We consider the problem of extending germs of plane holomorphic foliations to foliations of compact surfaces. We show that the germs that become regular after a single blow up and admit meromorphic first integrals can be extended, after local changes of coordinates, to foliations of compact surfaces. We also show that the simplest elements in this class can be defined by polynomial equations. On the other hand we prove that, in the absence of meromorphic first integrals there are uncountably many elements without polynomial representations. 1