Talk to me about applying for an Irish passport.

[lavenderdoilly]

Both dh and I have an Irish parent (in both cases spent most of their lives in Uk). Assume both dh and I and our dd could apply for an Irish passport. I flirted with the idea in 80s and 90's when I travelled a lot for work to places where a uk passport might be troublesome but never carried it through. What was a blue sky kind of idea has become a bit more concrete if Brexit happens. When I lived in aforementioned tricky places it was a great comfort to have an EU passport (albeit a British one).I ask for advice because I want dd to have the kind of comfort I had as an EU citizen when travelling abroad if that's what she does when she’s older.

I applied as the grandchild of 2 (although I only needed 1) Irish-born citizens. I had to have my birth added to the "register of foreign births" first before I could apply for a passport. My DM as the child of 2 Irish-born citizens (although again she only needed 1) could just apply for a passport.

Getting on the register was a bit of a faff with 9 million documents having to be submitted and took about 4-6 months (can't remember exactly). It was about 10 years ago now nearly.

Now I have an Irish passport and can just renew that in the normal way. But the passport doesn't come to someone joining the register automatically. You have to get the citizenship document first and then apply for the passport.

Overall it wasn't that bad (although having been through US immigration to get a green card my standard for immigration hassle is now a lot higher).

I've been thinking of doing this too. Both of my parents are Irish.

This link might be helpful:

www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/irish_citizenship_through_birth_or_descent.html

I've had British and Irish passports since I grew out of my Mum's passport. I have one Irish parent. It was exactly the same as applying for a UK one. I got them in case I ever wanted to travel to e.g. Israel & other countries in the Middle East, where it would help not to have certain stamps on show.

Thanks all. I am twitchy about Brexit generally (economic impact on country) and what it will mean for my family e.g study / travel in EU and US.