Join Family Visa Ireland

In Ireland, the Join Family route (also called the Long Stay “D” Join Family visa/permission) is for non-EEA family members who want to live in Ireland with a qualifying family member who is an Irish citizen or is lawfully resident in Ireland.

People who may be eligible to apply include:

• Spouse
• De Facto Partner
• Civil Partner
• Adult Dependent
• Child Dependent
• Dependent of a Critical Skills Employment Permit Holder

There is no automatic entitlement for Irish citizens to bring their non-EU spouses or family members into the State, meaning most will need to seek immigration permission to enter and a visa to live there legally.

There are various requirements and documentary proof that you must satisfy in order to be successful in your Family Visa application to Ireland. It is integral that you are fully aware of what is expected of you when you pass border control into the State. Your IAS specialist will take this weight off of your shoulders by walking you through your eligibility and visa application from head to toe, so call us today to get the ball rolling on your family reunification plans.

The exact requirements needed for a successful application for an Irish Join Family Visa will vary depending, but you will be expected to meet the following:

• Have an eligible sponsor.
• Prove a genuine family relationship with your sponsor that existed before your intended move. Eligible family relationships include a spouse or civil partner, a de facto partner, a dependent parent, or a dependent child. In some cases, unmarried siblings under 18 may also be considered eligible family members.
• Submit supporting documentation
• Your sponsor must meet the minimum income threshold to demonstrate they can fully support you in Ireland without relying on state funds.

Financial Requirements for Ireland Join Family Visa

If you wish to sponsor your family member(s) to join you in Ireland, you must meet a minimum financial threshold depending on the category of sponsor you are and the number of people you want to join you.

If you are an Irish, UK or Swiss/EEA national, you must have earned a total income of €75,000 in the last 3 years before the family reunification application. This threshold is applicable whether you are sponsoring your spouse or children.

For category B sponsors, there is no fixed income threshold, as your employment status is sufficient proof that you are financially capable of supporting your family members.

If you are a category C sponsor and you want to bring just your spouse or partner to join you, you must have earned a minimum income of €30,000 in the year before the family reunification application.

If you are bringing your minor children, the minimum income requirement increases with the number of children:

• One child – €50,200
• Two children –  €60,200
• Three children –  €80,000.

If you want to sponsor an adult relative, you must meet a minimum income threshold, that varys depending on how many adult dependents:

• One adult – €96,929
• Two adults –  €130,985
• Three adults – €165,042

The Spouse and Civil Partner avenues of the Family Visa route are notoriously difficult to overcome. The Irish State is particularly cautious of immigration fraudsters via this route and warns that those who attempt to manipulate the State or seek this route to deliberately gain entry will be punished, refused and/or removed.

It is important to note that being married to an Irish citizen does not guarantee permission to enter and remain into Ireland. Within the Spouse and Civil Partner visa, the requirements vary slightly depending on the nationality of the sponsor while the lengthy criterion dictates a ream of evidence must be submitted to prove that you are in a genuine relationship. At a bare minimum, you and your partner must have met at least once and in-person as the State does not recognise online relationships by webcam, telephone or text as legitimate.

The extensive requirements include submitting marriage or civil partnership documents and sometimes even photographs and witness accounts. Usually, you will be required to submit a full account of your entire relationship history and the pair of you may be invited to an interview upon review of your Family Visa application by the Irish State. Your IAS immigration expert will be able to fully prepare you and advise you in advance to pass this seemingly interrogative interview.

A De Facto Partner Visa is part of the Join Family Long Term D Visa but differs slightly in the requirements that you must meet.

Unlike applying as a Spouse or Civil Partner, satisfying the ‘genuine relationship’ test can be an arduous task. This is because you must prove your relationship is valid and ‘akin to marriage’ without having the legal binding to support you.

Since the Irish State is cautious but stringent in cracking down on fraudulent and sham relationships for the purpose of immigration advantages, the De Facto Partner route faces above-average levels of scrutiny. It also has far stringent prerequisites to be met such as long and documented proof of the entire relationship. You and your partner must also have cohabitated together in the same residence for at least two years prior to applying. You must be able to evidence that your relationship is long-lasting and exclusive.

However, unlike most other Family immigration routes into Ireland, the permission is conditional on the relationship. This means if the relationship breaks down, so does the immigration status of the applicant who is dependent upon the sponsor.

Put your faith into the Immigration Advice Service to carry the burden of your De Facto Partner Join Family Visa route for you and start your application by enquiring today on (+353) 061 518 025. Your IAS expert can meet you in person or provide you with legal guidance over the phone or even video call if this suits you.

When applying to join family in Ireland, you will need to do the following:

• Step 1 – Establish your sponsor’s eligibility and determine the joining option that applies to you. If you are a non-EEA citizen, you may need a visa before you can travel to Ireland.
• Step 2 – Complete the application form via the AVATS portal. You must print out the filed form, sign and date it.
• Step 3 – Gather all the required documents for your application. You must submit all the required documents and the signed application within 30 days of submitting your online application.
• Step 4 – After completing your application, there is a waiting period while it is reviewed. During this period, applicants and their family members are advised not to make any travel plans, such as booking flights, until they are certain of their application status. You can use your application reference number to track your application’s progress.
• Step 5 – If your application was approved, you need to prepare for border control. When you enter Ireland, an immigration officer will review your documents and decide if you will be allowed to enter. You should inform the immigration officer of your intention to apply for residency based on your relationship with your sponsor. If you are granted entry, the immigration officer will place a landing stamp in your passport.

You must provide a variety of documents in order to support your Irish visa application. Documents provided must be originals wherever possible, and any not in English or Irish must be supplied along with a certified translation.

The documents you will have to provide will vary based on your own personal circumstances, but may include (but not be limited to) the following:

• Two colour passport-sized photographs no more than 6 months old and with your name and visa application reference number printed on the back
• Current passport and full copies of all previous passports
• Signed letter of application with:
  • Full contact details
  • Reasons for wanting to come to Ireland
  • Details of your family sponsor
  • Details of any other family members currently in Ireland, the UK or any other EU country
• Details of your sponsor’s eligibility to sponsor, such as copy of Irish passport
• Evidence of your family relationship, such as a marriage certificate, details of your authentic relationship or evidence of face-to-face meetings
• Birth certificate or adoption order (for children under 18)
• Custody orders
• Proof you meet the minimum financial requirements
• Proof of medical or travel insurance
• Details of any previous visa refusals

Joining a family member in Ireland is not as straight forward as it initially seems. It largely depends on your individual circumstances as well as your family member’s nationality and/or immigration category.

For this reason, it can take significant time to receive a Family Visa into Ireland, and it is best practice to wait until you receive confirmation of your acceptance into the State before booking any travel tickets or making arrangements.

Each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis and is handled in chronological order. However, generally speaking, if your sponsor is an Irish national, you should expect your visa within 6 months. If your sponsor originated from a country outside of the EEA, you can be waiting for up to 12 months to actually receive permission to join them.

In addition, you might have to wait until you can even apply if your sponsor falls under what is known as a ‘Category C’ immigration status. The wait could be as long as 12 months after your family member has registered in Ireland.

By contrast, ‘Category B’ holders can usually apply as soon as their sponsor has registered in the State.

It is best to seek immigration advice when deciding which Family Visa route best applies to you and to assess which category yourself and/or your sponsor falls into. This eliminates the risk of applying prematurely and losing your money – or submitting the wrong evidence which can jeopardise your entire case.

Generally speaking, it costs €60 for a single-entry visa and €100 for a multiple-entry visa.

However, there are some exemptions that apply to applicants that might mean you may not have to pay an application fee.

For example, the following family members of Irish citizens are exempt from paying application fees (when showing the required documents):

• Spouse
• Widow/widower (subject to death certificate)
• Child (under 18 years)
• Adopted child (under 18 years – subject to adoption papers)

In addition, the following qualifying family members of EU/EEA/Swiss citizens are also exempt from paying fees:

• Spouse Child (under 21 years)
• Child (under 21 years) of the spouse Adopted child (subject to adoption papers)
• Dependent parent
• Dependent parent of the spouse
• Other dependent family members in the direct ascending line (for example – grandparent) or descending line (for example – grandchild)
• Other dependent family members of the spouse in the direct ascending (for example – grandparent) or descending line (for example – grandchild)

Generally with a Join Family visa, you will be granted Stamp 4 permission.

With Stamp 4, you will be able to do the following:

• Work in any profession in Ireland without restriction
• Establish and operate a business
• Access state funds and services
• Use time spent in Ireland with this permission as reckonable residence when applying for citizenship by naturalisation

With this permission, you will not be eligible to vote or run in Irish elections, have access to free movement between the UK and Ireland and within the EU, or spend significant amounts of time outside Ireland without risking losing your permission.

If you are an Irish citizen, you can sponsor your non-Irish and non-EU family member to come and join you. To qualify, you must be financially independent from the State for a qualifying period of 2 years while accumulating a gross income of no less than €75,000.

However, if both you and your partner/family member originate from outside of Ireland and outside of the EU, moving to Ireland together can seem like a complex affair. This is because one of you must first gain the right to enter independently, and then act as the ‘anchor’ to sponsor your family member/spouse to come and join you.

To do this, the sponsor must gain legal footing via a valid immigration status on their own. An example of this would be being an Employment Permit holder and taking up a job in the country. If on a Critical Skills Employment Permit (Category B), bringing a dependent family member is a little more streamlined and can usually come in as though a ‘plus one’ under the permission agreements.

After the sponsor has arrived in Ireland and then registered, then the family member can apply to come and join them. However, there is no guarantee that this application would be accepted and it can take significant time to process. For example, Category B permission (researchers, investors, critical skills workers etc) may be able to bring their family member with them before having earned anything in Ireland and immediately after registering. Category C holders sometimes need to have earned and surpassed a certain amount before being able to sponsor their family member.

Call us today on (+353) 061 518 025 or email us your enquiry to hear about our comprehensive packages which aim to reunite you with your family in Ireland, no matter the complexity of your case.

A dependent is someone who relies solely on a primary sponsor, both financially and socially. The Irish State recognises a dependent as someone who has already or intends on remaining in Ireland continually, who is not in full-time education and who depends on the sponsor to live with.

Most commonly, this route is catered for children who wish to join their Irish family members or non-Irish resident who holds permission to remain in the country.

Non-EEA children up to the age of 18 can normally join their family in Ireland without facing stringent requirements to tackle. However, the sponsor would still need to satisfy financial requirements to prove that he or she can adequately provide for the child. Young adults up to the age of 23 who are in full-time education may also be able to join their family in Ireland as a dependent, too.

However, other adult dependents such as elderly relatives face higher hurdles to overcome to join their family in the State. Unlike children, they don’t have an automatic right to reside with their family in Ireland.

Aside from the Spouse and De Facto Partner visas, the Irish State offers an additional route to encourage talent to lay their roots in Ireland and to encourage migration.

Since critical skills are in short supply within Ireland, Critical Skills Permit Holders and workers who wish to relocate to Ireland to take up a highly specialised job are able to streamline themselves and their immediate family members into the country under this permission. As of March 2019, married and unmarried partners of Critical Skills workers or Researchers under a Hosting Agreement can not only come along to reside in Ireland but also don’t need to seek their own independent Employment Visa. They can access the job market as soon as they gain permission to reside in Ireland. However, they must successfully apply and gain this permission as a dependent of the Critical Skills Permit holder.

Check with IAS if you or your partner are eligible for this highly sought-after route. It may be that there are other options that are open to you if not that are similar but may entail seeking a different type of permission. Our team of experts offer the same advice as an immigration lawyer.

You should ensure you file for residency within 90 days of your arrival in Ireland or before the date indicated by the landing stamp at the border control. It is advised that you start the process early and not postpone till the last minute.

To file for residency, you must create an account on the Irish immigration online portal and book an appointment at the Burgh Quay Registration Office in Dublin. You and your sponsor will be required to attend the appointment. Ensure you take along all your supporting documents.

If your residency application is granted, the registration officer will put a Stamp 4, Stamp 1G or Stamp 2A on your passport, depending on the immigration status and nationality of your sponsor.

Only Stamp 4 and Stamp 1G give you permission to work in Ireland within the period indicated on your Stamp (usually 3 years).

You should also be aware of when your permission to remain in Ireland expires and ensure you apply to renew before this date.

If your residency application was not granted, you can submit a written application for residency to ISD and await their decision.

The Immigration Advice Service recruits only the best-of-the-best immigration lawyers to ensure a smooth service and to maximise our client’s chances of success. By trusting an IAS immigration law specialist to assist and guide you throughout your Family Visa application to Ireland, you can rest assured that your case is in the best hands. Applying without professional guidance is a serious risk, especially since the Irish State rarely reimburse or offer refunds in the event that your visa application is refused.

The IAS offers numerous services for you to choose from depending on the type of advice or package you are looking for. You may, for example, need a one-on-one Advice Session to get to grips with the complex requirements and documentary evidence that you need to submit. Others, however, prefer to leave their case in the hands of a professional from start to finish. The IAS offers this via an Application Package where your IAS consultant will fill your application for you and even write a Letter of Representation to accompany your application and bolster your credibility.

Call us today to see what else we have on offer that may best be suited to your needs.