Experience applying for stamp 4 based on Irish spouse at Burgh Quay

I am a Canadian citizen and my wife is an Irish citizen. We have been married 4 years. I was visiting Ireland for a short time-frame a few months ago and I had wanted to apply for my stamp 4 permit so that I have the ability to look for employment if we decide to move to Ireland.

Booking an appointment at the Burgh Quay Registration Office (BQRO) is next to impossible because of their weird appointment system and backlog, so I sought out one of those apps where you can bid for an appointment and a bot finds one for you. I felt guilty doing so but I had no other choice as I had a 1 week window in Ireland, and desperately needed an appointment as we foresee a move to Ireland within the next year. I got the appointment after few weeks of biting my nails.

When arriving at passport control in Dublin airport, I declared my intention to reside and apply as a spouse of an Irish citizen. This is an important step as you cannot change your status after being admitted as a temporary visitor. My wife was with me. The border officer asked for our marriage certificate and passports. Got asked a few standard questions, and then my passport was stamped with a permission to enter and apply for registration.

Few days later, we went to the BQRO in the city center. Even though we had an appointment, we were waiting for an hour to be seen. When our number was called, we came up to the counter and was met with a man who for some reason didn't look at us even once during the entire interview. Fixated on the screen, he asked for our documents (passport, original Canadian marriage certificate, and proof of address). We took two proofs of address - a letter from my mother-in-law whose house we were staying in, and a statement from the Panda waste management company. My mother-in-law added my name to her account a few months before I arrived in Dublin. I later found out we didn't need to do this as the letter she wrote for me was sufficient as proof of address.

The BQRO officer continued to stare at his screen, looked at the documents, went clickity-clackity on this keyboard, went to the back possibly to verify that the marriage certificate was genuine, and came back with our passports. Handed the documents back to us with a stamp in my passport with permission to reside until 2022. It appears a 3 year permission is standard.

I was elated especially as I was anxious in the build-up towards the appointment. If the officer suspects the genuineness of the marriage, they can ask you to submit a paper application which can take up to 1 year to process. It was surprising that I wasn't asked any questions, but I think that comes down to two things:
1. Passport privilege - for better or worse, Canadians, Americans, and citizens from other developed countries are generally not suspected of entering into sham marriages to live in Ireland. So my passport afforded me that privilege, and I wasn't asked a single question.
2. Length of marriage - we had been married for 4.5 years at that point, and so this is viewed as a lower risk compared to a couple that's been married for a few days or weeks.

All in all, I walked out of there happy and received my IRP in the post 7 days later, with a validity of 3 years. There was a mistake on the IRP (my country of birth was incorrect), and so I had to write an e-mail with a picture of my passport and the incorrect IRP. I received a new IRP by post after another 6-7 days. As the spouse of an Irish citizen, the entire process was free.

I hope this helps provide a perspective to people who share similar circumstances to me. Let me know if you have any questions!

So the system works if you play it straight but most of the complaints here....