Irish Working Visa while on Workpermit in UK

[sywahu]

Hi,

My company is planning to send me to Ireland for a day or two and are trying to arrange an Irish working visa.

It just seems strange to have a working visa for Ireland and work permit for UK at the same time.

Would this have any impact on the current work permit?

Cheers.

[Kayalami]

It just seems strange to have a working visa for Ireland and work permit for UK at the same time.

The UK and The Republic of Ireland are two distinct countries with individual employment authorisation and immigration policies.

Would this have any impact on the current work permit?

Not an issue given you are still working for the same employer and the task appears to be short term - what is its scope? I would have expected you to be o.k. with a standard business visitor visa.

[sywahu]

Thanks Kay,

The scope is just some on site software development work. Normally we can easily work remotely but this time there is some requirements gathering plus development and I need to be on site.

But they are based on Ireland which means I have to go there for a day or two every month.

I checked Ireland's official working visa site ( http://www.oasis.gov.ie/siteindex/by_su ... onals.html , http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/services/visa/02.asp ) and apparently business visitor visa category does not allow one to work there.

Its still not entirely clear. I just thought there might be others on the board on work permit who might have been in a similar situation

[davidm]

Hi,

My company is planning to send me to Ireland for a day or two and are trying to arrange an Irish working visa.

It just seems strange to have a working visa for Ireland and work permit for UK at the same time.

Would this have any impact on the current work permit?

Cheers.

Shouldn't be any problem- I had an Australian work permit for a year and a German work permit for the past three years. It did not affect my UK work permit in any way, since it was all for the same employer.

[penanglad]

According to ECJ caselaw, the right to free movement of labour applies also to a EU company that sends a third-country national employee to another EU country to provide cross-border services.

I am surprised that you would need a work permit to do one or two days' work for your company.

[sywahu]

Yes I read the same thing on their site but apparently, after speaking to the Irish embassy in London, a visa of some description is definitely required.

Thanks.

[sywahu]

Apparently this is a business visa valid for max 6 months to begin with. They were pretty quick about it and returned passport in three days!

[Kayalami]

According to ECJ caselaw, the right to free movement of labour applies also to a EU company that sends a third-country national employee to another EU country to provide cross-border services.

The Van Der Elst ruling is nominally followed by several member states (Germany, France spring to mind) - I believe the UK (and Ireland too) does not have to adhere to it as part of its veto on various EU immigration policies not in contravention of EU treaty laws pertaining to exercise of treaty rights.

Apparently this is a business visa valid for max 6 months to begin with. They were pretty quick about it and returned passport in three days!

Good to see it went well.