irish law

[clm]

Hi,
I'm irish living in London for 5 eyars,currently trying to bring my moldovan husband here on an EU FAMILY PERMIT. We are thinking of moving back home(ireland) in 5 or so years. I know under uk law if you have been married and living together for 4 years straight then your husband has the same rights as you when you return to the UK.

What is the law in Ireland regarding this, or will we have to wait 7 years for my husband to apply for a british passport before we can move home without going through the whole immigration stress again?

Thank you for any advice.

[JAJ]

Hi,
I'm irish living in London for 5 eyars,currently trying to bring my moldovan husband here on an EU FAMILY PERMIT. We are thinking of moving back home(ireland) in 5 or so years. I know under uk law if you have been married and living together for 4 years straight then your husband has the same rights as you when you return to the UK.

What is the law in Ireland regarding this, or will we have to wait 7 years for my husband to apply for a british passport before we can move home without going through the whole immigration stress again?

Thank you for any advice.

Your planning is very confused. The law in Ireland is one thing, but you haven't taken into any consideration the enormous processing delays that exists there. Both for immigration and for citizenship. These can add years to normal timescales.

From what you say you plan to bring your husband to the UK for 5 years, then abandon the UK without getting him his British citizenship. That's really not smart in most cases.

And it's not clear where you get the 7 years from either. On an EEA Family Permit he would get permanent residence after 5 years, and could apply for British citizenship one year later (6 years in total).

Incidentally, if you become British yourself, then the additional one year is not required and he could apply for citizenship after 5 years.

Do it whatever way you choose, but under your plans as explained above, your husband is unlikely won't have a western passport much before 10 years from now.

[scrudu]

Living together as husband and wife outside of Ireland alone does not give the non-Irish spouse a right to Irish citizenship. Irish law states the following about marriage to an Irish citizen (http://www.oasis.gov.ie/moving_country/ ... riage.html)

To claim citizenship by marriage, you must meet the following conditions:

* You must be married to the Irish citizen for at least 3 years
* You must have had a period of one year's continuous "reckonable residence" in the island of Ireland immediately before the date of your application
* You must have been living on the island of Ireland for at least 2 of the 4 years before that year of continuous residence
* Your marriage must be recognised as valid under Irish law
* You and your spouse must be living together as husband and wife
* You must be of good character and intend to continue to live on the island of Ireland
* You must have made a declaration of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State.

So, to bring your (visa-required) husband to Ireland in a few years, you will firstly have to apply for a D-Spouse visa for him to be allowed enter the country. As he is the spouse of an Irish citizen, this visa (along with registering for a GNIB card and taking out health insurance( will entitle him to work and reside for up to a max of 5 years (if his passport is valid that long). Currently this takes about 2+ months to process. Note that there is no "automatic right of residence" on the basis of marriage to an Irish Citizen. This means that a visa may not necessarily be granted. Any visa is issued at the discretion of the Minister of Justice.

So, if you have been living in the UK for a few years, and then move to Ireland, your husband will have to reside for at least 3 years before he can apply for Irish citizenship. Currently this takes 24 months to process by INIS. So you are looking at a 5 year wait for him to get Irish citizenship.

If your husband has British citizenship he can enter Ireland without having to apply for any entry visa to Ireland, and then could apply for Irish citizenship after the 3 year period of residency also. Having British Citizenship will make those 3-5 years in Ireland a lot easier as he will be able to travel abroad without a lot of visa hassles (wont require Schengen visa, or re-entry visas for Ireland, or visas for other countries who afford UK citizens right of entry without visas), and will only have to deal with Irish Immigration when he applies for Irish Citizenship. I am sure having a European passport will make things like applying for a driving licence, opening a bank account, applying for a PPS number etc. a lot easier! If you can go this route, it would definitely be the preferable road!

You should also think about the fact that Ireland is planning on introducing new Immigration legislation that is quite harsh on immigrants and their rights to reside. Should your husband in the future be charged with a crime (how severe this has to be has not been fully formalised, speeding in a car has been mentioned), he is eligible for deportation by the GNIB.

Also, he will have no right to reciprocal EU healthcare, so will have to be privately insured, and always ensure that he will not have any recourse to public funds.

Anyway, you get my jist, if he can get British Citizenship before leaving there, your lives will be a hell of a lot easier when you move back home.

[joesoap101]

scrudu, what do you mean by he will have no right to reciprocal EU healthcare?

[scrudu]

EU countries have a form of "reciprocal health care" which means if an citizen of a EU country is visiting another one and requires "emergency healthcare". I just read up more on it at http://www.oasis.gov.ie/moving_country/ ... /e111.html and realise that it is actually now available (since 2003) to non-EU nationals if they are currently resident here.

Sorry, I made a mistake on this one above in earlier post!

[joesoap101]

Thats why I asked. Im a non-eu citizen and I have a European Health Insurance Card. In fact any one who has a PPS number can get one. Technically speaking they have to be habitually resident however this isnt enforced. Likewise health care entitlements in Ireland are based on residency not nationality (hence non-eu nationals being able to avail of reciprocal health care in EU member states).

http://www.ehic.ie/faqs.htm

[clm]

Hi Scrudu,

Thank you so much for your post, it answered a lot of questions I had.
I have decided to try and get my husband a UK spouse visa. It's a risk as I met him whilst he was in Ireland illegally, he spent 3 years there and then went home himself on a travel document from the moldovan embassy in London. I think its best if we avoid Irish immigration because of this.

Thanks again for your help.

[scrudu]

Hi Clm,
no problems. Best of luck with your UK visa application!

joesoap101: yup, you're right.