Spaniards, Italians, Frenchmen, Englishmen, but also Georgians, Mongolians, and citizens of the Kingdom of Bahrain - all of them have already taken advantage of the InfoLink services.
The office, offering free assistance to foreigners who study and work at, or visit, Wroclaw, has had its first anniversary lately. In this period, it has been visited by over 250 persons. The infolink.wroclaw.pl website has had over 13.5 thousand unique users. This is not bad, given the fact that there are over 4 thousand foreigners who are officially registered in the city.
Multifunctional
As Wiktoria Mazur, a consultant at InfoLink, explains, the largest number of questions is sent by email. Most often, the questions pertain to official residence registration, health insurance, and legalization of stay. At InfoLink, they can also get assistance with other problems, such as finding a flat or contacting Polish authorities. If necessary, consultants accompany foreigners whenever an interpreter is required. For example when dealing with officials or, as happened lately, during a traffic accident. They also offer legal assistance in English and German. They advise on where people can spend their free time in a pleasant and interesting way. They also recommend doctors or other specialists who speak a specific language. Thanks to cooperation with many institutions and companies in the framework of partnership programmes, they also offer to foreigners discounts for various services and goods.
Multilingual
InfoLink provides information in English, German, French, Russian, Ukrainian and, upon request, Spanish and Portuguese. "It was a man from Portugal who asked us probably the most original question", said Wiktoria Mazur. "He needed a barber who would understand his instructions concerning his new haircut, expressed in his native language. We advised him of a barber who worked in Portugal for a few years.
Mobile assistance
InfoLink is a partner of a programme of the wrOPENup foundation which, in collaboration with AppsWith.us, has implemented a mobile application for foreigners. WrOPENup can be downloaded from Google Play and Apple App Store. Thanks to the application, foreigners can get information about places where they can speak specific foreign languages. Those places are shown on a map. WrOPENup also enables people to participate in many contests with awards. The application is integrated with the InfoLink website; therefore, it offers reliable advice and information.
During the daily contacts with foreigners, InfoLink employees see what they miss here. Hence the new ideas on how to facilitate the life of expatriates in Wroclaw and to make it more attractive. We will learn the details in a few weeks.
Text and photos: Asia Strutyńska
