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Early study

Poland

EU schooling at half the Western European price, if you can solve the visa.

5/5
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Tuition
~$19.6–25.1k/yr
Warsaw international schools, secondary. Fees rise with the year group, which is why the rows are by year group rather than by school. Neither figure includes the registration fee or the refundable deposit.
Living
50.4% of US prices
A comparison of prices, not a budget: it says what things cost here against the United States, not what a month will cost you. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Education
Strong
EU standards, established British and IB schools in Warsaw and Krakow
Guardian visa
A guardian must be arranged
Measured as section 10-0 asks: the structure of the rule, which is the same for everyone, rather than one family’s odds. A parent who qualifies for a Polish permit independently is in a completely different position, and that is a fact about them rather than about Poland.
Safety
1.615 · 22nd of 163

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Tuition~$19.6–25.1k/yr

Two mid-tier Warsaw international schools, from their own 2026/27 schedules, secondary years only. The International American School charges PLN 78,000 for Grades 7 to 9 and PLN 88,000 for Grades 10 to 12, the grades its own fee table labels middle and high school; its PLN 74,000 covers Grades 5 and 6 and is not secondary, which a previous version of this record included. Thames British School charges PLN 91,600 for Years 7 to 9, PLN 97,500 for Years 10 and 11 at IGCSE, and PLN 99,950 for Years 12 and 13 on the IB diploma or A-levels. Warsaw’s top tier is left out and named so the exclusion can be argued with: The British School Warsaw, at PLN 122,960 to 129,940 across secondary, and the American School of Warsaw. The Pathoff method, section 12-4-1 rule 4 takes the middle tier because "international school" and "the most expensive school in the city" are not the same claim.

Warsaw international schools, secondary. Fees rise with the year group, which is why the rows are by year group rather than by school. Neither figure includes the registration fee or the refundable deposit.

WhatAs publishedPer year, USD
International American School — Grades 7 to 978,000 PLNa year$19,600
International American School — Grades 10 to 12Pre-IB and IB or American Diploma88,000 PLNa year$22,100
Thames British School — Years 7 to 9Key Stage 391,600 PLNa year$23,000
Thames British School — Years 10 and 11IGCSE97,500 PLNa year$24,500
Thames British School — Years 12 and 13IB diploma or A-levels99,950 PLNa year$25,100

5 figures from 2 separate decisions — a body that publishes its prices in finer detail would otherwise count for more than one that does not. Nothing stands above them, because no one of them is the country’s price.

Confidence
printed in the source
Last checked
2026-09
Living50.4% of US prices

World Bank, 2024, CC BY 4.0: the PPP conversion factor for household consumption is 2.0080 local currency units per international dollar, against an official exchange rate of 3.9808 to the US dollar. Their ratio, 0.504, is the price level against the United States, whose own ratio is 1 by construction. Both figures are theirs; the division is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

A comparison of prices, not a budget: it says what things cost here against the United States, not what a month will cost you. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
EducationStrong

Pathoff judgement, no rubric yet: placed against the other countries here from general knowledge of the international-school sector. Under review — see the Pathoff method, section 9-3.

EU standards, established British and IB schools in Warsaw and Krakow

Confidence
made by us from the source
Guardian visaA guardian must be arranged

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-1), early outcome band "A guardian must be arranged": the child’s schooling gives the parent no status of any kind. Poland’s family-reunification route lists the family members who may join someone already resident, and a parent joining a minor child is on that list only where the child holds refugee or subsidiary protection status and was unaccompanied when it was granted — a school pupil is neither. The person being joined must themselves hold permanent residence, long-term EU residence, protection status, or two years of consecutive temporary permits, none of which a school-age child has. Separately, a minor staying in Poland without a parent must be represented by a guardian appointed by a guardianship court. Placed at the top of the band rather than the bottom because a parent can come on their own footing — work, study or business — in a country that issues a great many work permits. Nothing about the child creates that footing, which is what keeps it out of the band above.

Measured as section 10-0 asks: the structure of the rule, which is the same for everyone, rather than one family’s odds. A parent who qualifies for a Polish permit independently is in a completely different position, and that is a fact about them rather than about Poland.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
Safety1.615 · 22nd of 163

Global Peace Index 2026, Institute for Economics and Peace: score 1.615, ranked 22 of 163. Both figures are theirs; we publish them as they are.

Confidence
printed in the source

What it is like here

Warsaw's international schools charge roughly what a mid-tier German school does and sit in one of the safer countries in Europe, so the schooling side of this works. What we could not establish is the part that decides whether it is possible at all: whether a parent can accompany a child here on a route of their own. Until that is confirmed the score below is missing its hardest ingredient, and the page says so rather than filling the gap in.

How the process works

1

Apply to the school

Warsaw's established international schools admit by assessment and interview; places in popular year groups go early.

Timing not confirmed
2

Establish how the family will be resident

This is the open question, not a formality. Confirm with the Office for Foreigners before committing to a school place.

Timing not confirmed

Where families cluster

Warsaw
Almost all of the international school supply, and the highest rents in the country

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-03.

Photograph of Poland, licensed Pexels License, via Pexels.