Irish Passport, Citizenship & Naturalisation

Step 1 – Ensure that you qualify

You are eligible for application if:

• – You are 18 years, and above, at the time of the application.
• – You intend to remain in the country even after you get citizenship.
• – You’ve accumulated sufficient ‘reckonable residence’ in Ireland.
• – You have been in the country, continuously, for the 1 year that immediately precedes your application.
• – You are the spouse or civil partner to an Irish national.

Age

You have to be 18 years and over. And if you are applying for a child, you must ensure that:

• – The child is of Irish descent
• – He/she was born in Ireland after January 1^st 2005 and didn’t qualify for citizenship by birth.
• – The child’s parent is a citizen by naturalisation.

Citizenship for partners of Irish citizens

Are you married to, or in a civil relationship with an Irish national? If so, you can apply for citizenship through nationalisation. But you have to meet the following conditions:

• – You are 18 years and above.
• – You’ve been in the marriage for 3 years or more.
• – You’ve been in Ireland for 3 out of the 5 years before applying. Also, you must have been in Ireland or Northern Ireland for a year, continuously, before the application date.
• – You live with your partner
• – You are of good character
• – You have the intention of remaining in the country even after you become a citizen.

Character

For you to be regarded as of good character, you must:

• – have no criminal record
• – have no driving offences
• – clean and that there are no ongoing investigations against you
• – have no pending criminal cases in court
• – have no civil cases going on or have received any warnings from the Gardaí

You will be asked to disclose all this information on your application form.

Residence in the state (reckonable residence)

Reckonable residence is simply the number of days you have been in Ireland before applying for citizenship through naturalisation. Now, for you to qualify for citizenship in Ireland:

• – You must have lived in the country for at least 5 years (1825 days) in the last nine years
• – If you are a spouse/civil partner to an Irish national, you must have been in the country for 3 years (1095 days) overall, in the last 5 years.
• – You must have been in Ireland for at least 365 days, continuously, prior to submitting your application.

For non-EU or Swiss nationals, they can only prove that they meet these requirements, by adding up the duration of the permission stamps. The only stamps allowed when calculating reckonable residence are; Stamp 1, 3, 4, and 5, which means that if at all you spent time in Ireland as an international student or visitor, it won’t count.

For EU nationals who don’t have permission stamps on their passports, they will need to provide documents that prove you lived in the country during the specified time to prove reckonable residence. These documents include:

• – Household bills
• – Tax return forms
• – Bank statements
• – Mortgage documents
• – Payslips or employment letters
• – Tenancy agreement

Remember, all the documents have to indicate your name and address clearly.

Future intentions

As earlier mentioned, your future intentions after acquiring citizenship are also critical in the process, and whether your application is approved or not. Now, you must intend to continue residing in the country even after naturalisation. If you are granted citizenship, and then move away from Ireland, you will be needed to complete form 5, which basically declares your intention to maintain your citizenship while you are abroad temporarily.

Step 2 – Filling the application form

There are a number of forms that you can fill and can all be downloaded on the ISD website. They include:

• – Form 8: for an individual of full age
• – Form 9: for a minor
• – Form 10: for minor of Irish descent
• – Form 11: for a minor born in the country but not entitled to citizenship at birth

When filling the form, you should always ensure that you read the notes attached very carefully, and never leave blank spaces. If a question doesn’t apply to you, better write “N/A”, which stands for ‘not applicable.’ After you are done filling the form, you will need to sign it, and can only do so in the presence of someone who can act as a witness, probably a Peace Commissioner, a Commissioner for Oaths, Notary Public, or a Practising Solicitor. The information on the witness is available on your specific form. Once you are done completing the application and have signed everything, you must then return the form to INIS together with all the required documents listed on the form.

Step 3 – Gather your documentation

The documents required from you depend on your specific situation. Whichever document is asked from you, ensure that all of them are in the English language, and if not, you must get them translated before submitting them. And in all cases, regardless of your situation, you have to provide evidence of your identity and nationality. For instance, if you are an adult aged 18 and above, you will be needed to provide your current original passport plus any other previous passports you’ve had during your periods of residence in the country, together with a copy of each passport’s biometric page. Your passport will be returned to you in a period of 6 weeks.

The other documents that will be required from you are those relating to your status as well as the duration of your stay in Ireland, which include:

• – Your Irish Residence Permit (IRP)
• – A declaration of refugee status or even subsidiary protection
• – Permission letters from the Department of Justice allowing you to remain

For EU citizens looking to apply for citizenship based on residence, they can always find out the documents that are required from them as proof of residence on the ISD (Immigration Service Delivery) website. For those applying based on a marriage or civil partnership with an Irish national, you will need to submit documents proving your spouse’s nationality, as well as evidence that you’ve been in the marriage for 3, or more, years.

Moreover, there are those documents that will need to be certified by a solicitor or a commissioner of oaths as ‘true copies’ for them to be accepted. They include:

• – Your birth certificate
• – The birth certificate of your spouse ( i.e if the application is based on marriage to an Irish national)
• – A marriage or civil partnership certificate proving your marriage to the Irish citizen

You will also require a tax clearance certificate that shows how your tax affairs are – and that they are in order.

Now, if for some unavoidable or unexpected reason you are unable to access any of the required documents, you need to state clearly the reasons why you can’t access or include them as part of your application. And if it’s the birth or marriage certificate you can’t send or find, then you must use an affidavit to explain why you can’t the certificate.

Step 4 – Make a declaration

After everything is ready – both the application form and the supporting documents – the next step will be to make a statutory declaration. Basically, a statutory declaration is how you declare and swears that everything you’ve provided is true and accurate. The declaration has to be done in the presence of an authorised witness, who can be:

• – A solicitor
• – A notary public
• – A peace commissioner
• – A commissioner for oaths

All adults applying for citizenship through naturalisation must make this declaration. If your application is based on marriage/civil partnership with an Irish national, the spouse must also make the declaration. There will be a small fee for the solicitor who witnesses your statutory declaration. The witness will also have to give you two passport size photographs, which he/she signs and dates at the back, which you will then have to send together with your application.

Step 5 – Submit your application and pay the application fee

Check your application again to ensure that you have filled everything as it should and that all the documents required have been included as well. The application form does have a detailed checklist that acts as your guide. Remember to pay 175 EUR, which must be a banker’s draft – no other type of payment is accepted. The drafts can be gotten from any bank, without necessarily having to open an account with the bank. In the event that your application is declined, this payment won’t be refunded.