How to stay more than 3 months in Ireland?

Hello everybody, can you please tell me if there is a way to stay, with touristic visa, more than 3 months in Ireland? I am EU and I am working in Ireland and my girlfriend is Malaysian. I heard that some people, before the ends of the 3 months, go to UK or another EU country for one day and then they can come back to Ireland and stay another 3 months. Is this possible? And, above all, is this legal? Maybe she would need to do this just one time to stay 6 months instead of 3.
Thank you very much.

Hi ciccio,

Your girlfriend needs to apply for EU1 if she needs to stay more then 3 months. For EU1 you will need to proof your relationship, as well as proof that you are exercising your treaty rights.

Hello Hamza2013, thank you for your answer.
So, can she apply for EU1 also if we are not married? We don't have anything official that can prove our relationship.
Thank you.

ciccio wrote:Hello Hamza2013, thank you for your answer.
So, can she apply for EU1 also if we are not married? We don't have anything official that can prove our relationship.
Thank you.

Without documented evidence of what the EEA Regulations term as 'a durable relationship' similar to marriage, and preferably with 2 years co-habitation, your girlfriend won't qualify as an extended family member.

Hello Casa, thank you for your answer. Unluckily we haven't these proofs. What do you know about going one day in UK or other nearby countries and then come back to have another 3 months of touristic visa?

That won't cut it. If the Irish border officials work in tandem with the UK, brief hops out and in of the country don't reset the clock for extending visitor status.

Thank you very much, Casa. So, it's better don't risk doing this.
According to you is it possible for my girlfriend, without working visa but with ongoing registration to Irish Medical Council, to pass that 3 months in an hospital just for observing? Just shadowing a doctor?
Thank you

I'll let others better placed to advise on Irish residency/working restrictions to advise.

Thank you very much!

ciccio wrote:Thank you very much, Casa. So, it's better don't risk doing this.
According to you is it possible for my girlfriend, without working visa but with ongoing registration to Irish Medical Council, to pass that 3 months in an hospital just for observing? Just shadowing a doctor?
Thank you

I guess it depends on how the hospital administration feels about offering an observer post to someone with a visitors visa. Some hospitals only offer them to people who have no work restrictions. I know it sounds silly because you are not actually working or getting paid in an observer/clinical attachment post. I am not sure if this is the HSE's requirement now. My wife was told that she needed to get a stamp 4 or a work permit back in 2012. It was a catch 22 situation as INIS would not offer an immigration permission for observers, the DJEI wont give you a permit and the hospital wont give you an attachment without the proper permission.

What stage is her medical council registration at? Is she thinking of working here in ireland and which specialty?

Thank you Kaiser.
When she arrives in Ireland her registration will be just started. She would like working in Gynecology. So it would be almost impossible to get the authorization from the hospital to attend an observership, despite it is just informal and without payment.

ciccio wrote:Thank you Kaiser.
When she arrives in Ireland her registration will be just started. She would like working in Gynecology. So it would be almost impossible to get the authorization from the hospital to attend an observership, despite it is just informal and without payment.

No problem. I suggest that you could try speaking to HR in your local university hospital about observership. You could also meet up with a gynaecologist with her CV to hand and ask for advice. But regarding your question if she could stay longer than 3 months on a visit visa, I really don't know. The INIS website explicitly states that they won't grant immigration permission for an observership. The medical council unfortunately, is notorious for sitting on registration applications. Depending on the route to her registration, it can take upto a year. But once she is registered. She would have no problems finding a job.

Yes, in fact I am worried about the long time that IMC will take to give her the full registration. We will try to talk with HR, maybe they have some advises, but it's very difficult. Thank you for your answers.