Irish citizenship application: Northern Ireland: Family Perm

[chaoclive]

Hi there

My civil partner is living in Northern Ireland (NI) with me (Irish citizen) and we will be here 3 years in a while. We will then be applying for him to get Irish citizenship on the basis that he will have lived on the island of Ireland for 3 years as the spouse/civil partner of an Irish citizen. There are no issues with this.

My issue is: he entered NI in August 2014 on an EEA family permit issued by the British Embassy in Beijing. This was perfectly legal. We applied for his UK residence card (also issued under the EEA guidelines) and this was received in January 2015 (dated December 2014).

My question is: when we are due to apply for Irish citizenship for him in August 2017 (early planning I know!), will we face any issue with using August 2014 as the starting point of the 3 years? I'm concerned that INIS may not consider the EEA family permit to be enough to prove his right to live in the UK with me. Do you think that they might reject our application as they might think that the application should be made in December 2014 (when his residence card was issued)?

Has anyone else been through this process yet from NI specifically? Did yo have any issues with the EEA family permit?

Thanks
CC

[crisbella218]

Hi there

My civil partner is living in Northern Ireland (NI) with me (Irish citizen) and we will be here 3 years in a while. We will then be applying for him to get Irish citizenship on the basis that he will have lived on the island of Ireland for 3 years as the spouse/civil partner of an Irish citizen. There are no issues with this.

My issue is: he entered NI in August 2014 on an EEA family permit issued by the British Embassy in Beijing. This was perfectly legal. We applied for his UK residence card (also issued under the EEA guidelines) and this was received in January 2015 (dated December 2014).

My question is: when we are due to apply for Irish citizenship for him in August 2017 (early planning I know!), will we face any issue with using August 2014 as the starting point of the 3 years? I'm concerned that INIS may not consider the EEA family permit to be enough to prove his right to live in the UK with me. Do you think that they might reject our application as they might think that the application should be made in December 2014 (when his residence card was issued)?

Has anyone else been through this process yet from NI specifically? Did yo have any issues with the EEA family permit?

Thanks
CC

Hi,

I can't comment really on the EEA permit as my husband is a British Citizen so we couldn't go down that route and had to get a UK Visa.

However my understanding is as long as your married for 3 years and have been living on the Island of Ireland for 3 years you are fine. As long as you can provide documentation to show you and your partner at an address over the last 3 years you should get your application accepted. The fact you had an EEA family permit and then a resident card a few months later should not matter. Just as long as you can prove you have been on the Island of Ireland for 3 years. I think the only people they don't treat as living in Ireland is student and asylum seekers for the purpose of citizenship applications.

You can also email the citizenship department to ask their advice on the matter if you would like to know whether you should delay to December 2017 or do it in August 2017. However unlike me your partner has an EEA resident card which allows him to travel around EU, my UK Visa in my Chinese passport doesn't allow me without another visa. So a 5 month delay maybe best so you don't lose your €175 fee.

[chaoclive]

Hi,

I can't comment really on the EEA permit as my husband is a British Citizen so we couldn't go down that route and had to get a UK Visa.

However my understanding is as long as your married for 3 years and have been living on the Island of Ireland for 3 years you are fine. As long as you can provide documentation to show you and your partner at an address over the last 3 years you should get your application accepted. The fact you had an EEA family permit and then a resident card a few months later should not matter. Just as long as you can prove you have been on the Island of Ireland for 3 years. I think the only people they don't treat as living in Ireland is student and asylum seekers for the purpose of citizenship applications.

You can also email the citizenship department to ask their advice on the matter if you would like to know whether you should delay to December 2017 or do it in August 2017. However unlike me your partner has an EEA resident card which allows him to travel around EU, my UK Visa in my Chinese passport doesn't allow me without another visa. So a 5 month delay maybe best so you don't lose your €175 fee.[/quote]


Thanks Crisbella. My partner is also Chinese

I don't really mind too much about the 175E fee but of course it would be best to have that in my pocket, as opposed to in INISs pocket.

Hope everything else is running smoothly for you!

CC

[crisbella218]

Hi,

I can't comment really on the EEA permit as my husband is a British Citizen so we couldn't go down that route and had to get a UK Visa.

However my understanding is as long as your married for 3 years and have been living on the Island of Ireland for 3 years you are fine. As long as you can provide documentation to show you and your partner at an address over the last 3 years you should get your application accepted. The fact you had an EEA family permit and then a resident card a few months later should not matter. Just as long as you can prove you have been on the Island of Ireland for 3 years. I think the only people they don't treat as living in Ireland is student and asylum seekers for the purpose of citizenship applications.

You can also email the citizenship department to ask their advice on the matter if you would like to know whether you should delay to December 2017 or do it in August 2017. However unlike me your partner has an EEA resident card which allows him to travel around EU, my UK Visa in my Chinese passport doesn't allow me without another visa. So a 5 month delay maybe best so you don't lose your €175 fee.

Thanks Crisbella. My partner is also Chinese

I don't really mind too much about the 175E fee but of course it would be best to have that in my pocket, as opposed to in INISs pocket.

Hope everything else is running smoothly for you!

CC[/quote]

Feel free to come back to me when you apply. I'm in the process of my Irish citizenship application and its a bit different compared to those applying in the state. Like providing a PSNI report etc.

[chaoclive]

Super! You're very helpful.
Thx!

[Kadorkidor]

Hi everyone anyone know please what you need to apply for Irish citizen tanks

[Kadorkidor]

Super! You're very helpful.
Thx!

Hey mate can you be able to tell please what support documents you need to apply for a citizenship advice would be appreciated being married to an Irish citizen