Irish citizenship

[Apileofballyhoo]

Just some information for anybody that's wondering. Estimates seen to vary but it looks like the following applies to 5 or 6 million people.

If you were born outside the island of Ireland and if either of your parents was an Irish citizen who was born in the island of Ireland, then you are entitled to Irish citizenship, and entitled to apply for an Irish passport under Irish law, irrespective of where you reside. You can also apply for Irish citizenship if one of your parents, while not born in the island of Ireland, was an Irish citizen at the time of your birth. In most cases applications of this type are made through a grandparent who was born in Ireland.

www.dfa.ie/irelanduk-citizenshipandpassports/

Can anyone tell me what they are doing about posting all these original documents?

I posted mine to London - recorded/signed for delivery. I got an email that they'd been received.

Apileofballyhoo - thank you so much for starting this very useful thread.

My parents were both born in Ireland so I believe I can just apply for a first passport. Is it any easier or the same to wait until I get my passport to apply for my children? I know if I start with the grandparent link I could register them on the Foreign Births Register but I guess I still need to do that anyway. Thanks.

Getting your kids on the FBR takes longer than getting a passport. If you can afford to get duplicates of relevant certificates, I would do both at the same time.
There's quite a lot of documentary evidence needed for both (necessarily so) but more for FBR.

If someone was born in Ireland, you should more than likely have a birth certificate. Even if you were adopted afterwards. Having the correct information to find it may be the problem. Unfortunately, if you were adopted in Ireland, you were not automatically entitled to your birth information. This may have changed.

I had experience of this about 8 years ago. An acquaintance of mine only had his baptismal certificate and some sort of adoption certificate. He was told by a very patronising social worker that he couldn't get his birth cert. He had knowledge of his birth mother's name through his adoptive family. So, I went to the General Register Office and got him his birth cert, with this name, and date of birth. A civil birth certificate is a public document. You need the identifying information, though.

Sorry, that was to Jessica. And missed the point. If you get your mother's civil birth certificate and your birth certificate, unless there is a pointed question on the application form, I would be surprised if you weren't entitled to Irish citizenship.

My DH can get an Irish passport and I can get a Portuguese passport both through the grandparent rule. I'm not sure what the point would be though as my children wouldn't be entitled, as they dont have grandparents who were citizens before they were born. I wanted to give them options. Don't really care about me

There is a website ppl.

They are inundated cos of bloody brexit. Uk accept social worker or librarian signature. Have to to go to church I suppose, can't even find solicitor who did house/will.

A year for FBR application 😮.

I finally got together all the documents and sent mine off earlier this week. I was prepared for six months but a year, wow!

Then have to do the passport thing afterwards but that requires also sending off my British passport I think, anyone know how long that takes?

It's pretty quick - 2 months at most you can send notarised copies of your passport. I checked with Cork where the people actually do it rather than the Embassy in London where they said it needed to be originals.

Grandson on the way to getting his Irish passport. First step, getting on the register of foreign births. A year's wait! Better warn DS.

Thanks all for your replies.

Thanks bellinisurge that is very useful to know. I hate being without a passport, not that I get away every weekend but the ability to would be nice

I may never use my Irish passport but it seems to make sense to apply for it while i’ll have all the necessary documents together

Our applications went in in June for the foreign birth registration. I’m quite concerned about the possible year wait- do you think the rules will change?

Here’s a question if anyone knows the answer:

I am Northern Irish (from a long line of Northern Irish/Irish ancestors). DH is Scottish. Six years ago I decided to get Irish passports for myself and the children. All fine. They were all born in Scotland.

Is having them added to the FBR separate to them having Irish passports? I’m wondering if it’s something we should look into for the future, to make it easier for future generations to claim Irish citizenship even they don’t live there.

yellowplumpreserves you won’t need to do the foreign births register for your DC as they already have citizenship and passports.

The FBR is for people whose parents were not born in the island of Ireland. It proves the lineage to the Irish grandparent and then once that is confirmed the Irish citizenship is granted from the date of the FBR certificate. We then need the FBR certificate to apply for a passport.

Your children should put their children on the FBR when the time comes (unless they are born on the island of Ireland in which case they won’t need to) to grant your grandchildren citizenship.

ellesbelles the Irish gov website says the rules will not change due to brexit.

I imagine there is just such a surge in applications that they are struggling to cope with them all which is why the wait is longer.

yellowplumpreserves

I think it depends on whether you yourself were born on the Island of Ireland or not - if you were, then I think your children don’t have to be on the FBR but their children will need to be. If you weren’t, then your children will need to be on the FBR before they have children themselves:

If your grandparent was born on the island of Ireland and your parent was born outside Ireland then you are eligible to apply for entry on to the Foreign Births Register. More detailed information on how to apply and what is required can be found here at our Registering a Foreign Birth page.

People with a grandparent born outside Ireland, but with a parent who is an Irish citizen:

If your parent became an Irish citizen through Foreign Birth Registration or Naturalisation prior to your birth and you were born outside Ireland, you can apply for Foreign Birth Registration.

www.dfa.ie/passports-citizenship/citizenship/born-abroad/born-abroad-citizenship-by-descent-faqs/

This is also useful:

www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/citizenship-by-birth-descent

If you weren’t, then your children will need to be on the FBR before they have children themselves:

Actually, scrub that. Your children don’t need to be on the FBR as they have their Irish passports/ citizenship already.

I am a year ahead of some of you so happily have a passport for myself and DC. I just wanted to say that for anyone near London, you can go along to the Irish passport office at Cromwell Road in London. You take a ticket from the machine and get called to a desk. They check everything for you so you haven't got the worry of it coming back with a query. They also suggested I went to the corner post office to buy a registered delivery envelope. I have been there twice now as I helped my sister with the procedure recently. By the way, she applied in April and had her passport by August. Both times I met lovely staff and waiting time was within an hour.

Thanks worriedmutha. Was that just the passport bit that took from April to August I assume or FBR and passport? (Which would be impressive!)

By going to the passport office do you avoid having to give them your British passport for the duration of the passport process?

Thanks

You don't need to give them your UK passport for the duration of the process. I checked with Cork - the actual passport people - they said a notarised copy is fine.

I'm hoping someone can help.

I'm 53 now and was one of the thousands of babies adopted from Ireland to the Uk.

My birth mother was Irish and she gave birth to me in the Uk having been sent here to give birth.

I have some original documents showing the adoption and proving her Irish status.

Am I entitled to an Irish passport?

By coincidence my husband is Irish so our kids have Irish passports.