Short Term Visa for holiday, what type to apply for?

Hi,

I'm an Irish citizen living in Asia, my wife is Chinese and my son Irish (foreign births register). We are planning a short visit to Ireland later this year, this will be my wifes second short trip, the first being several years ago. At that time we lived in China and were instructed by the visa office staff in Beijing to apply for a "Visit Family/Friends" short stay C visa, we also had to submit a lot of documentation including a lot of my financial information in order to get the visa.

This time we are living in a country in Asia with no visa office and must apply through post to Dublin. I see the current processing time is up to 8 weeks. I see that there is another category of visa "Family members of EU/EEA/Swiss citizens seeking to reply on Directive 2004/38/EC (Free Movement Directive)" which on the face of it appears to be more applicable to our case. Note we are not planning on moving to Ireland and neither of us currently live in Ireland. The processing time for this visa type is accelerated and stated as 4 weeks.

Which visa type should my wife apply for? Anyone with any experience to share?

Can anyone help?

Frequently asked questions wrote:Spouse/civil partner of Irish national

Q.6 I am an Irish national. My spouse / civil partner is a visa required national. Do they need a visa to visit/live in Ireland?

Yes. For information on applying for a visa and the various types of visas please click here.

For the purposes of the Directive 2004/38/EC, you are not normally considered as an EEA national in your country of origin.