Ireland De-Facto Visa

Hi folks,

Quick query; can a de facto application be submitted digitally (USB) or does it have to be in physical hard copy?

So, here's our update for anyone who's interested: my girlfriend got approved last week for De Facto Permission to remain in Ireland: it’s stamp 4, so we’re chuffed!

Background on relationship: I’m Irish and my gf is Argentinian. We lived together in Argentina between mid-2014 and early 2016. Then we moved to Ireland and have lived together here since, with my gf on an English student visa which she renewed the maximum 3 times (last one just recently expired). Anyway, that's four years uninterrupted cohabitation - 2 years is required, but it is difficult to prove in our situation.

1. We applied in 2016 and received a rejection letter straight away within about a month. The letter said our relationship wasn’t considered "akin to marriage". I think it was because we were living with my parent. This rule seems to have been changed now and rightly so, with the housing situation in Ireland. When we figured this out we decided to re-apply.

2. Sent a new application the first week of November, 2017. A week later we received a letter confirming that they received the application. Our application included the relevant de facto application form signed by local peace commissioner and witnesses etc. You can get details for your local peace commissioner from your garda station and he will stamp your application without charging you as a solicitor would. We included proof of relationship since 2014. We sent everything we could think of: photos, bank statements from our individual bank accounts showing transactions between us, credit card bills, flight tickets from trips we took together, international money transfer receipts with addresses, medical insurance certs, copies of passports showing all valid visa stamps, letters from my gf’s English school confirming her address in Ireland. The idea is to prove you have been living together for two years so all correspondence would obviously have shown my address and her address as the same, at the same dates. Also, in Ireland it took ages for my GF to get approved for bank accounts and to get name on utility bills and stuff, so a lot of the most concrete evidence we originally submitted was from 2017. Nonetheless, we did what we could to show that we lived together between 2014 and 2016. I had a feeling that they would ask for more stuff, but it was important to initiate the application as soon as we could.

3. It takes them about 6 months to process this initial application. We got a letter back at the beginning of May asking for further documentation i.e. most recent 6 months bank statements, updated medical insurance, 6 months payslips from Irish partner, police clearance cert. They gave us 2 weeks to get this stuff back to them – stress! Sent it all in.


4. Got ANOTHER letter 2 weeks later asking for more stuff – more stress! The police clearance cert we had sent was more than 6 months old and our medical insurance was just about to expire, so we needed to send new ones. They also asked us for more proof that we were living together in 2015. Apparently we didn’t provide sufficient proof in November, but this was weird because they didn't ask for such things in the letter 2 weeks earlier. This time they only gave us only 7 days to submit the requested documents. Thank god Argentina allows for quick access to police clearance certs online so we got this straight away. We had to do some digging for proof that we were living together in 2015 and found some old tax certs with my girlfriend’s address on them and some language institute registration certs with my address from Argentina (this was a shared address obviously). I also contacted my university and asked them to provide a letter stating that I was living at this shared address during 2015 and 2016 as I had been doing university related stuff in Argentina. Thankfully, the university were happy to provide this.

5. Received a letter a week after submitting this round of documentation saying that were were approved - the relief!

6. Rang local Garda station to make an appointment and went up this morning to show our letter of approval, passports, and copy of medical insurance. Garda took copies of everything and told us that it would take about 2 weeks to get my gf’s new INIS identity card, at which stage he will also stamp her passport presumably. We paid 300 euros, which was not very enjoyable but beats deportation !

Other stuff:
My gf's visa expired a couple of weeks ago and we asked for a temporary visa while she was waiting on a final response from INIS. One of the email responses we got back form INIS asked us to apply in writing to the de facto office. We sent this letter and never heard anything back. I then emailed them again and they said she could not apply. So, the rules for this are very unclear to me. I then contacted our local Garda station to explain that current visa had expired and we were expecting an answer within a week and they were very understanding.

Also, you must be living together minimum 2 years by the date you submit your original application. They won't take into account the 6 months your application has been in their office waiting to be examined.

If anyone is thinking about applying in the future I would advise to get as much stuff as possible in both names and KEEP EVERYTHING (thank jaysis my gf is a hoarder) utility bills, gym memberships, tax certs, payslips, etc., etc. , etc. Joint tenancy agreements are very valuable forms of evidence too.

Hopefully this helps anyone thinking of applying.

Have you asked can he be granted a Stamp 3 while your application is being processed?

I am not currently in this situation but have had previous partners from non Eu country and have looked into this before. But can i ask the people affected here, if you married your partners would this whole process become easier?

kmart6 wrote: »

Not exactly, there are restrictions put in place after a marriage for a period of time, info is all on the INIS website. Also, getting married just for a visa isn't a reason to get married.

My friend is marrying a non eu citizen, they got engaged after 5 weeks, wedding is in August, the only know each other 7 months. Non EU partner is on a stamp 2 student visa, however he has already dropped out of college and so is therefore in violation of the visa which expires 2 weeks after the wedding. I am hoping the wedding doesn't go ahead but my friend is oblivious (by choice) to the whole immigration process. From doing my own research if the marriage goes ahead the partner won't be able to renew for another year for the stamp 2 as he has failed this year of college or might be given a stamp 3 where he would have to quit work. I think they think that once they are married they walk into immigration and he will be handed a stamp 4.

Monife wrote: »

This can happen if he is legal in the country but with only 2 days on his visa to go after the wedding, even if they walked in the next day, the immigration officer would be highly suspicious and I'm not sure they would give him a stamp 4.

He would then be illegal and have to apply to INIS as spouse of Irish national which can take up to a year to get a decision - he cannot work during this time.

They will have a hard job proving the validity of their relationship which such a short period together also.

Am I right in thinking that they have to go to immigration after the wedding. He will be obviously looking for a stamp 4 but regardless of being married it is still a 6 months to a year process to get the stamp 4?

Is it at the discretion of INIS to give him a stamp 3 in the interim while they wait on their application? Or they could tell him to leave the country until a decision is made?

From what I am aware he needed a 75% attendance rate at college, as well as to have passed his exams to renew his Stamp 2 which he will now be unable to do since he dropped out and didn't do the exams.

From what I can see the marriage is now his only way of staying in the country and from what I've read this is a reason to deny an application. His only way of getting a stamp 4 is through marriage, on his own he would not be eligible.

ElChe32 wrote: »

I know a colleague of mine recently married a lady from the Philippines. INIS gave her a tourist visa to come and have the wedding ceremony in Ireland but then she had to return home until they processed her Stamp 4 based on marriage to an Irish citizen. They got married in February and the case is still to be processed.

Oh wow. I just don't know whats going to happen in my friends case. With him technically legal at the moment in the country but the visa expires shortly after with no chance of renewal of the stamp 2 as his has failed college. I have already warned my friend that he could end up married to someone deported or asked to leave the country but it falls on deaf ears. I wouldn't care if the fiance was a nice person but he isn't.

Just an update on our situation....

My boyfriend was on stamp 2. We went to a good immigration solicitor in July to advise us on the best course of action (pricey but worth it in my opinion). We were going to send in a de facto application but instead we were advised to fill in an EU1A de facto application, which is slightly different. We sent our application with all the requested documents early this August. A few days ago we received a letter to say he is now on a temporary stamp 4. In the meantime they will look through our application in relation to getting a residence card, so fingers crossed we get it. They said they will let us know within 6 months.

To get the stamp 4 on his passport we needed to make an appointment in GNIB in Burgh Quay. The online appointment system is terrible. There is nothing for months on end. We got an appointment through GNIB on facebook.......brilliant service! At first I thought it was dodgy but it's not. I even emailed a few people to make sure this service was legit. This will be the second time I'm using it. You pay a small fee. You just tell them when you need an appointment and they do their best to make it happen. We have our appointment tomorrow!

I'm not actually sure if it's official. But they take a lot of stress and hassle out of it for you. You can relax and get on with your day knowing that you'll get an appointment very quickly. You get e-mail confirmation too which you can print out if you wish and bring it along to GNIB or show on your phone. I definitely recommend it.

fmt38 wrote: »

We were going to send in a de facto application but instead we were advised to fill in an EU1A de facto application, which is slightly different.

Just wondering why you were advised to fill in an Eu1a form in stead of the defacto application.

I'm from N.Ireland and have a British passport. We were advised by our lawyer to fill out the EU1A form.

mountainwrites wrote: »

I was then contacted a couple weeks later, requesting updated health insurance (I accidentally sent an expired cert) and a Police Clearance from every country in which I have resided over the past 5 years (except Ireland). When we applied, I had only resided in Ireland for the previous 5 years, so I sent proof of address covering my entire residence here.

I'm an American who is putting together my application now. How did you acquire a Police Clearance from the US? I'm residing in Dublin right now but everything I am seeing on google says to go to my local US police station...
Thanks, jobie

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/immigrants-have-to-pay-sites-to-secure-visa-appointments-1.3664568

My girlfriend and I have been together for 2 years this January. She is non EEU(Brazil) and her student Visa is expired almost 2 years. We are planning on travelling to Denmark to get married in February and return to Ireland, with marriage cert, apostille etc. My only worry is at immigration. First of all, can she leave on an expired Visa to another EU country and secondly, what will happen once we return at immigration?

Yes, that is correct.