The Verdict: Not eligible
Residence that began after 1 January 2001 does not qualify for repatriation. Check whether a parent or grandparent lived there earlier, and otherwise look at our diaspora route.
The condition is permanent residence in the covered territory before 1 January 2001, when the Act came into force. It does not move.
It does not require that the residence continued. Someone who lived in Kazakhstan in the 1990s and left in 2005 still qualifies, so check your own history against the date.
Spouses and descendants to the fourth degree travel on the application of the person who was there before 2001, so a grandparent there earlier who would come to Poland opens the family route. Our diaspora route uses the same definition of Polish origin with no territorial or date limit: permanent residence in Poland for a person of Polish origin who intends to settle, and citizenship after a year with B1 Polish.