Advice for an American immigrating to Ireland

cornbb

Hi all, I've read the "Americans who want to move to Ireland" sticky but could use some more help/advice in case anyone else here has been in the same predicament.

My girlfriend, a US citizen, has been living in Ireland for the past 3 months and working on a temporary visa. We want her to be able to live and work here for much longer than that. We've explored every avenue we can think of:

- She is not qualified in any of the professions where there is a work shortage (nursing, IT etc) and is not in a position to earn > €30k per year.
- She cannot obtain a visa via marriage or Irish blood relatives.
- She would be very reluctant to work under the table - I can see a myriad of disadvantages associated with this.
- She is interested in taking a full-time postgraduate course, but there is a year to go before the next academic year starts, and it is still only a temporary solution.

So it seems US citizens are not terribly welcome after all, here or abroad. I guess I'm asking whether I'm missing anything or am I just clutching at straws? We were recently speaking to a guy with a foreign girlfriend who claims they went into the Garda Immigration office hand-in-hand, casually asked for a working visa extension, and got it. But I have a sneaking suspicion he was telling tall tales. Is it worth a shot though? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Kattyboy25

So it seems US citizens are not terribly welcome after all, here or abroad.
I would like to point out if Irish people don't meet similar requirements to enter the US to live they're not welcome either!

Garda Immigration office hand-in-hand, casually asked for a working visa extension, and got it
Sounds like a tall tale alright.

Ireland is very much like most countries where people seeking to move here must meet certain requirements.

Honestly you have mentioned all points except for one, marriage, if you marry her she'll get a work permit to stay in the country, if you decide to go down this route be very careful, I am aware that this is a terriblely long and stressful process.

Personally I would go with the postgrad, keep this in mind that yes she is probably abit late to start a post graduate taught degree and will have to wait until next year, but would she be interested in post-graduate research instead, there are no fixed deadlines for starting she could start pretty much anytime. The bonus is she could make good money working in a university, E20,000+ (stipend+teaching+working in library etc) a year being a reseach post-grad.

cornbb

Kattyboy25 wrote:

I would like to point out if Irish people don't meet similar requirements to enter the US to live they're not welcome either!

What I meant is that we seem to offer extended working visas to citizens from a lot of countries (eg Canada, Australia) but not to US citizens. A lot of other countries have the same attitude as Ireland, so it is very difficult for US citizens to work abroad.

I am aware that this is a terriblely long and stressful process.

What, marriage? Hmm i'm aware the option is there but its not something we're seriously considering.

Personally I would go with the postgrad, keep this in mind that yes she is probably abit late to start a post graduate taught degree and will have to wait until next year, but would she be interested in post-graduate research instead, there are no fixed deadlines for starting she could start pretty much anytime. The bonus is she could make good money working in a university, E20,000+ (stipend+teaching+working in library etc) a year being a reseach post-grad.

The research postgrad route is very tricky to get into but we were thinking the taught postgrad option would be a good idea alright, although there would be a long wait involved before she could get started.

Thanks for the opinions anyway, if anyone can lead me to some sort of mystical magic door I'd be most grateful