Citizenship Residence Requirements

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Hi All,

I'm Irish and my gf is a non EU citizen.

She currently resides here on stamp 4 based on our defacto relationship and has just renewed her 3rd year.

We are 5 years together and she has been living in Ireland for the past 8 but they don't count the student time.

My start up company recently got investment in Europe so we are planning to move there for a year and we will likely get married in the next year or so.

My question is about applying for Irish citizenship in the next few years based on naturalisation.

Because she will be here approx 4 / 5 years on stamp 4 it seems easier for her to apply for citizenship through naturalisation.

With this is says you need 5 years recokonsable residence in the last 9 years with year 5 (365 day) continuous before the application.

We are worried if we move away for a year it will stop her applying in the future? Ive Heard some stories about people taking holidays and being denyed citizenship.

Love to hear any genuine advice on this.

Thanks

Caranica

You have to be resident for the final year before applying. That's not 365, you are allowed a few weeks holiday. If it's in any way possible for you guys I would suggest she stays here until she can apply for citizenship though if she's on a de facto visa that might not work.

Otherwise, when you move back here, wait until you've been home a year before she applies. She'll need that for residency requirements anyway for 5/9

Log-on

we intend to fully move back for the final year as moving to Europe is only temp for a year while i set up an office.

If she can renew her 4th year on stamp 4 while being abroad then we will be back permanent fro the final year (5 year)

mvl

Actually on this, I also thought few weeks are allowed (especially since some ppl may have a need to travel for work not holiday), but I understand this is not the case anymore: currently "“an applicant must literally never leave the State [in those 12 months]. Not even for one day. Not even to enter Northern Ireland (an impossibility for many persons living by the border). They must have entirely uninterrupted residence in Ireland”." -
https://www.thejournal.ie/citizenship-high-court-residency-continuous-4728401-Jul2019/
- anyone knows if there is a chance this may change in near future ?

dennyk

mvl wrote: »

- anyone knows if there is a chance this may change in near future ?

Keep an eye on this page for updates:

http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/citizenship-updates

The Department of Justice and Equality is working on a solution and will likely propose new legislation to the Oireachtas in the next month or so. The Department's old discretionary policy was that up to six weeks spent outside of Ireland per year being counted, including the required last year of "continuous residence" was automatically permitted, while absences of more than six weeks were considered on a case-by-case basis (which is what lead to the court case in question; they'd denied the fella who was petitioning citizenship because he'd been out of the country for over a hundred days in the last year or something), so I'd expect the proposed legislation will be something similar.

OP, moving away from Ireland for a year won't disqualify her from obtaining Irish citizenship, it will just delay it. If she's been here less than four years, then it would simply "stop the clock" on her gaining reckonable residence towards the five-year citizenship requirement, and she'd start gaining reckonable residence again as soon as you both move back to Ireland to reside permanently and she obtains a new qualifying permission stamp. If she's been here more than four years under a Stamp 4 already, then it would interrupt her required year of "continuous residence", so when you did return she'd have to wait an entire year before applying, even if she'd had four years and X months of reckonable residence already, but again it would just be a delay, not a disqualification. The aforementioned court case should have no impact; moving away for an entire year would definitely break the "continuous residence" requirement even under the DJE's old policy, and hopefully the whole mess will be sorted out long before you return to Ireland and she starts attaining her final year of residence in any case.