Anyone applied for an Irish passport as a descedent recently?

[wanttokickoffbutcant]

My passport has expired and I was thinking of getting an Irish one as my dad is from Ireland. I have looked on line and it looks really complicated and I just wanted to know if anyone has actually done it and is it that bad? I also want to get my daughter one and was hoping she could just get one if I do or do I have to go down the whole FBR route?

Never needed to as I have a Uk passport. I visit Eire often to see relatives.

The trickiest bit is finding a person to certify your documents, who is on the professionals list, has a work landline, (the wont accept mobiles) and is able to answer it. (So knock off teachers/doctors from your list). The embassy phones the person who certified your form to check they did it and they know you. Luckily an old friend of mine, is a solicitor and works from an office, other friends have had problems as they have used doctors who have been tied up at work/or not on shift so no been able to take the call. Also you do not need to send your British passport, we just sent a properly certified copy. Good luck. It took about 6weeks from posting, slowest part was the postage, seemed to sit in Heathrow for days and the same in Dublin.

For me, my dad died when I was very young, my mum isn’t Irish and didn’t maintain any sort of relationship with that side of my family. We barely spoke about my dad or his family as my mum was a fairly traumatised young widow. So I never asked.

it was only as an adult I even realised i was eligible for Irish citizenship. The buzz around brexit was what made me think hang on….. by that time my mum was more open to talking and showed me the locked box under her bed which had birth/death/marriage certs in so I was able to progress the application.

I have always wanted to know more about that side of my heritage. I kept my birth surname because it is distinctively Irish and I didn’t want to lose that. I also think it’s important my kids know that side of our family so I have been tracking family down. Recently spoke to a lovely cousin :)

I had teachers. I gave landlines but watching the application tracker I realised that final step of contacting them would likely be in the Easter school holidays.

i went on the webchat and explained, and gave a mobile number. They phoned them the next day.

i think you need to give a landline, but if you also supply a mobile you might get lucky.

Dh applied ages ago, he had a GM who was born in Ireland but never lived there after she was about 20. He’s had his passport for ages.

But a brother of his, who waited for ages to apply, is still waiting many months later. I’d say that if you want one, don’t hang about!

If my grandma was Irish but I already have DCs will it benefit them at all? Also no one is quite sure of her date of birth

Not unless you did the FBR application for yourself before you were born.

if you don’t have a parent born in Ireland then you need to register as a foreign born citizen. If you do this before you have children, then you are Irish when thy are born and the citizenship continues. If you aren’t an Irish citizen (not on FBR, no parent born on Ireland) when they are born then the citizenship can not pass on.

@MissyB1 they don’t need your British passport. It’s irrelevant to whether or not you are Irish.

I have one . Took about 3 weeks . Both parents alive and born in Ireland ( i was born in England) . Had to send a birth cert of one parent , my birth cert and marriage cert i think. Getting photos signed was more of a faff , has to be particular professions rather than any professional as it us in the uk.

Edited to say yes i had to send my british passport too - that came back very quickly .

I am in the process at the moment and it’s very straightforward. If you have a parent who was born in Ireland it’s easy and won’t take too long. If it’s a grandparent it takes longer as you have to get citizenship first.

This is exactly how I feel. Luckily my husband’s mother was Irish and he got an Irish passport a year ago. Both my young adult children then applied for citizenship about nine months ago and it recently came through. They are going to apply for passports after they get back from their foreign holidays in August.

Sorry I don't mean to pick on you but just to highlight this isn't the same thing at all. Whether you're from Derry or Dublin or Belfast or Cork you have the same right to an Irish passport. People from the North can choose to have British, Irish or both. It would be more straightforward for him than some of the scenarios here because he is Irish born in Ireland.

I got my FBR and then my Passport, total time from application of FBR to passport in door was exactly 12 months, but it's here, I have it

You do have to send your British passport if you have one. I had to travel to Ireland on my driving licence while the Irish passport office had my British passport.

Then you will presumably know not to use the term ‘Eire’.

It’s very straightforward via a parent who was born in Ireland. Their and your birth certificates and your parent marriage certs if they were married! Did it for our kids and it took a few weeks.
Also pretty straightforward if you had an Irish grandparent, you just need to prove that you ARE their grandchild, again using birth & marriage certs all of which you can get copies of if you don’t have originals.
Friend did it via grandparent and it took a couple of months.

It’s a newish thing - they want to see other passports - UK is the same. You don’t have to send your passport though, you can photocopy every page instead.
Countries are finally beginning to ‘link’ passports for those who have more than 1. Can’t believe it was done years ago TBH.

No you don’t. You can sent a notarised copy.

i didn’t send original anything. There was no issue with sending copies.

I agree, my passport arrived 3 weeks ago and as I have travel booked, I sent a colour photocopy of my UK passport, signed by my witness. But its true that they did ask for it, and I had to send ot, it wasn't optional

It takes a minimum of 9 months for FBR, currently its 12 months processing time

That’s straightforward. Citizens of NI are eligible by virtue of being born ‘on the Island of Ireland’. They effectively have dual citizenship - one of the many benefits of coming from there.

Really? Maybe that’s changed.

This was what they wanted

Super easy as you are an Irish citizen already just need to apply website. Their customer service is second to none. I used the website chat function last week and got a real person who was super helpful within 3 minutes and whole call was completed within 5 mins. Puts UK system to shame. Your daughter can do it but process is different and a bit more complicvated.

They send the documents back fairly quickly but I wouldn’t risk sending a passport until your holiday is over.