the box will be up and running. Confirmation of the launch of the service will be received by email.
Ideas for what to use the eSbox for
I connected eSbox to my old addresses, so that I do not have to play with registered letters. It is known that the more “serious” ones won’t get to me, but you can still cut down a bit on the amount of paper documents to handle.
Unfortunately, eSkrzynka will not continue and such a cool service will be withdrawn as of 30.09.2020. The official position of the Polish Post Office:
We would like to inform you that in accordance with the Law of March 2, 2020 on Special Solutions for the Prevention, Prevention and Control of COVID-19, Other Infectious Diseases and Emergencies Caused by Them, as of September 30, 2020, the deadline for providing postal service using electronic communication means at the delivery stage expires.
The day of September 30 this year, will be the last day for delivery to addressees of correspondence in the form of a scan to the eSbox.
Revocation of power of attorney
Well… it’s nice that you can make all these dispositions. But what if you need to change something? Well… the best thing to do in such a case is to cancel. Unfortunately, the post office doesn’t have its own procedures and forms for this. Revoking a power of attorney may require a little more patience and forbearance on the part of Post Office officials than submitting it.
1. postal power of attorney
You can cancel at any post office, – you need to come with proof (and CEIDG/KRS, if any) and the number of the power of attorney, – the one based on which the attorney could receive letters. The post office sends our instruction to the appropriate post office and the next day the power of attorney should be canceled. It is worth contacting the destination post office the following afternoon to make sure that the power of attorney has been deleted from their system.
2. redirection of shipments – backhauling
You can cancel them only at the post office that delivers the letter. This means that if you did a redirection from the virtual office Warsaw Downtown to Krakow, al. Pokoju 13 , you need to go to the post office in Krakow. At the same time, the post office, serving this particular address. You can search for a post office using https://placowki.poczta-polska.pl.
3. electronic AWIZO
There is rarely a need to change the electronic AWIZO, because we rarely change the phone number or e-mail. In the case of e-mail, you can set up an automatic rule and you won’t have to go to the post office. However, if you want to do so you can appeal again only at the post office that delivers the letter. In the case of redirection from the virtual office Warsaw Centrum to the Wrocław, 7 Cherry Avenue – you should hit the post office in Wroclaw. You can search for the right post office using the data in the previous paragraph.