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Hi all,

Not sure if this is right place for this post but here goes! I (29) am British my dad was born in Ireland, his side is all Irish & my mums is English. So should be straight forward for me to get Irish passport I believe.

I have been dating my Japanese girlfriend (30) for 6 months and we are in love. Her holiday visa ran out so she has had to move to Ireland under a 1 year work visa and will have to wait 6 months to come back to UK, which is fair enough.

We would both like to live in the UK. So I am seeking best way to make this happen. Its pretty clear that we must get married. However its not so clear the best route to go after marriage. I fully understand the long route of her getting an fiancé visa or spouse visa both of which are very expensive etc.

Would it be possible for us to take advantage of my dual nationality and get married in Ireland. So she can become EU citizen then live and work in UK with me for 5 years until she can apply for UK citizenship?

She has already used the 2 year work visa in the UK.

I'm renting a house and have income of 28k a year. So would be able to look after her etc

Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Paddy

paddyking9 wrote:So she can become EU citizen

I am not conversant with Irish nationality law, but I can't believe that marriage with an Irish spouse automatically confers Irish citizenship any longer. She may be a wife of an Irish citizen, but that is not the same as being an Irish citizen.

You may be a dual citizen, but from the viewpoint of the UK government, you would be treated as solely British and your Japanese girlfriend would have to apply under the UK Immigration Rules, unless you renounce your British citizenship and become a solely Irish citizen.

As regards acquiring British or Irish citizenship for your girlfriend/wife-to-be, be aware that acquisition of another citizenship will automatically deprive her of her Japanese citizenship and you and she need to have a conversation about how far down that road the two of you want to go.

PS: It is slightly rude to have scattered this post all across this site. It is in the Other Countries forum, the European Immigration forum, etc. Please delete the superfluous posts.

Firstly, marrying you in Ireland won't immediately give her EEA (Irish) citizenship. For immigration purposes you are only considered to be British and can therefore only apply for her to enter the UK and settle here as your fiancee or spouse under the more expensive UK immigration Regulations. However, you're fortunate that you are earning over the minimum annual income level of £18,600.

Edit: Please don't post this question in multiple threads...it just becomes very confusing for anyone trying to help you. I've removed the other 4 duplicate posts.

Casa wrote:Firstly, marrying you in Ireland won't immediately give her EEA (Irish) citizenship. For immigration purposes you are only considered to be British and can therefore only apply for her to enter the UK and settle here as your fiancee or spouse under the more expensive UK immigration Regulations. However, you're fortunate that you are earning over the minimum annual income level of £18,600.

Edit: Please don't post this question in multiple threads...it just becomes very confusing for anyone trying to help you. I've removed the other 4 duplicate posts.

Thank you sorry I'm new to boards. Thats a shame. Thanks for taking the time to give me some advise.

Cheers

Paddy

secret.simon wrote:

paddyking9 wrote:So she can become EU citizen

I am not conversant with Irish nationality law, but I can't believe that marriage with an Irish spouse automatically confers Irish citizenship any longer. She may be a wife of an Irish citizen, but that is not the same as being an Irish citizen.

You may be a dual citizen, but from the viewpoint of the UK government, you would be treated as solely British and your Japanese girlfriend would have to apply under the UK Immigration Rules, unless you renounce your British citizenship and become a solely Irish citizen.

As regards acquiring British or Irish citizenship for your girlfriend/wife-to-be, be aware that acquisition of another citizenship will automatically deprive her of her Japanese citizenship and you and she need to have a conversation about how far down that road the two of you want to go.

PS: It is slightly rude to have scattered this post all across this site. It is in the Other Countries forum, the European Immigration forum, etc. Please delete the superfluous posts.

Thanks for you advice! Yeah that's a very good point about her losing her Japanese citizenship. We both hadn't even thought of that. Cheers Paddy

If you don't want to renounce your citizenship take a trip to Europe & do Surinder Singh.