Using Irish route for Canadian family but living in Norther Ireland - Options

Hey All,

Hoping for some direction and clarity - I am from Northern Ireland and hold an Irish Passport (and British). I moved to Canada 7 years ago and have a Canadian wife and 3 Canadian sons.

We would like to move back to Northern Ireland. I have a couple of main questions:

1) Can you give me a brief breakdown of the process of getting my wife&sons Irish citizenship? As far as I can tell we can just land in Ireland anytime, tell Immigration that I plan on getting my wife in due to marriage and then we have to report within 90 days to immigration and that kicks off the process?

2) My main question is, can we apply and go through the Irish system even though we would have a Northern Irish address? All my family is in Belfast so I would hate to be told that I have to live in the Republic or have an address in the republic in order to apply.

3) Are there any financial requirements that I would need to prove in order to be allowed to bring the wife & kids in through the Irish system?

I would not be going through the UK system as I would not meet the financial requirements.

Hi mccann1984,

1) Can you give me a brief breakdown of the process of getting my wife&sons Irish citizenship? As far as I can tell we can just land in Ireland anytime, tell Immigration that I plan on getting my wife in due to marriage and then we have to report within 90 days to immigration and that kicks off the process?

A: Since you are both British & Irish, i dont see why you can't apply British and/or Irish passports for your children. Your children will be Irish automatically no matter where they were born. British citizenship is a little more complicated but is very similar. If you want to live and settle in Northern Ireland, British passport is recommended for your children but by applying Irish passports, which your children should be eligible, it gives them full EU rights and freedom, especially after Brexit. The problem lies with your wife as she will have no automatic rights to live and work in either UK or Ireland unfortunately for being a third country national.

2) My main question is, can we apply and go through the Irish system even though we would have a Northern Irish address? All my family is in Belfast so I would hate to be told that I have to live in the Republic or have an address in the republic in order to apply.

A: I highly doubt it is going to work for you to apply through Irish system but live in NI. In order for you to have get Irish residence permit for your wife, you will need to register you and your wife with Irish immigration officers (INIS) and not Home Office. Your children are exempted and entitled to live in either Ireland or UK, provided that you can apply British/Irish passports for them because of common travel area. You will also need to provide proof of address for both of you (mortgage, rental agreements etc) in the Republic of Ireland for the process of registering your wife with Irish Immigration. Northern Ireland falls under UK juridisction so having Irish resident permit does not give your wife any rights to live or work in Northern Ireland. Reversely, having an Home Office UK-issued resident permit from Northern Ireland does not give your wife any rights to live or work in Ireland, unless she naturalised as an Irish or British.

3) Are there any financial requirements that I would need to prove in order to be allowed to bring the wife & kids in through the Irish system?

A: There are but it is not as strict as how UK does it so most likely you will be fine.

Hope this helps.

Your children are fine, as they are automatically entitled to Irish citizenship.

You cannot bring your wife to Northern Ireland but apply for residence permit with Irish government. If she's going to stay in NI, you need to apply the permit with UK government. The jurisdiction is different.

The only thing that you can apply to the Irish government while living in NI is the citizenship, but you and your wife have to be living in the island of Ireland for 3 years together lawfully. This can be a valid residence permit from Irish government if you live in Ireland, or a permit from UK government if you live in NI, or a combination of both. You just can't live in Ireland with a UK permit, or live in NI with a Irish permit.

Thanks so much people - this is really helping me understand how everything works.

I was in touch with someone from an Irish immigration help center and they suggested I may be able to head straight to Northern Ireland and apply for a "UK Residence card for the family member of an EEC member" for my wife. IS this an viable option? It sounds a little strange to me to go into the UK and play my "Irish" card even though I am a UK citizen too.

That is a good perspective. I didn’t think about that.

Yes if you are an EU/EEA national living in another EU/EEA country, you and your *financially dependant* family members can exercise EU Treat Rights to apply for residence permit. You are by law not required to provide financial proofs.

So you can use your Irish passport in the UK to exercise this right.

I didn’t see anything in these two websites below about having dual citizenship is an issue, but there’s certainly no harm applying for it.

A detailed explanation here: https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/r ... dex_en.htm

UK specific:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... orm-eea-fm

I believe you will be excluded from using the Surinder Singh route to settle in Northern Ireland as you hold dual British/Irish citizenship. The Rules were changed in 2012.
"a Union citizen who has never exercised his right of free movement, who has always resided in a Member State of which he is a national and who is also a national of another Member State"

Unless you can prove that you have previously lived in another EU member state other than Ireland.