Advice options re moving to Ireland (EU and as Irish)

[Ballatergirl]

Hi,

I'm hoping that someone can give me some advice on this as I've looked at the immigration website and other forums but can't find a clear answer.

I'm a British citizen who has been living in New Zealand with my NZ partner for five years where I originally went on a partner visa but am now on a permanent resident visa there. I met my partner in London in 2011 and we have been living together for almost 6 years now, first in London and then in New Zealand where we moved together in 2012. Our relationship is defacto akin to marriage and we have lots of evidence to prove we have been living together in this way and so we will have no problem providing this. That said, I've been reading that Ireland doesn't recognise defacto relationships in the same way as other countries and we don't want to get married solely for that reason.

The other thing to throw in is that I was going to apply for my Irish passport (my father was Irish) and look to sponsor him in some way through a 'partner of an Irish citizen' route but someone has advised me that it may be better for me to go down the EU free movement route instead, applying for my Irish passport when we were both there and sorted.

My question is based around the fact that neither I or my partner have ever lived in Ireland although we do want to settle there as we have friends and I have family there. On a practical level, we would want to remain in NZ whilst we apply as we wouldn't want to disrupt our life there (ie leave our home and current employment there) without knowing that something has been approved and he is able to work when we get there. Looking at other comments and the website, it looks like these are taking c10 months to process. We can't afford for one of us not to be working for that amount of time and then at the end, for us to have to leave Ireland in order to stay together.

The other option is of course that I could go to Ireland and he remains in NZ but we don't want to be apart for potentially 10 months as NZ is not that easy to pop back to for a quick weekend. I like living in NZ but am desperate to come back to Europe and the UK isn't an easy or desirable option for us. My partner is willing to move to Europe so we can remain together - And I've done 5 years on his side of the world after all!

With these being our circumstances, we are stuck and would really welcome advice on what is the best option/route for me to move to Ireland with my partner given we don't live there currently and we're not married. And is there any way that we could apply for something before we leave NZ so that we know his application has been approved and he can work from when he arrives?

Are there any other options we could/should consider???

Thanks so much in advance for any advice you can give as we are really struggling to know the best option. We really appreciate it!!