Non-EU spouse of EU citizen working in Ireland : prenatal care eligibility

noahsaver

Hi all,
I am very worried about this and I hope you guys can help me out. I am EU citizen and I just moved from a Nordic country to Ireland 9 months ago working for a software company. In the mean while, my wife remains in my original EU country. While we have been planning our full move to Dublin, difficult renting market has been our blocker. Now we must speed things up because of my wife's pregnancy.
While she is not an EU citizen, she is eligible for free healthcare in my original country. We wonder if she will be able to receive prenatal care in Ireland. From various sources, it seems that we need to see INIS to obtain Irish Resident Permit (used to be GNIB) card and then she will be able to receive free public prenatal care. We will have INIS appointment in October.
My questions are:
- How long will it take for her to obtain IRP/GNIB card? Is it a lengthy process?
- Let's assume we manage to have the card, what are our next steps towards having a baby here in Dublin?
Apologise my English. I really appreciate your time and inputs. Thank you, all.

Daisies

noahsaver wrote: »

Hi all,
I am very worried about this and I hope you guys can help me out. I am EU citizen and I just moved from a Nordic country to Ireland 9 months ago working for a software company. In the mean while, my wife remains in my original EU country. While we have been planning our full move to Dublin, difficult renting market has been our blocker. Now we must speed things up because of my wife's pregnancy.
While she is not an EU citizen, she is eligible for free healthcare in my original country. We wonder if she will be able to receive prenatal care in Ireland. From various sources, it seems that we need to see INIS to obtain Irish Resident Permit (used to be GNIB) card and then she will be able to receive free public prenatal care. We will have INIS appointment in October.
My questions are:
- How long will it take for her to obtain IRP/GNIB card? Is it a lengthy process?
- Let's assume we manage to have the card, what are our next steps towards having a baby here in Dublin?
Apologise my English. I really appreciate your time and inputs. Thank you, all.

Does she need a visa to enter Ireland? If she does you need to apply for an EEA family permit and then she applies for a resident permit when she arrives.

noahsaver

She already has short stay C visa and she will go here next month. I believe we should have no problem with paper work, my concern is how long the process of applying for IRP/GNIB card takes?
Thank you!

Daisies

noahsaver wrote: »

She already has short stay C visa and she will go here next month. I believe we should have no problem with paper work, my concern is how long the process of applying for IRP/GNIB card takes?
Thank you!

As far as I am aware you cannot apply for a residence permit on a short stay visa. Check out HERE

noahsaver

Hi,
She is "Family members of EU/EEA/Swiss".
"
You can apply for a single journey short-stay C visa which will permit you to enter and reside in the State for up to 3 months.

In the event that you wish to remain in the State for more than 3 months as a family member of an EU citizen exercising their free movement rights, you must apply (when in the State) for a Residence Card of a family member of a Union citizen. Information about how to apply is available here.
"
[I can't post links yet].

It says here that she doesn't need long-stay visa, right?

And my question remains unanswered: "how long the process of applying for IRP/GNIB card takes". Does anyone have knowledge on this?

aidom

I don;t have any personal experience of this but it says on the website that if you register for the IRP in Dublin it should arrive within 10 -15 days.

http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/irish-residence-permit

In order to receive free medical care you must prove that your wife will be ordinarily resident and the IRP is sufficient to do that.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/health_services/women_s_health/maternity_and_infant_welfare_services.html

I'd advise calling your local maternity hospital and asking what they suggest your wife does while waiting for the card to arrive. Proof of the appointment may suffice for them to register her as a patient.

noahsaver

aidom wrote: »

I don;t have any personal experience of this but it says on the website that if you register for the IRP in Dublin it should arrive within 10 -15 days.



In order to receive free medical care you must prove that your wife will be ordinarily resident and the IRP is sufficient to do that.



I'd advise calling your local maternity hospital and asking what they suggest your wife does while waiting for the card to arrive. Proof of the appointment may suffice for them to register her as a patient.

Thanks a lot. I will take your advice and contact the hospital to hear what they say.