Irish Citizenship by Marriage or Civil Partnership

To apply for citizenship through marriage or civil partnership, applicants must ensure that they meet all the prerequisites to be deemed eligible:

• You must be aged 18 or over
• You must be married or in a recognised civil partnership with an Irish citizen
• Your marriage/civil partnership must be recognised as valid under Irish law
• You must be able to pass 3 years reckonable residence within the last 5 years of your application which includes 1 year of continuous residence on the island of Ireland immediately before the date of application
• You and your other half must already be cohabiting together as a married couple or as civil partners
• You must be able to prove you are of ‘good character’
• You must have plans to continue living on the island of Ireland which includes making a declaration of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State
• You must have kept your registration and immigration permission up-to-date with no gaps in-between

The application for citizenship through a marriage or civil partnership is relatively similar to that of those seeking citizenship via naturalisation. However, Form 8 is the appropriate immigration form applicants must seek and fill out. This form is then assessed by the Minister for Justice and Equality in Ireland.

To apply, hopeful applicants must first verify if they are a non-visa required national to Ireland. Some people, depending on their origin of birth, do not need a visa to reside in Ireland. In this event, non-visa nationals can simply take their marriage/civil partnership certification alongside their passport and their Irish partner’s passport to a local Garda National Immigration Bureau Registration office.

However, for those who do require a visa, the application is a little more complex as there are reams of supporting evidence and documents that need to be submitted and properly assessed to support their claim.

By entrusting the Immigration Advice Service with your case, your assigned immigration consultants will be able to walk you through the entire application process if you opt for our unique Application Package. Enquire with us today to see how this package can help you.

As previously mentioned, you must first obtain Form 8 from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs (DFE).

This form should be printed out and filled out in full, ensuring that you complete all relevant sections accurately and truthfully.

Once you’ve completed the form, you should collate it in loose leaf format and in page order. You should also collect the required supporting documents required for your application, arranged in year order. You should also include the Bank Draft in your application.

It’s important to note that you should not use staples, plastic pockets, ring binders, folders, plastic bags, boxes or any other kind of binding material to bind your application or documents.

Once completed and compiled, your application should be sent to the following address:

Citizenship Applications
Registration Unit
Immigration Service Delivery
Department of Justice
PO Box 73
Tipperary Town
Ireland
E34 N566

As part of any immigration application, there are documents that need to be submitted to support your claim.

For those seeking citizenship after marrying or entering a civil partnership with an Irish national, the documents necessary to submit are as follows:

• Birth certificate and original passport – to prove your identity and nationality
• Marriage or civil partnership certificate – to prove your partnership is legally binding to an Irish national and that it is recognised in Irish law
• The birth certificate or naturalisation certification of the Irish citizen – to verify the identity of the Irish partner

In the most part, these documents are to prove that the couple are who they say they are and can back this up. However, the couple must also provide evidence that they are cohabiting together which may entail a sworn affidavit and a portfolio of payslips and bank statements that demonstrate regular payments of utility bills. This is to satisfy the immigration officer that the marriage or partnership is genuine.

The applicant must also prove that they are of ‘good character’ and has been living on the island of Ireland for at least 3 years to pass the ‘reckonable residence’ requirement.

Once your application is submitted, the Irish Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) will process it and carry out the relevant checks to ensure that it complies with the requirements. This includes checking that:

• You have used the correct application form, and the most recent version of it
• You have paid the application fee
• You have completed all of the statutory declarations
• You have supplied all the relevant supporting documents

The ISD will also contact An Garda Síochána and the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) to check on your application. They may also contact other government departments or agencies, if necessary.

The ISD may also reach out to you and ask for more information or documents. If you’re asked to supply documents that were missing from your initial application, you may have up to 28 days to supply them.

As of 2023, it takes approximately 19 months for the ISD to process applications for citizenship.

However, it may take longer to process your application if the ISD need to reach out to you for additional information or documents, or if your application is a particularly complex one.

The application fee for Irish citizenship through marriage is €175.

This fee must be paid via bank draft. The bank draft must be drawn on an Irish bank and made payable to “Secretary General, Department of Justice”.

The application fee is nonrefundable and cannot be waived.

If your application is accepted, you must then pay a certification fee to receive your certificate of naturalisation.

For adults applying as the spouse of an Irish citizen, the fee is €950.

In most aspects of Irish immigration law, hopeful applicants must accumulate ‘reckonable residence’ in order to gain any form of permanent settlement in Ireland.

Citizenship by marriage or civil partnership is no different. Yet such a commitment to an Irish national does come with a minor benefit of having the ‘reckonable residence’ relaxed. In normal circumstances, applicants must have lived on the island of Ireland for at least 5 years to be eligible for citizenship. For those married or formally partnered with an Irish citizen, applicants need to have only resided in the State for a period of 3 years in the past 5 years to qualify for citizenship themselves.

It is important to note that, while applicants must surpass 3 years to be eligible, the last 1 year prior to making the claim for citizenship the applicant must have continually remained within the State. In the 4 years preceding that, the applicant must have amassed reckonable residence amounting to 2 years.

There are some circumstances where living in the State does not automatically count towards the residence period. For example, those who did not have permission to remain in Ireland at the time or those who were in the State for short-term purposes only, such as those on a Study Visa.

Our immigration consultants in Ireland are highly qualified in all areas of immigration law, just like an immigration lawyer. Ring the IAS today on (+353) 061 518 025 to see how we can help you sort all your documentation to support your citizenship claim.