Relocation between EU countries

[Narmer]

Dear All,

I will highly appreciate your advice regarding a situation i am facing now. I am currently living in Ireland for around 4 years on a long term reckonable long term residence as a highly skilled employee (Green Card Scheme), i am non-EU citizen,

I was given lately a job opportunity to Work in Spain and i was wondering whether my years of long term residency here in Ireland will be counted in Spain as reckonable residence as well or not, and will it be considered when applying for a permanent residency later in Spain? i was reading on the internet and it was mentioned that when moving between different EU countries my years of long term residency will be considered in my new country of destination, however i am not quite sure if that rule applies for Ireland as well or not!

Thank you for your kind support and will appreciate your valuable feedback,

Kind Regards

[secret.simon]

To the best of my knowledge, that is a matter for Spanish and Irish law, not EU law.

It sounds like you have an Irish visa, issued under Irish (national) law. The years that you accrue under national visas can not be transferred across national boundaries by action of EU law. However, some EU countries factor them in for the purpose of getting permanent residence there. But that is upto the individual countries, not the EU.

If you had a Blue Card (the EU version of the Green card, but which does not apply to the UK, Ireland and Denmark), I believe that that is portable across EU boundaries, as it is issued under EU law, not national laws.

I would suggest that you focus on acquiring Irish citizenship, after which you are free to move across the EU.

i was reading on the internet and it was mentioned that when moving between different EU countries my years of long term residency will be considered in my new country of destination,

Can you post the link for this information?

[Narmer]

Dear Simon,

Thank you for your kind response, indeed i am trying to find, from a Spanish law perspective, whether it will be possible to factor my years of residency in Ireland when applying for a PR later in Spain or not as you mentioned below,

I am not able to find that link regarding movement between the EU countries right now, it was on one of the Spanish forums but as i mentioned i was not sure if it was applicable to Ireland or not!

Kind Regards

[noajthan]

Not sure what a Blue Card is but is this this any good to you?

If you hold a Blue Card from another EU-member state, and have lived elsewhere in the EU for the same period, this also permits you to long-term residence in Spain as long as you have lived for two years in Spain beforehand.

If you hold an EU long-term residence permit granted by another EU member state and want to stay on in Spain, you will have to relinquish your long-term residence status in the other country and apply for an EU long-term residence permit from the Foreigner’s Office (Oficina de Extranjeros) in Spain.

Ref: http://www.expatica.com/es/visas-and-pe ... 07634.html

[secret.simon]

If you had a Blue Card (the EU version of the Green card, but which does not apply to the UK, Ireland and Denmark), I believe that that is portable across EU boundaries, as it is issued under EU law, not national laws.

Blue cards are not issued to people working in Ireland and hence the OP won't be covered by its provisions.

It is an EU issued card and so, it is portable (to some extent) across EU borders.