Another naturalisation thread (sorry!)

Babaro

Hi guys

Hope perhaps someone can clarify my situation.

I am a UK citizen, from Scotland. In 2007, I moved to Ireland. I lived in Dundalk, in Co. Louth, and worked in Newry, Co. Down (in the North). I lived in the State in 2007 and 2008, renting a room on an ad-hoc basis in a shared house. I paid rent in cash, had no tenancy agreement, and obviously no utility bills in my name.

I have letters from the Gardaí (not relating to any naughtiness on my behalf), my employer, and bank statements amounting to three for each year, but not three for each address for each year. Furthermore, I have wageslips from my job in the North which do not show my address in the State during that period.

Because I worked in the North, I have no certification from Revenue for this period.

I returned to the UK after losing my job (without claiming any social welfare in Ireland, to which I may have been legally, but certainly not morally, entitled).

In 2012, I returned to Ireland, living in Co. Kildare. I rented rooms in shared houses on the same basis in 2012 and 2013. I have a similar issue with no rental agreement or utility bills. I have retrospective letters from my local library, and employers, stating that I lived at an address during the period in question.

During 2014, I lived in the UK.

In July this year (2015), I returned to live in the State. I do not intend to leave Ireland again. I am renting a house of my own, and have utility bills, letters etc in my own name. In July 2016, I will have completed a full year of living in the State, and will have three proofs of address (wage slips, bank statements, letters from Revenue, etc. etc. etc.) to show this.

I am intending to apply for Irish citizenship through naturalisation - but because I am a UK citizen, there are no stamps in my passport, and because I lived in shared accommodation on an ad-hoc basis, I have little evidence to show I was resident in the State for four of the eight years preceding my full twelve months of residence other than that described above.

Will it be a waste of time and money to apply for citizenship based on the above?

Nichard Dixon

If you were paying tax in Newry, then there must have been some official address attached to that. If that was not your address in Dundalk then there is a question over the extent to which you lived there, especially if you had no dealings whosoever with Irish revenue etc.

Babaro

If I would be able to get in touch with HMRC (it would have been Customs and Excise at the time, which now makes me feel old..) and ask them to confirm my address in Dundalk, that would be another couple of proofs. That's a really good shout, and one I hadn't thought of; thanks!

Nichard Dixon

Babaro wrote: »

If I would be able to get in touch with HMRC (it would have been Customs and Excise at the time, which now makes me feel old..) and ask them to confirm my address in Dundalk, that would be another couple of proofs. That's a really good shout, and one I hadn't thought of; thanks!

There must be some summary document for tax in that tax year that you can ask for with the address on it.

Maybe do a few bank of the envelope sums to make sure that you weren't liable for Irish tax though, since you obviously didn't do so at the time. Unlikely that you were, as Irish allowances were high at the time, any UK tax paid probably covered anything required.