An Irish passport is one of the most sought-after travel documents in the world.
I have both Irish and English citizenship and have always used the Irish passport in preference.
It's kitschy but true; being Irish is seen as being more, well, likeable or something.
The easiest way to get an Irish passport of course is to be born in Ireland.
But, if you drew the short straw on that one, you're going to need an Irish parent or an Irish grandparent.
If you have an Irish great-grandparent you need to satisfy the following requirements;
There are two circumstances under which a great-grandchild is eligible to apply for Irish citizenship by descent:
The Irish Consulate in New York explained that the parent would need to be registered in the "Foreign Birth Register" which is held at the Consulate, effectively a listing of those of Irish citizens born abroad who are entitled to Irish citizenship who have their births "registered."
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Prime Minister Brian Cowen has indicated that he would favor relaxing naturalization laws and allowing Americans whose nearest Irish relative is a great-grandparent to claim citizenship, provided they have spent some time either working or studying in Ireland. So watch this space.
A practical use of an Irish passport is that you will be entitled to work and travel freely in any of the 27 countries in the European Union.
You won’t need a work permit for this – and once you have worked in a European Union county for a certain length of time, you will be entitled to unemployment compensation, health care and pension rights.
How else then can you get an Irish passport? Getting a passport is really the easy part – it’s getting Irish citizenship that takes a little time.
Born in Ireland
To get an Irish passport, you must first become an Irish citizen. Fortunately, Americans can hold dual citizenship, as can Irish, so there’s no conflict there.
Let’s look at the scenarios that allow you to claim Irish citizenship.
Anyone born in Ireland before January 1, 2005 is an Irish citizen. After that date, it is not automatic, and the citizenship and residency history of both parents is taken into account.
Marriage to Irish citizen
You are also entitled to Irish citizenship if you are married to an Irish citizen.
To claim citizenship by marriage, you must meet the following conditions: you must be married to an Irish citizen for at least three years; you must have had one year of "continuous residence" on the island of Ireland immediately before the date of your application; and finally, you must have been living on the island of Ireland for at least two of the four years before that year of continuous residence.
If you were born outside of Ireland and either your mother or father (or both) was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth, then you are entitled to Irish citizenship.
Permanent residency
If you have been a permanent resident in Ireland, you can try to become a citizen through naturalization. You will need to have lived permanently in Ireland for the previous five years, be over 18 and not have a criminal record.
But let’s face it – living in Ireland for five years is a lot of effort just to get that Irish passport. A much better way to get an Irish passport is to have at least one Irish grandparent. And by Irish, we mean an Irish grandparent who was or is an Irish citizen.
Irish grandparents
What to do next?
After getting an Irish grandparent, the next thing to do is to call an Irish consulate and ask them to send you an application form. There are Irish consulates in most of the major U.S cities. They should also be able to advise you on getting the right documentation in order for your application.
You’ll need a copy of your grandparent’s birth certificate from Ireland. If you don’t have a copy you can get one from the General Registry Office in Dublin. (Click here to go to their Web site.)
You will also need: Your grandparent's certificate of marriage; your parents' birth and marriage certificates; and an original death certificate for any of these relatives who have passed away. If the grandparent is deceased, you’ll need to show a certified copy of their death certificate, and if alive, a current official I.D. (such as a driver’s license or passport.)
To access the Irish documents, it will help you to know as much information about where and when your Irish grandparent was born, which may involve some genealogy research.
If one of your parents is Irish, and you would like to get an Irish passport, the process is easier. You need: their marriage certificate; a current official I.D; a copy of their death certificate if your Irish parent has passed away, a full long-form birth certificate of your Irish parent, showing your grandparents’ names, places of birth and ages at birth.
You will also need: your own long-form birth certificate; documentation to show that you have changed your name, such as a marriage certificate, if this has happened; a notarized copy of your current passport, and at least three other notarized copies of proofs of identity, one of which must be a photo I.D; a bank/utility statement with your current address; and two signed passport photos.
Once you have established your Irish citizenship – which can take up to 18 months to process – you can apply for an Irish passport. This can take up to six weeks to process and you can do this through your nearest Irish consulate.
And then, you too can sashay through the EU passport section at Dublin airport after the overnight flight from New York!
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.deborella | Jun 29, 2012, 01:33 PM EDT
Hi I was born in England to Irish parents. My family moved back to Ireland when i was 2/3. I grew up and went to school in Ireland. I moved back to England when i 21 and have l lived her since. My son moved back to Ireland to live with his brother as he was hanging round with the wrong crowd. He got accepted to go back on a school course and applied for some sort of welfare payment and was refused so as he could not get the payment he lost his place. he was told to go back to England as he had more connection to here. Well i can assure he has more family in Ireland than over here. I thought their attitude was well off. As my other son is in full time employment and pays all his taxes. They have appealed the decision and i have been trying to send money over every opportunity i can. I am a widow with only 1 wage coming in and i am finding it more difficult to keep sending him money. Does any know how long it takes to process if someone can become a citizen through his grandparents. thanks for any info given Dbbie
ciaradexy | Dec 19, 2011, 01:05 PM EST
pilib04-Taoiseach means Prime Minister.
jacersagain | Jun 12, 2011, 03:19 PM EDT
@chicagored – if you were born in Nth Ireland, you are regarded as an Irish citizen by the Irish State, whatever your religion is (or not!) and fully entitled to an Irish passport, exactly the same as a person born in the south of Ireland. Just provide the documents to prove your place of birth when applying for the passport (e.g. Birth Certificate). Visit the Irish Govt website passport.ie for details on how to go about getting your Irish passport. It doesn’t matter whether your dad was born in NI before 1921.
chicagored | Jun 06, 2011, 10:47 AM EDT
interesting but i have a question i am born in Northern Ireland do i have the right to an Irish Passport i have read that as a person born in the irish isles i am entitled to a passport as i believe i am regarded as a irish citzen and my fater was born in NI before 1921 so any ideas any one..
McNamara31 | Jun 04, 2011, 09:39 AM EDT
Ms. Gail... One other site that may be very helpful in obtaining your grandparents marriage certificate is the The "Italian Genealogical Group". This group has records online for all ethnic groups and one for "brides" consisting of years: Brooklyn 1871-1918, and 1928-1937 Bronx 1899-1937 Queens 1904-1937 Manhattan 1866-1937 Staten Island 1898-1937. Once you have found your grandmother on file you can cross reference to find your grandfather. Also this page contains the "certificate number" needed to obtain the copy of the actual marriage certificate from NYC/gov. Also if you would like to take a trip and research the records further on microfilm you can at 31 Chamber St. NY ...Good luck again
jacersagain | May 30, 2011, 03:14 PM EDT
@ pilib04 - MickyRegan is right - this article is years old, a re-hashed and clearly un-edited article posted in this month, in this year without being updated. No wonder then that the writer refers above to Brian Cowen, who was Taoiseach (equiv to = Prime Minister) of the Republic of Ireland when Irish Central started up two years ago. In fact, Cowen officially launched Irish Central when he was in NYC for St. Patrick’s Day back then. The writer of this article, Ms. Kelly Fincham, used to be Editor of Irish Central when it first started. Thankfully, she no longer is – she was just woeful as a writer, topic generator, editor and bejaysus was she always putting Ireland in a bad light with ill-chosen, badly worded headlines that had little to do with what she wrote. Kelly was born in England of an Irish parent or parents and grew up in Ireland, but now works in NYC as (Gawd help her students) a lecturer in Journalism.
jacersagain | May 30, 2011, 02:59 PM EDT
“How to get an Irish Passport” is clearly spelled out by the Irish Government at passport.ie. If you are not native Irish-born and are honest enough not to follow the advice of GeorgeDillon below at 05.17pm yesterday, search for the advice given under “If you live abroad” for all the details you need on how to get an Irish Passport.
Ms.Gail | May 30, 2011, 10:51 AM EDT
@McNamara31, Thanks, I'll give that a try.
Critarun | May 30, 2011, 06:59 AM EDT
very good information just what i needed
anndonnelly | May 30, 2011, 05:04 AM EDT
You don't mention that from 1 August 2008 the fee is €950 which is paid when the certificate of naturalisation is issued. Is this comparable to what you'd pay in other countries? I was shocked when I finally got around to applying and saw this new fee. If I killed my Irish husband, then it'd only be €200 as a widow (sorry, honey). Or if I was a refugee it'd be free. Wonder if there's anyway to get this fee reduced or waived?
McNamara31 | May 29, 2011, 11:24 PM EDT
Ms.Gail .. You can request marriage certificates online @ NYC.GOV/records. You can request a search of a certain timeframe, or for a specific year. You will also find the online form very simple to use. Good luck to you.
Irishlassred | May 29, 2011, 08:10 PM EDT
This is great, old news of course - but what about the certificate of heritage, or whatever it's called that was suppose to be started months ago? While I qualify by my grandmother, having a foreign passport will pose security problems for my son and son in law. The heritage thing would work better. Thank you
GeorgeDillon | May 29, 2011, 05:17 PM EDT
The article misses the easiest and most commonly practiced method of getting an Irish passport. You tear up your own passport and flush it down the commode in the plane before landing at Shannon or Dublin. Then when you're going thru Immigration you scream "Asylum!" and tell the immigration agents that you're from Somalia. The agents couldn't tell the difference between a Somali and a Texan. There might be a little paperwork to do, but a few months later, you're all set for Irish citizenship. Don't believe me? Well you should, because tens of thousands of holders of Irish passports followed this strategy. It worked for them!
Chiefjustice | May 29, 2011, 01:34 PM EDT
My Grand parents left Ireland in 1883 for a better life in the U.S. My parents were born in this country Dad in 1898 Mom in 1906..... And yes found a much better life... My U.S. Passport works just fine. It aint broke, dont need fixing. Be an American. Why mess with sucess..
Ms.Gail | May 29, 2011, 12:07 PM EDT
If anyone can help me find my grandparents marriage certificate I would be delighted. I know their stree address in Manhattan in 1916 when my father was born and guess they were married in 1914-1915 but I don't know what their parish was and can't find out how to look on line for their marriage certificate. I'm fairly sure they were married as they were very active in the parish they moved to in New Jersey in the 20s.I know my father had lots of aunts & uncles also born in Ireland but I've never met any of them or their decendants. If there is a service that can help that is cheaper than a trip to NY, I'm up for it.
pilib04 | May 29, 2011, 11:48 AM EDT
Mick Regan, I was writing about this before I saw your posts. I knew a Mick Regan from Westport who passed away a year or two ago. Was there another election and I was not told about it. Didn't read anything in the Belfast Telegraph. The BT must be slipping. So Kelly Fincham (who claims to have a kitchy Irish Passport/citizenhip)thinks Brian Cowen is the Taoiseach (Ireland doesn't have a PM, you are thinking of your other country England). How much more of the "information" in this article is incorrect? Can the Voice at least get writers with even minimal amount of knowledge about Ireland, PLEASE!
EileenOfarrell | May 29, 2011, 11:45 AM EDT
My father was born in Ireland and I was born in the US. So I've had both a US passport and an Irish passport for many years. Since I married a British subject (not a citizen) 38 years ago, the Irish passport came in handy when we traveled to England or Ireland. I didn't have to wait on long lines at customs. I'd use my Irish passport on the way out and my US passport on the way back to the US. Since 9/11/01, I only use my US passport and now that hubby is an American citizen, he has a US passport as well. I'll keep my opinions on how Ireland has changed since it joined the EU to myself.
Rhionnach | May 29, 2011, 10:57 AM EDT
There is no such thing as English citizenship. I think the author meant to say British citizenship, which I, as a Scot, have. I wish people would stop using the term English when they mean British.
MickRegan | May 29, 2011, 10:35 AM EDT
A clue...if you're going to wait for 'Ireland’s Prime Minister Brian Cowen' you could be waiting a while! :-)
Springfield9 | May 29, 2011, 10:31 AM EDT
Facinating logic for the 19th Century. Virtually all my grandparents were from Ireland. However, that is no guarantee they are laboratory grade "Celts". If Ireland was to be the "out of the box thinker, perhaps it would see the financial potential in 80 Million citizens. Suppose we said your "Y-DNA" must be R1B1A1XX (Atlantic Haplotype. That would require a 64 marker fingerprint. Once your genetic fingerprint became your bona fides, you could apply AND pay a minimum tax ANNUALY of $750. I see something like $18B to $20B dropping right into Dublin's lap.
MarthaAnne | May 29, 2011, 10:19 AM EDT
I wonder what other benefits there are, if any, to having an Irish passport and not just a U.S. one. (Being eligible for the Irish passport, but not doing anything about it - so far!) Also, is it possible to hire someone to gather all of these documents for you? (An easier process, I would think.)
Eire2009 | May 29, 2011, 10:14 AM EDT
There is no such thing as "English citizenship." English people have British citizenship, otherwise known as UK citizenship.
hunter933 | May 29, 2011, 10:10 AM EDT
Good reminder!
MickRegan | May 29, 2011, 09:59 AM EDT
Wonder who'll be the first to point out the glaring mistake in this article?