6 Weeks Absence Rule

[littlerr]

Hi im from Spain and work here as a teacher. I'm away for the summer each year but I'm still hired pay my taxes and so even when im away.and i was wondering how do they check the eu passport for absences since we got no stamps. Is there a record of those somewhere?

If you fly to Spain then INIS has records/access to all passengers that fly in /out of Ireland. So there’s every possibility they may check your activity should they deem it necessary.

So, say you go to Belfast and fly from there. Surely they don't have the UK records as well?

Surely they do. Ireland and the UK share the common travel area, so all immigration data is shared so that the two countries have only external border.

Of course that may all change when Brexit comes.

[Keggers]

Does this 6 week rule apply when you are applying for citizenship on the basis of being married to an Irish citizen and having lived here for more than 3 years, or does it apply only to cases in which you are applying on the basis of 5 years' residence?

I've been living here for 15 years with my Irish wife, but I travel regularly for work, so not sure how I can ever apply for citizenship if I can't be out of the country for more than 42 days in the prior year.

[littlerr]

It applies to all cases

[Jamalk]

Does this 6 week rule apply when you are applying for citizenship on the basis of being married to an Irish citizen and having lived here for more than 3 years, or does it apply only to cases in which you are applying on the basis of 5 years' residence?

I've been living here for 15 years with my Irish wife, but I travel regularly for work, so not sure how I can ever apply for citizenship if I can't be out of the country for more than 42 days in the prior year.

Yes it still applies regardless of marriage to Irish person

[Alixlboy]

This is the second piece oF VITAL INFORMATION that I got today when I went to see Solicitors with my brother in law. He is a hard-working field engineer who must travel to the UK every week for work. He has been refused because of the 6-week rule. The rule has no legal standing or grounding in law and xxxxxxxx told us that the rule is totally illegal and in breach of the Irish Constitution.

We also found out that xxxxxxxx has taken alot of cases to the High Court and EVERY case that they have taken has settled on a confidential basis which is why She could not tell us any details of the settlements because the terms are confidential. It is amazing news because we did not know this. It must be because the Citizenship Section do not want the case to go to a judge and told that the rule is illegal and in breach of the constitution. So if a case is refused every person should not take this news and should discover if they can challenge the decision by taking a judicial review case in the High Court. She told us that one of her clients was writing online complaining and the citizenship section picked it up and said that they would deal with his case. She told my brother in law that the citizenship section are now looking for the following information and she copied the sheet. I have copied it for all as follows:

If you were out of the country for work purposes for a period longer than 6 weeks, please forward a copy of your P60’s for each year of residence claimed along with a letter from your employer stating the dates you were abroad for work purposes to support your application.
Each case is examined on its own merits and submitted to the Minister for decision

I hope this helps some people who are refused wrongly.

Might is Right.
Thanks for the info.

[PettteM]

Just a piece of advice since i was also worried about this, if you're applying as an EU citizen you'll be fine in all like hood even if you were away from Ireland for more than 6 weeks in the last 365 days. They have no way of checking that since your passport doesn't get stamped, just keep in mind that you shouldn't even mention that you were absent in the application form (5.6 IIRC) just don't bring it up at all, that's what I did and even though I was away for 2 months my application was processed just fine (as long as you're legally resident in Ireland for that period, ie provide rent agreements/mortgage/bank statements etc.)

I don't think there's a way around it for non-EU people as their passport gets stamped but EU citizens applying shouldn't have an issue if they don't bring it up themselves.