Help Needed - Irish Citizenship Application for Children Based on Irish Association

Hello everyone,
I’m seeking help and guidance regarding my children's Irish naturalisation applications.
In April 2022, I applied for the naturalisation of my four children based on Irish association. Both my wife and I are Irish citizens through naturalisation. Our children are British citizens. They lived in Ireland for over a year before moving back to the UK with their mother, while I remained in Ireland.
I have now received a letter from the Department of Justice requesting further information within six weeks, referencing the new guidelines for Section 16 applications.
Below is the content of the letter I received:
________________________________________
Dear Sir/Madam,
I refer to your child’s application for a certificate of naturalisation.
The Minister would like to draw your attention to the recently published guidelines on how requests for waiver under Section 16 are to be processed. The link to the guidelines is:
https://www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to- ... ociations/
The Irish Nationality & Citizenship Act 1956, as amended, provides that the Minister for Justice may, in their absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation provided certain statutory conditions are fulfilled. These conditions are set out in section 15 of the Act.
Under sections 16(1)(a) and 16(1)(b) of the Act, the Minister may, in their absolute discretion, grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation, although the conditions for naturalisation (or any of them) are not met, where the applicant is of Irish descent or Irish associations.
The Minister may waive certain statutory naturalisation conditions and thus grant an application for a certificate of naturalisation made under section 16 of the Act, if, after careful assessment of the application and all supporting documents it is determined that:
• An applicant is of Irish descent or associations; and
• An applicant has presented sufficient evidence of the relative strength of their case; and
• The Minister, having considered these guidelines, as well as any other relevant information, is satisfied that the relevant statutory naturalisation conditions may be waived.
The Minister is now providing you with an opportunity to provide any further information and/or submissions that you feel is relevant to the consideration of the application with particular regard to the guidelines as provided. The submissions should only contain information or documentation not previously supplied in support of the original documentation. Such submissions should be provided through the Department's Customer Service Portal and include “Citizenship application – Irish Association submissions” in the title for ease of reference. The submissions should be provided within six weeks of receipt of this correspondence.
It should be noted that while being of Irish descent or Irish associations is a prerequisite for consideration under this policy, it is not in itself a sufficient basis for the Minister to waive any or all of the statutory conditions in section 15. The granting of citizenship is a privilege and the Minister will exercise their absolute discretion in determining applications under sections 16(1)(a) and 16(1)(b) of the Act, as amended.
Yours sincerely,
Irish Association Project Team
Department of Justice

I would be grateful from your comments that what that letter and means and let me know that what else shall I provide them to strengthen the case of my children.

The new guidelines provided a clear set of rules for the citizenship team to determine whether an application should be granted.

Unfortunately, even before the guidelines were published, your children’s case has very little chance of being approved given the fact that they were only in the country for a year and they are not currently residing in the country.

If you look at the table at the end of the guideline, they need to achieve at least 50% of scores in at least 2 categories. The only thing they would satisfy so far is the fact that you live in Ireland. They cannot achieve any of the remaining 3 categories unless they live in Ireland or they have made significant contributions to the Irish society.

Thank you very much for your response. The information provided is immensely useful. God bless you. You have good and comprehensive knowledge of Immigration matters.

Dear Littlerr,
I hope you are keeping well.
I am seeking your guidance regarding my children's application, and I would be grateful for your advice on a few key points.
A few weeks ago, my children moved back to Ireland. As they are British citizens, they were able to return without any issues. However, since they have not yet been enrolled in school, I would like to know what alternative forms of evidence can be provided to demonstrate their residence in Ireland.
In addition, I would like to clarify their previous residence history:
• They lived in Ireland from 2014 to 2018
• Returned to the UK for a brief period
• Then lived again in Ireland from 2019 to 2020
Could you please confirm whether these periods can be counted towards their residence history, and if they might earn points for this time?
There is also a section in the application concerning the number of PRSI contributions. I am unsure whether this refers to my own PRSI contributions or those of the applicant—particularly if the applicant is over 18 and working in Ireland. I would appreciate your clarification on this matter.
Furthermore, I have recently obtained a health insurance policy in which I am the principal applicant, and my children are included. Please advise whether this policy can contribute positively to their application in terms of points.
Lastly, based on the above information, I would be grateful if you could share your opinion on the chances of success for their application.
Your valued advice and assistance in this matter are sincerely appreciated.
Kind regards,

Regarding evidence of residence, there isn't any set rule. You should use whatever is available to prove they are physically residing in Ireland - GP letters are one of the most commonly used ones.

So if they have lived for more than 5 years in Ireland (and you can provide proofs for each year of residence), that should get them over the line in the Experiential Connection requirement.

I'm not aware that parents' PRSI contributions can be passed onto their children for this purpose.

Health insurance - if their names are on the insurance certificate, yes for sure, although keep in mind most insurance companies will only cover people who are ordinarily residing in Ireland. If they only came back to Ireland 'a few weeks ago', and assuming their names were added to the insurance after that, the minister may decide not to include that in the application. However, there is no harm submitting it anyway.

Hello,

May I have know how you have responded to the request? I have received similar query for my children.
I have uploaded a pdf document through Queries section Citizenship-->Subcategory(Irish Association). Is the correct approach?

Regards,
Prashanth

@ trustworthy,

Dear, do you have any update on how your application is progressing. Do you see any status online for your applications? Have you submitted the response yet, if so how?

Regards,