to ask if Irish vs U.K. passport makes a difference?

[OneOfTheseNights]

Hi, some friends have emigrated from a non European country to Ireland.

They moved there with two young dc, and are wondering whether to try to get their dc Irish passports.

I know next to nothing of how they go about this, and I’m sure they are more than capable.

i just wondered, if they are applying for passports for their dc, would they benefit more from an Irish passport, or if possible, would it be better to apply for a U.K. passport ?

🙏🏻

Not enough info OP. But from the info you’ve provided, it’s probably a ‘no’ to either. No one can just move to a country and claim citizenship and a passport because they fancy it!

Ahh right. I see what you mean.

er, yes you can actually! If you legally go to Ireland - eg you’re working as a doctor or in a profession - and you meet the residency requirements then you CAN become a citizen. And get a passport. The expectation is that you’ve made a life there, your contribute, and you’re planning to stay after you get the citizenship.
Most countries have their own version of this. DD best friend - moved here from Eastern Europe as a young child. Both parents from that country, lived here 10 years, has just become a U.K. citizen.

Perhaps the family in the op would prefer to holiday in Dubai rather than the EU, although I can see the Irish/US pre-clearance would be helpful

The obvious benefit to having an Irish passport is the benefits of EU membership: freedom of movement and access to the common market.

You have to have lived and worked in Ireland for 5 years before you can claim citizenship and a passport. From the info that OP gave, her friends have just arrived so no, they can’t just choose to have a passport of UK or Ireland.

They can, if they meet the criteria. And, though it doesn’t sound as if it’s relevant to the people the OP is talking about, anyone from the UK can move to Ireland without a visa or travel permit (and vice versa) because of the Common Travel Area, apply for jobs on the same basis as Irish people, ditto healthcare, and vote in local, general and European elections.

Would they be able to get either?

I doubt it’s as simple and picking one form, and applying.

irish passport keeps you out of trouble and a British passport gets you out of trouble 😛
but seriously speaking I think the Irish passport is more useful as it’s EU.

like others though I don’t see how they are eligible for a UK passport?

An Irish passport is an eu passport and has all the benefits that entails

I'm Irish. I work with a woman who moved here (NI) from eastern Europe when she was 3. Her home country is now part of the EU so she doesn't need an Irish passport from that perspective, but she wasn't born here so she's not entitled to one, but her little sister was and is.
Point being, will your friends be entitled to either?

Or any passport !

Wouldn’t they just keep their own?

They can if they stay. Immigrated OP said, not baiting, not temp, immigrated.

Well, they sound like entitled idiots if they think they can waltz into another country and start applying for passports from there or an entirely different county nearby.

My friend has both. He uses his Irish one if he’s travelling in a group, or with other people who have EU passports. If not he uses his UK one.

Yeah

I think most people never really think about what having a passport/nationality actually means. It means you belong to that country and it has a claim on you, and that ultimately if they have to countries can prioritise you or deprioritise you as they deem fit (tax, national service, treason, etc).

Instead there’s almost a feeling that you can pick these up as a handy option to get working rights or make life otherwise more convenient. There was some idiot MP during the Brexit kerfuffle who said he’d simply get round it by getting an Irish passport. But it turned out he didn’t have any link to Ireland so clearly had never thought about it either.

We’ve all got fat and complacent and have rather forgotten that there are times when these things can really, really matter. I include governments in this too – they hand out huge numbers of the things on the basis of often-not-actually-that-much-belonging, and if we do get hard circumstances again and that all has to be unpicked, it’s going to be a massive problem. I sometimes wonder, if we tried to conscript an army now, could we actually do it, or would we find our young people just melt away?

irish one makes travel far easier. we have relatives in Northern Ireland who have both UK and Irish passports - they travel extensively all over the world. the majority of time they use irish passport as they say its just easier especially since brexit. an Indian colleague of mine has just got her irish citizenship. she has lived here over 6 years now went to college here work here and just bought a house. she had to give up her Indian passport her husband will apply next year for his. its makes work travel especially much easier for her. another relative lives in new Zealand and wanted to travel to UK before coming to Ireland. she couldn't use her new Zealand passport for some strange reason because if brexit she was told that's all. she then had to spend time and money going to the embassy to get her irish one renewed.

In order to get an Irish passport, you need to have one or both Irish grandparents. Great grand parents don't count.

Thank you everyone.
im yet to show all of these comments and advice to the person concerned.
i might be able to come back with more detail, once they have read all the posts on this thread.

Thanks again

Definitely Irish, if they can get it.

Not what they asked. They asked which passport is better.

@OneOfTheseNights we have just applied and waiting to register on foreign birth register under grandparent being Irish its more tricky great grandparents I believe .

It's not an either or question is it?

Both the UK and Ireland allow dual citizenship. If they're entitled to Irish citizenship, they can get an Irish passport, if they're entitled to British citizenship they can get a British passport. (And if born in Northern Ireland, even more flexibility, but that doesn't sound like it applies.).

If they are entitled to both and want to know which would be best to spend money on right now, it's going to depend where they plan on traveling.

And if they aren't entitled to either citizenship but need to apply, I think they are unlikely to get British if they're living in Ireland.

I’ve lost track of the number of entitled Brits I’ve encountered who are frequently verbally anti-Irish, upfront about voting for Brexit, and then in the next moment pride themselves on their cleverness about getting an Irish passport by descent. Such people have usually never been to Ireland, are vaguely ashamed of their Irish heritage, and don’t know the first thing about the country. On the positive side, they’re highly unlikely to trouble us with their actual presence.

The reason you can claim Irish citizenship by descent is that Ireland takes its diaspora seriously, as a country whose former colonial exploitation caused grinding poverty and famine, and caused mass emigration. Lots of Irish people didn’t have a choice about leaving Ireland. Ireland takes its duty to those people’s children and grandchildren seriously. Even when they’re Brexitty wankers.