Citizenship Query - Proof of Address for Spouse of Irish

Hi All,

I came here in 2008 and living here for 4 years with my Irish husband. I wonder if you could help me. I plan to apply for citizenship based on marriage and I'm a little bit confused of the requirements in regards to proof of address.

• Copies of 3 different proofs of residence in the State for both applicant and spouse/civil partner for 3 months prior to the date of application showing date and name and current address. Proofs include household bills (gas, electricity, phone or cable/satellite TV), bank Statements, revenue, mortgage agreement, social welfare, letter from employment, doctors letter etc.

• Evidence of residency permission i.e. a copy of your passport(s) showing residency permission stamps for a period of 1 year immediately prior to the application and 2 years in the 4 year period before that, equalling 3 years in total, or alternatively proof of residence in the State for this period. Please submit three different proofs of residence for each year showing your name and address and date of issue i.e. household bills (gas, electricity, phone or cable/satellite TV), bank statements, revenue letters, mortgage agreement, social welfare, letter from employment, doctors letter etc.

On the first requirement, does our names need to be joint or is it ok if they are not joint but showing the same address? The only joint name that we have at the moment is our joint bank account.

On the second requirement, I got a new passport recently but my permission to remain stamp (due this coming May) is in my old passport. Is it fine if I photocopy it and submit that? Another thing that I am confused is 3 different proof per year. Can I use 3 different dates of bank statements or does it have to be one , one revenue, one gas bill, one electric bill, etc...? Sorry for the last query, it might be a little silly but I'm just totally confused. My issue here is that I am not sure if I met 3 different proof of same address becuase we are using 2 different address - one is permanent adress (my mum-in-law) and one is the apartments we've stayed in. Is it fine if it's not joint name or is it easier if it's joint name?

Thank you in advance.

It doesn't matter if the bills are not in joint names. If I were you, I would try and include as much evidence as possible. So if you have 3 bills in your name and 3 bills in your husbands name that would be perfect (with the same address). I think it means just 3 different bills, so even say 1 electricity bill in your name, 1 bank statement in joint names and 1 revenue in your name and your husbands name.

I think you can submit certified copies of your passports. If you get them photocopied and go to a solicitor or peace commissioner and get them to certify the photocopy. You can then explain that you had to return your old passport in order to obtain a new one.

Monifé wrote:It doesn't matter if the bills are not in joint names. If I were you, I would try and include as much evidence as possible. So if you have 3 bills in your name and 3 bills in your husbands name that would be perfect (with the same address). I think it means just 3 different bills, so even say 1 electricity bill in your name, 1 bank statement in joint names and 1 revenue in your name and your husbands name.

I think you can submit certified copies of your passports. If you get them photocopied and go to a solicitor or peace commissioner and get them to certify the photocopy. You can then explain that you had to return your old passport in order to obtain a new one.

In the requirement 2:Please submit three different proofs of residence for each year showing your name and address and date of issue i.e. household bills (gas, electricity, phone or cable/satellite TV), bank statements, revenue letters, mortgage agreement, social welfare, letter from employment, doctors letter etc.

Do I need to submit the original proof of address or just copies? It didn't state whether copy or not.

These means that if possible, submit:

3x proofs of address dated 2008 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2009 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2010 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2011 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)

Basically, it just means you submit at least, 3x each for each year as long as it is a valid document. If you can get those from the government offices; the better.

adlexy is right.

Thank you very much for all your reply. My concern here is that we are using 2 address for the last 4 years. One is permanent address (my mum-in-law) for official letters and bank statement. The other one is the apartments we've stayed every year which has the household bills. Now when I checked our address it ended up just 2 proofs for each address. Can I use both the address?

adlexy wrote:These means that if possible, submit:

3x proofs of address dated 2008 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2009 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2010 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2011 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)

Basically, it just means you submit at least, 3x each for each year as long as it is a valid document. If you can get those from the government offices; the better.

Can I use maternity benefit letter or will it affect my application? I know if it's jobseekers/dole letter will affect but I'm not sure if maternity claims letter will affect too?

i cant understand why do you want to use these letters,why you want to keep your original bills .its very hard to answer your all the question.i think you should make your mind first do you really want to apply for irish citizenship or its just a .................

filish11 wrote:

adlexy wrote:These means that if possible, submit:

3x proofs of address dated 2008 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2009 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2010 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2011 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)

Basically, it just means you submit at least, 3x each for each year as long as it is a valid document. If you can get those from the government offices; the better.

Can I use maternity benefit letter or will it affect my application? I know if it's jobseekers/dole letter will affect but I'm not sure if maternity claims letter will affect too?

I will suggest that you use your "permanent" address. If you can find 2x for each of the years for your permanent address in your name, I think you can get one for the same address but not in your name. e.g. ESB/ BordGais and send with a note that those bills are in another name. If you are sharing an apartment or house, they will not expect all Bills to be in your name. I have lived in a shared house before where the landlord insisted that the bills MUST be in his name although they are delivered to me for payment at the address

However, if you are working or your spouse is working you can also log on to Revenue.ie and request a P21 which is a valid proof of address as well.

Or if you want to share your proof of addresses between two locations, say the first two years at your "permanent" address and the latest ones at your current address. But that could get messy, so I will suggest the action plan in my first paragragh above.

All the best

adlexy wrote:

filish11 wrote:

adlexy wrote:These means that if possible, submit:

3x proofs of address dated 2008 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2009 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2010 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)
3x proofs of address dated 2011 (ESB, Eircom, Bank stmt, Revenue etc)

Basically, it just means you submit at least, 3x each for each year as long as it is a valid document. If you can get those from the government offices; the better.

Can I use maternity benefit letter or will it affect my application? I know if it's jobseekers/dole letter will affect but I'm not sure if maternity claims letter will affect too?

I will suggest that you use your "permanent" address. If you can find 2x for each of the years for your permanent address in your name, I think you can get one for the same address but not in your name. e.g. ESB/ BordGais and send with a note that those bills are in another name. If you are sharing an apartment or house, they will not expect all Bills to be in your name. I have lived in a shared house before where the landlord insisted that the bills MUST be in his name although they are delivered to me for payment at the address

However, if you are working or your spouse is working you can also log on to Revenue.ie and request a P21 which is a valid proof of address as well.

Or if you want to share your proof of addresses between two locations, say the first two years at your "permanent" address and the latest ones at your current address. But that could get messy, so I will suggest the action plan in my first paragragh above.

All the best

Thank you so much adlexy. I am still checking all the proofs that I have from 2008 and I am missing some from 2009.

hi there
just was reading all the queries which u have and wondering y u want these many address proof i mean for these many years the inis site clearly states that u require three different proof for three months prior to ur application and about the three years it clearly says that if u dont have the proof for residency permission i.e passport stamps then u have to show the residency proof of three years.

biggerjosh wrote:hi there
just was reading all the queries which u have and wondering y u want these many address proof i mean for these many years the inis site clearly states that u require three different proof for three months prior to ur application and about the three years it clearly says that if u dont have the proof for residency permission i.e passport stamps then u have to show the residency proof of three years.

Hi biggerjosh,

Do you mean that if I have permission to stamp, I don't need any proofs for the last 4 years? If this is the case, I don't need to put myself into hassle of looking 3 different proof ever year except the requirement for 3 different proof of myself and my husband for the last 3 months prior to my application? i hope you could clarify because to be honest for the last 2 weeks evertime I came from work, I keep on checking for my proofs since 2008.

Thanks a mil.

if you are applying on the basis of being a spouse of irish national, you still have to provide the proof for the three years.
only the people applying after 5 years need to submit evidence for the last few months.

Evidence of residency permission i.e. a copy of your passport(s) showing residency permission stamps for a period of 1 year immediately prior to the application and 2 years in the 4 year period before that, equalling 3 years in total, or alternatively proof of residence in the State for this period. Please submit three different proofs of residence for each year showing your name and address and date of issue i.e. household bills (gas, electricity, phone or cable/satellite TV), bank statements, revenue letters, mortgage agreement, social welfare, letter from employment, doctors letter etc.

it certainly means that u dont have to submit three year proofs as it is said alternatively it means that if u dont have stamp for three years then only u have to.

biggerjosh wrote:Evidence of residency permission i.e. a copy of your passport(s) showing residency permission stamps for a period of 1 year immediately prior to the application and 2 years in the 4 year period before that, equalling 3 years in total, or alternatively proof of residence in the State for this period. Please submit three different proofs of residence for each year showing your name and address and date of issue i.e. household bills (gas, electricity, phone or cable/satellite TV), bank statements, revenue letters, mortgage agreement, social welfare, letter from employment, doctors letter etc.

it certainly means that u dont have to submit three year proofs as it is said alternatively it means that if u dont have stamp for three years then only u have to.

That's exactly what I thought biggerjosh. It's easy to overlook the part which says 'or alternatively proof of residence in the State for this period' especially when you are preparing the documents and your mind is so focus in the application. Thanks a mill for confirming:)

biggerjosh wrote:hi there
just was reading all the queries which u have and wondering y u want these many address proof i mean for these many years the inis site clearly states that u require three different proof for three months prior to ur application and about the three years it clearly says that if u dont have the proof for residency permission i.e passport stamps then u have to show the residency proof of three years.

Just got a quick one on this paragraph.

If we have 3 documents (TV license, bank statement and letter from Revenue) issued in the last 3 months is that enough? I'm guessing we don't need 3 documents for each month, am I right?