Owning a business in Ireland

Are there any restrictions for a non-EEA citizen to own a business in Ireland?

If a person also wishes to work for the business in Ireland in an executive capacity, is the immigration process the same as for employment?

If the owner/executive spends the majority of their time in their home country, how often can they come to Ireland for meetings, etc.? Is it the same as for tourists or are their special rules for investors?

Do any of these rules change if the investor has an Irish partner?a

Open a business - lookup STEP programme. You can apply for permission to open and run a business in Ireland once you satisfy the requirement.
https://www.irishimmigration.ie/start-u ... whatisstep

Work for a business in Ireland - apply for an employment permit (usually critical skills or intra company transfer) as usual. The position being an executive or not is irrelevant.

Visit Ireland on business capacity - you get a standard business visa if you only occasionally visit Ireland for business purposes. Whether you have an Irish spouse or not is irrelevant. Having an Irish spouse will allow you to get a Stamp 4 (which allows you to do basically everything in Ireland), if and only if both you and your spouse intend to live in Ireland (i.e. more than 9 months in each year).

There is also a special IIP scheme which allows you to obtain a Stamp 4 but has no residence requirement whatsoever. The requirement isn't very high but places are quite limited.
http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/inis/pages/ne ... repreneurs

Your questions are way too vague to give a specific answer.

Generally, you can own a business in Ireland without being an a citizen of an EU country. However if you want to work and get paid in Ireland you will need employment permission if you are from USA, unless you're married to Irish or EU citizen or if you are given a refugee status.

If you don't have an employment permission, you can still visit Ireland for a maximum of 3 months in every 6 months for tourism or business reasons.

Thanks. So if you want to own a business AND live in Ireland, you need to apply for permission as an employee? Many startup founders have no employment contracts or salary. Are there any special rules for this situation?

"There is also a special IIP scheme which allows you to obtain a Stamp 4 but has no residence requirement whatsoever. The requirement isn't very high but places are quite limited."

You say the requirement isn't high but doesn't this IIP program require an investment of 1 million Euros?

Well 1 million for a pathway to an EU residency with virtually no residency requirement at all is a very good deal, and is usually grabbed up within days when the dates are released. It is a de facto permanent residency and you can get all of your money back (as long as the business you invest didn’t go bust). It is only since last year that they changed the rule to remove the timed window.

If you want to own a new business, as I said, take a look at the STEP scheme. The requirement is much lower (I think only 50K euro if I remember correctly). Owning a business and working for a business are two different things.

Understood. Yes, owning a business and working for a business are two different things. Owning a business creates jobs but working a job takes jobs away from Irish citizens. So I think there should be different rules for immigration. Do any IIP investors get their money back? My guess is that these are pretty risky investments. So if all I wanted was permanent EU residency I would look at Portugal or Spain and simply buy a house for 500,000.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree STEP is the best option but you have to create 10 jobs and generate 1,000,000 in revenues within 3-4 years. I wonder how many startups can do that?