How to Get an Irish Passport:
An Irish passport is one of the most sought-after travel documents in the world.
I have both Irish and English citizenship and have always used the
Irish passport in preference.
It's kitschy but true;
being Irish is seen as being more, well, likeable or something.
The
easiest way to get an Irish passport of course is to be born in Ireland.
But, if you drew the short straw on that one, you're going to need an Irish parent or an Irish grandparent.
If you have an Irish great-grandparent you need to satisfy the following
requirements;
There are two circumstances under which
a great-grandchild is eligible to apply for Irish citizenship by descent:
- If the parent (the grandchild of the Irish born person)
registered before the great-grandchild was born; or
- If the parent (the grandchild
of the Irish born person) registered before the 30th June 1986 and the great-grandchild was born after 17 July 1956.
The Irish Consulate in New York explained that the parent would need
to be registered in the "Foreign Birth Register" which is held at the Consulate, effectively a listing of those
of Irish citizens born abroad who are entitled to Irish citizenship who have their births "registered."
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Prime Minister
Brian Cowen has indicated that he would favor relaxing naturalization laws and allowing Americans whose
nearest Irish relative is a great-grandparent to claim citizenship, provided they have spent some time either working or studying
in Ireland. So watch this space.
A practical
use of an Irish passport is that you will be entitled to work and travel freely in any of the 27 countries in the European Union.
You
won’t need a work permit for this – and once you have worked in a European Union county for a certain length of time, you will be entitled to unemployment compensation, health care and pension
rights.
How else then can you get an Irish passport?
Getting a passport is really the easy part – it’s getting Irish citizenship that takes a little time.
Born in Ireland
To get an Irish passport, you must first become an Irish citizen. Fortunately, Americans can hold
dual citizenship, as can Irish, so there’s no conflict there.
Let’s
look at the scenarios that allow you to claim Irish citizenship.
Anyone
born in Ireland before January 1, 2005 is an Irish citizen. After that date, it is not automatic, and the citizenship and
residency history of both parents is taken into account.
Marriage
to Irish citizen
You are also entitled to Irish citizenship
if you are married to an Irish citizen.
To
claim citizenship by marriage, you must meet the following conditions: you must be married to an Irish citizen for at least
three years; you must have had one year of "continuous residence" on the island of Ireland immediately before
the date of your application; and finally, you must have been living on the island of Ireland for at least two of the four
years before that year of continuous residence.
If you were born
outside of Ireland and either your mother or father (or both) was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, then you are
entitled to Irish citizenship.
Permanent residency
If you have been a permanent resident in Ireland, you can try to become a citizen
through naturalization. You will need to have lived permanently in Ireland for the previous five years, be over 18 and
not have a criminal record.
But let’s face it – living
in Ireland for five years is a lot of effort just to get that Irish passport. A much better way to get an Irish passport is
to have at least one Irish grandparent. And by Irish, we mean an Irish grandparent who was or is an Irish citizen.
Irish grandparents
What to do next?
After getting an Irish grandparent,
the next thing to do is to call an Irish consulate and ask them to send you an application form. There are Irish consulates
in most of the major U.S cities. They should also be able to advise you on getting the right documentation in order for your
application.
You’ll need a copy of your grandparent’s
birth certificate from Ireland. If you don’t have a copy you can get one from the General Registry Office in Dublin.
You will also need: Your grandparent's certificate of marriage;
your parents' birth and marriage certificates; and an original death certificate for any of these relatives who have passed
away. If the grandparent is deceased, you’ll need to show a certified copy of their death certificate, and if alive,
a current official I.D. (such as a driver’s license or passport.)
To
access the Irish documents, it will help you to know as much information about where and when your Irish grandparent was born,
which may involve some genealogy research.
If one of your parents
is Irish, and you would like to get an Irish passport, the process is easier. You need: their marriage certificate; a current
official I.D; a copy of their death certificate if your Irish parent has passed away, a full long-form birth certificate of
your Irish parent, showing your grandparents’ names, places of birth and ages at birth.
You will also need: your own long-form birth certificate; documentation to show that you have
changed your name, such as a marriage certificate, if this has happened; a notarized copy of your current passport, and at
least three other notarized copies of proofs of identity, one of which must be a photo I.D; a bank/utility statement with
your current address; and two signed passport photos.
Once
you have established your Irish citizenship – which can take up to 18 months to process – you can apply for an
Irish passport. This can take up to six weeks to process and you can do this through your nearest Irish consulate.
And then, you too can sashay through the EU passport section at Dublin airport
after the overnight flight from New York!
