Experience with EU Family Reunification in Ireland?

My spouse and me are aiming to live together in Ireland using the EU Family Unification laws. She is a citizen of Japan and I am a citizen of Denmark.

Is there anyone here who is married to an European citizen and not from Europe themselves that have used the European Family Reunification laws to live together in Ireland? According to EU-law it must take 6 months max to process such a case, though it seems possible that it may take even longer than that according to inis.gov.ie, so we would really like to hear form anyone who has experience going through it and ask how long the processing actually took in their case?

Where are you living right now? In Denmark or in Japan?

Are you referring to the visa process or the actual EU1 application?

Japanese nationals do not require a visa to enter Ireland, so your spouse just needs to present their passport and marriage certificate, and declare the intention to live in Ireland with you on arrival.

Once you and she settle in Ireland, you will need to start gathering your documents to apply for EU1. This takes up to 6 months. The EU law requires the decision to be made within 6 months.

There are exceptions which may cause the application to take longer to decide (e.g. the marriage doesn’t look genuine, or there are doubts on whether the EU national is exercising their Freedom of Movement etc). In theory these exceptions should still have a decision within 6 months, the reality is that they sometimes take longer. You can take the issue to SOLVIT platform if this happens.

If your marriage is genuine and you both aim to work/live/study in Ireland, and you guys are not from certain countries known for sham marriage, the application will not usually exceed 6 months.

bl0u81c5 wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:08 pm

Where are you living right now? In Denmark or in Japan?

We are currently not living together. She is in Japan and I am in Denmark.

littlerr wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 01, 2020 10:45 am

Are you referring to the visa process or the actual EU1 application?

Thank you for your response. I was referring to the EU1 application. As you point out, it should be done within 6 months.

My spouse would like to have an idea of how long she would be unable to work while waiting for a decision on our case. I think that we would be a straight forward case, so perhaps there is hope that it would not take us the full 6 months. We are wondering if anyone has experience of it taking significantly shorter time.

She would get a temporary Stamp 4 permission for 6 months once the office receives her application and confirms all documents have been correctly submitted. This takes just a few weeks. She can then work without any issue.

Just remember to book an online appointment with Burgh Quay if you live in Dublin 10 weeks in advance. This means you may want to book the appointment before she comes to Ireland to minimise the waiting period. It’s notoriously difficult to get an appointment now.

littlerr wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 01, 2020 6:08 pm

She would get a temporary Stamp 4 permission for 6 months once the office receives her application and confirms all documents have been correctly submitted. This takes just a few weeks. She can then work without any issue.

Just remember to book an online appointment with Burgh Quay if you live in Dublin 10 weeks in advance. This means you may want to book the appointment before she comes to Ireland to minimise the waiting period. It’s notoriously difficult to get an appointment now.

Thank you so much for telling us this, littlerr. We were not aware of the stamp or the appointment delay.

I just tried booking an appointment, and all available dates (currently until the 31st of March) appear to be booked already. We were actually hoping to move to Dublin in early March, but I guess we can not even start our EU1 application until we have an appointment with them?

Outside Dublin, it seems one has to register at the nearest Garda office. Would you happen to know if similar wait times should be expected here? They do not appear to have a booking system online.

I think new appointment slots are released every day at 10am and 2.30pm (not 100% sure) and they are normally gone within two minutes, so you have to check every day.

Whether or not you should use that appointment system depends on where you intend to live. If you intend to live in Dublin, you have to book your appointment there. I’m not sure about how it works outside Dublin though.

You don’t need an appointment to submit your application. The appointment is for your wife to register with the authority once she has received the temporary permission letter back from them.