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Marrying 'non-EEA national'

  • 06-11-2009 3:16pm
    #1
    kawaii
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,327 ✭✭✭


    My girlfriend of the past few years was recently ordered to leave the country due to an expired visa and is now living back at home. How does this complicate our chances of successfully applying for marriage? And if (hopefully when) we get married will she be able to return here?

    All help appreciated!

    Thanks!


Comments

  • #2
    tatli_lokma
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,332 ✭✭✭tatli_lokma


    as someone who has been through the process it is not easy and it is further complicated by the fact that she overstayed her last visa and was technically subject to a deportation order. As such she may well be subject to an exclusion period.

    Notwithstanding the issue with her overstaying if all was straightforward you can first apply for her to get a visa in order to get married. To do this, you need to book the registrar. You can do this in person and she would need to make a postal application. Once you get a date for this, you then apply for her to come to Ireland for the wedding. You will need to prove a relationship of more than 2 years, and provide evidence of this in the form of joint utilities, bank accounts, photos etc. If you do not have any accounts in joint names or have not been living together this is quite difficult. This type of visa is quite tricky to get, and its less than 50/50 odds.
    If you get this visa, then she can legally come here to marry and once here she can apply for permission to remain on the basis of being married to an Irish national.

    If she does not get the visa to come and marry, her only other option is a new visa on the same basis as her old one or a visit visa. But given that she overstayed on her last visa, it is highly unlikely that they would be inclined to give her another visa. But if they did, once here, provided her visa allows her to stay 3 mths, you can then register for the wedding (minimum 3 mths notice required) then once the wedding is complete make the application to stay as spouse of an Irish National. The application for this takes longer if you do it this way - 6-10 mths, and they can refuse to extend her visa to allow this application if they wish. If they do this then she must return home and make an application from there.

    Bear in mind it is not an easy process, and understandably so. They want to ensure that people do not marry in order to get a green card, or to stay longer or indeed to return, so you will have your work cut out proving that you are getting married for the normal reasons and not just so that she can return to Ireland. If your relationship is less than 2 years, or if you were not engaged before her return home then it will make things quite difficult to prove that you are not marrying for untoward reasons!

    As someone who went through the process it is a pain, but I can at least appreciate it as an attempt to reduce the chances of non-genuine people using this method of getting a visa. From my own experience, if you are genuine and can prove it, things are fairly straight forward, but her overstaying in the past leaves a large fly in the ointment I'm afraid.

    One last option is for you to go to her home country and marry there. Once married you return home and she will make an application in her home country to join you. This may take up to 6 mths, but I have also heard of it being granted quicker - depending on the country you apply in and their workload.

    Finally, bear in mind, being married to an Irish national does not automatically impart the right to reside in Ireland, nor does it automatically impart work rights. She may even get a visa to remain, but with a work exclusion. So for this reason, when applying for her to join you/stay you need to prove your capability to provide for both of you without resorting to state resources - basically that you won't need to visit the community welfare officer for assistance once she arrives. If you are on the dole you can still apply for her to stay, but you must prove that you can manage to take care of both of you on one SW payment, because since she has not paid any PRSI and is non-resident you will not be allowed to claim any additional benefit for her!

    best of luck with it anyway.


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