My partner is an Irish citizen, residing in the republic of Ireland - we are not married. We have been together 15 months, I am an American citizen living residing in America. The goal here is for me to move there to join her, and eventually marry. I cannot find anything on permitting a partner to reside in Ireland with their mate accept for the defacto partnership - which we don't qualify for because we have not yet been together 2yrs. We don't wish to marry just for the sake of getting permission to move to Ireland with her, but rather to do that in our own time, properly when we can afford a wedding and have our families join to share our special day. I am not a student, so student visa is not an option for me - and I would not likely be granted a work permit/visa because I am not a doctor/nurse/IT specialist etc, or anything they would deem beneficial to them.
The immigration specialist my partner consulted told her to just have me fly into Ireland, and register with Garda and tell an immigration officer upon my entry of my intents and they would then refer us to where we need to go etc etc - this is a bit too loose for me, and not assuring enough for me to uproot an entire life here to 'maybe' be granted the right to live with my partner. She just made it seem very lax, like it was just that easy to come and just tell them I want to stay when I know well enough that it isn't....
All that being said, what is the simplest way for me to get permission to reside in Ireland with my partner until we do marry? I have not found anything else other than this defacto option, but again we aren't eligible as we've not been together quite 2 years yet.
If we absolutely have to marry to make this happen we will, but we really don't want to do all of that so quickly without being able to have a ceremony and our families, we're a bit old-fashioned. But there must be a more simpler way, or some kind of rights for us to reside together. I'd love to hear other's experiences, if as an american you've moved to Ireland for your partner/spouse and how it went, what you had to do etc... and vice versa, if you're an Irish citizen and has an american partner move to you. First hand experiences would help me understand the process immensely, as much of what I've read either contradicts other things I've read, and leave me in the dark somewhat.
I really appreciate any help I can get. We're growing pretty frustrated, being told different things from each person we consult with and being bounced all around. We just want to start our lives together.
