During the Join spouse visa application

Hello all ,

First post on here , Bit of a background check first. Myself and my wife a Filipina are currently residing in Oman with our two sons (Both Irish passport holders) . It is time for us to return home to Ireland and we are currently preparing our submission for a Join Spouse D VISA.

My queries are as follows -
Q1 As we are applying from abroad at what stage of the process do the local embassy / consulate require my wife's Passport. Is it from the start or at some stage during the process?

Q2. My wife currently has a Multi Entry C Visa for Ireland , can she use this during the application process for the D Visa ? We are planning a short trip to Ireland during the summer , will this be possible?

Both questions are obviously linked but i am hearing conflicting information here about the submittal of passports and the cancelation of C visas on the commencement of the D Visa process.

Any information would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Luke

Hi

If you are planning to come back to Ireland, and during that stage your spouse’s multiple C visa is still valid. You can use thay to enter here in Ireland and then when you are in Ireland, apply for stamp 4 for your spouse, through local GNIB office.
You don’t need to apply for visa D long term from Oman. Hope this helps.

Well my wife wants to start working immediately or well as soon as possible so we are applying from here

Well my wife wants to start working immediately or well as soon as possible so we are applying from here

We were advised that we had to apply for the D visa , have we been mislead ?

Join Spouse Type C visas are for EU/EEA family members who are exercising their EU Treaty Rights.
As the family member you are joining is an Irish national, you cannot get a Type C visa. You should apply for Type D visa as correctly suggested by the embassy.

However, if you have a Type C visit visa already, and it is not endorsed with the word "Strictly No Extensions", I would suggest that you email GNIB and ask them whether it is possible to use this visa to remain in Ireland. I don't think it's possible but I'm not 100% sure.

You cannot work until you have a Stamp 4. In order to get a Stamp 4, you should make an appointment with GNIB or your local Garda station depending on where you live, and complete the registration.

Thanks littler

Hopefully someone can answer my 2 original questions ?

Yes Littler is right. Sorry abt that...
She cannot have 2 type visa’s together. C+ D.
Her passport will be submitted at the time of application to the embassy/consulate.

Thanks white pearl .

We were informed that as the application process can take anywhere between 0-6 months the consulate here will just take an attested copy of her passport and that once the visa has been approved she needs to send in her passport . I am asking WHEN that is based on people experiences of submitting.

I am aware she can’t hold 2 visas I am asking can she travel for a holiday to Ireland on her Current C visa during the application process / before she has to hand in her actual passport

White_Pearl wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 20, 2019 12:47 pm

Hi

If you are planning to come back to Ireland, and during that stage your spouse’s multiple C visa is still valid. You can use thay to enter here in Ireland and then when you are in Ireland, apply for stamp 4 for your spouse, through local GNIB office.
You don’t need to apply for visa D long term from Oman. Hope this helps.

That's not correct, at least according to the INIS website:

She'll need a D visa to get Stamp 4 as the Spouse of an Irish Citizen.

The C Visa can't be used for Spouses of Irish Citizens, she'll have to apply for a D visa from outside Ireland and get that before she can travel to Ireland and get Stamp 4.

INIS Website wrote: If you are a non visa required national who has entered the State legally within the last 90 days or if you are a visa required national and you are within the period of permission to remain granted to you on arrival in the State (except short stay ‘c’ visas):, or if you have current permission to remain in the State on an alternative basis both you and your Irish national spouse/civil partner should attend at your local Garda National Immigration Bureau Registration office with the following documentation:

Your original marriage/civil partnership certificate
Your original passport
Your Irish spouse’s/civil partner’s original passport
Evidence of your joint address

To the OP - As for your 1st question, I believe they'll only require your wife's passport when the visa is approved.

At least this is the way it was in the Irish Consulate in Manila, when my wife (also from The Philippines) applied for a visa there 3 years back. She did the application, passed off all the required documents, but she left with her passport.

When the visa was approved she got a phone call and was required to return with her passport to get the visa stamped. She dropped in the passport to the Consulate in the morning, and it was ready to pick up with the visa after lunchtime.

The Embassy in Oman should be able to answer that for you if you contact them.

Actually... something else I forgot to share with you about timelines.

When my wife was applying for a visa in the Philippines back in 2016, like yourself I wanted more clarity on some things, so I rang the Irish Embassy in Singapore which handles all the visa applictions from the Consulate in the Philippines.

When it comes to timelines for the Join Spouse visa for spouses of Irish Citizens, I was told that if you both had lived together before then the visa would be approved locally (in Singapore in our case), and the time for a decision would be 2-3 weeks only.

However, in the case where you hadn't lived together before, then the visa would have to go to Dublin to be assessed and would take a minimum of 6 months for a decision.

I don't know whether that helps or not, or confuses you even more.

Regardless, it's well worth getting in touch with the Embassy that handles the visa applications from Oman, which seems to be the Embassy in Riyadh.