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American marrying an Irishman

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ParaSaul
  4/5/2018 20:46 EST

I'm an American and I'm getting married to an Irish national in August 2018. Afterwards I plan to live in Ireland for at least a year. What sort of visa do I need to apply for to be able to stay and work?

Also do I need a wedding visa or just a wedding registration? Much thanks

Joshuak
  4/6/2018 18:25 EST

I am a Dual Irish - USA citizen and when my wife and I moved to Ireland in 2013 for about 1 1/2 years, I went first about a month ahead and took care of buying a car, opening a bank account and moving into a rented house. I also went to the Garda office in the town I was in and made a appointment with a Immigration officer. I was lucky as not every Garda office has a immigration person. I made the appointment for about 5 days after my wife was scheduled to arrive and when we went to that office I was required to have proof of me being a Irish citizen, proof of having a residence, proof of marriage certificate, and my wife needed her US passport. After they took her picture and check the documents she was given a 1 year residence card which in addition to her US passport allowed her to remain in Ireland for the year and if she wanted to could have worked as it was stamped #4. Of course we are retired and she had no reason to work and we never intended to remain in Ireland for the rest of our lives. She was told if she wanted at the end of that year just make appointment and the card could be renewed for another year. After 3 years she could receive citizenship if desired. That was 2013 - 2015 so I am not sure what the rules are now, but since we were married for about 57 years at that time the inspector had no reason to think she was trying to gain citizenship for nefarious reasons. But they might not be so sure about you being newly married or about to be married. But if you are approved, It looks like you could work as a # 4 stamp allows that. Good luck as Ireland makes rules as they go and changes their mind often.

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monet06
  6/25/2018 06:22 EST

I am a US citizen who married an Irish citizen and now lives in Ireland with our dual citizen child. I can probably help fill in a few answers to your questions.

Firstly, if you plan to marry in Ireland you have to register your intent to marry three months prior to the wedding. You cannot marry without this waiting period. As a non-Irish citizen you will also need to schedule an interview for the two of you prior to being approved to marry. This is to ensure that your ?marriage isn't a so-called sham marriage. For the marriage registration you will both need your long form birth certificates (US one will need an apostille and must be an official long form birth certificate) and your passports. I think that we also needed to provide information on where we were getting married and who was performing the marriage. The interview process had just been introduced when we registered so the nuts and bolts of the system hadn't been worked out and it took nearly 8 months to get the interview process completed. There are only a handful of interviewers in the country so leave some time if you are planning a wedding.

When you arrive in Ireland prior to the wedding you will need to declare your intent to marry. The officer will note that, take your picture and fingerprint and stamp your passport with the location to report for immigration, dependant on where you plan to reside.

Documentation you need for your visa will depend largely on the immigration officer, from my experience and those I've talked to, but best to be prepared. The Irish citizen may need to provide P60s, bank account details, etc. You may also be required to provide bank statements as well as a background check but you may not. They just want to ensure you won't be a burden on the state. Check citizen.ie for the latest list of documentation and start there.

I initially got a temporary visa extension until the wedding and then we returned to the Garda station with our marriage certificate after the wedding and i was granted a one year stamp 4 visa. When I renewed after my child was born I had to also provide the child's Irish passport and birth certificate as well as my PPS and my child's PPS number ( similar to a social security number). I was then granted a three year stamp 4 visa.

Hope this helps.

Joshuak
  6/26/2018 18:26 EST

This shows the super slow bureaucratic nonsense one will run into when trying to do almost anything in Ireland. When we applied for our PPS /PS card, we were told on the phone to go to the office in Wexford. It was about 15 km from our house so we went to arrive at opening time and we were there alone, no other applicants in sight and 6 windows with employees seem to be ready to accept applicants. We went to one window and told them we wanted to apply. They said, OK we will make appointment and you can come back and fill out application and have your pictures taken. They made the appointment for about a month later and we were not required to take any papers home to fill out or do anything. When we left, all 6 windows were still without applicants. When appointment day arrived we went in and completed the process in about 20 minutes as I recall. Then we were told to go home and card would be sent to our postal address. About a month later the cards did show up. There was never any crowd at that office and it makes one wonder why they could not have done the application the first day we were there ? Or the 23 days it took to open a bank account. Or 3 months to get a phone / internet installed in our house. But 8 months wait for marriage permission is ridiculous but typical in Ireland.

dbarnwell
  6/29/2018 09:52 EST

A freind of mine was getting married in Ireland, and was stupid enough to tell the Irish that he was a US divorcee. The Irish bureaucrats jumped on that. They made him apply for a Certifcat de Coutume, which is Irish diplomatic mumbo jumbo for a statement that he was free to marry following his divorce. Then when he produced his divorce decree, they wouldn't accept it because he was living in North Carolina but had got married in Ohio. As far as I remember, the idiots were under the impression that a divorce in one US state is not recognized in another. At that stage as far as I remember my friend just went *** it, and changed his mind about marrying in Ireland. You will meet a lot of mindless bureaucrats in Ireland. In this case, and I say this as heads up to anyone who might be in a similar situation, the way to keep out of their power is to lie--tell them you have never been married. The bureaucrats in Dublin are not going to find out.

Muddled
  6/30/2018 05:11 EST

@dbarnwell Whatever your opinions of Ireland and the Irish are, advising someone to commit fraud is quite irresponsible.

Any posts of yours I read come across as excessively opinionated and bitter.

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Joshuak
  6/30/2018 09:40 EST

Dear Muddled, I didn't know there was a scale to judge the level of negative opinion on the forum, dbarnwell claims to have been born and raised in Dublin so perhaps he has a right to express negative comments on what he sees now that does not reflect how it was when he grew up there. He and everyone else is entitled to their opinions. But sometimes people confuse the FACTS with opinion. Perhaps dbarnwell could have said "don't tell them anything" or "mind their own business", but Irish government officials are well known for "stretching". the truth themselves. So dbarnwell was just telling it like it is. I would advise them to marry somewhere else and not worry about what the Irish Government wants. Under EU LAW, there are guidelines for a Irish Citizen to bring into Ireland a spouse and or dependent children. Ireland agreed to that when they joined the EU. This law about sham marriages is nothing but bureaucratic nonsense which Ireland is famous for.

dbarnwell
  7/3/2018 08:19 EST

If you don't like my posts there's a simple solution. Don't read them. All you will lose is the many insights I offer on the reality of Irish life. Sounds like you need to hear them, since you come across as ignorant, but that's your call.
As regards what you so sanctimoniously call 'fraud' (utterly inappropriate word--fraud involves something like money and is a crime) I was absolutely correct in my advice. Any immigrarion system that is staffed by people so stupid and ignorant as to think that a divorce in one state is not recognized nationwide in the US doesn't deserve people to; treat it with respect. You may endorse incompetence when the it's "de government" doing it. I don't.

dbarnwell
  7/3/2018 08:31 EST

Joshuak: The law about sham marriages had nothing to; do with the certificate the Irish wanted from my friend. And you are very disrespectful, both to Ireland and to the institution of marriage, to characterize laws against bogus marriages as 'bureaucratic nonsense'. For years Ireland was the center of the sham marriage business in Europe. A 'bride' from Latvia or some such place would fly into Dublin, meet her 'groom' the following morning at the Registry, do the marriage, collect her fee, (usually
5-10 thousand euros) and then fly back to Latvia. I have heard reports of the bride saying "Which one am I marrying today?" as she saw the groom and his friends waiting for her at the Registry.

The benefit to the Pakistani, Indian etc 'groom' was that having 'married' an EU national, he had a claim for permanent residence in Europe. For years the careless and irresponsible Irish government threw a blind eye at this corruption. But the complaints from other European countries that were asked to recognize these farces became so loud that in the past year or so the Dublin authorities have made some belated effort (ten years too late) to address the problem. The poster Muddled doesn't like the truth, so hopefully he has turned his eyes away from this post.

Muddled
  7/3/2018 08:45 EST

@dbarnwell Your posts speak for themselves.

Muddled
  7/3/2018 08:45 EST

@dbarnwell Your posts speak for themselves.

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Muddled
  7/3/2018 08:45 EST

@dbarnwell Your posts speak for themselves.

Mellis5910
  7/3/2018 14:06 EST

Could we please remember to treat each other with civility? It must really confuse people who come here for answers to read all this sniping back and forth. Irish law and legal processes are confusing enough without adding ill temper to it.

dbarnwell
  7/5/2018 14:49 EST

Mellis: I agree with you.
That sneak attack on me by the poster Muddled was quite out of order. S/he owes me an apology.

Mellis5910
  7/5/2018 15:51 EST

LOL, I think the heat is making everyone a little edgy! We are having an extended heatwave and drought here in Ireland and it can fray the nerves. My point was, we don't need to get personal with each other, we may sometimes disagree as to the finer points, but we don't have to be disagreeable...there's enough unpleasantness in the world already. I am here to be as helpful as I can and give the best answers I can give, based on the information I have--which is based on my own experiences of living in Ireland and the research which I did before moving here, It is very tricky sometimes and the resulting misinterpretation of facts or personal opinion can cause others to challenge our conclusions--and that's OK, as long as it is done politely.

dbarnwell
  7/11/2018 15:47 EST

"Your posts speak for themselves".

Well who else would they speak for? Ludicrous.

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