Hi there!
I have a long and kind of complicated immigration story, but I'll try to keep this short.
I got my first eligible (stamp 3) visa as the partner of an Irish citizen in June of 2008 until June 2009. In August of 2009 while I was returning from a visit home, my bag was stolen, along with my passport. I got a replacement passport and sorted it all out with immigration at the time. The thing is, I am trying to begin the process for citizenship, and I can't remember the dates of my intervening visa, which was for 6 months.
The first visa in my new passport was a stamp 3, from October 2009 until March 2010. After that I have stamp 4s for 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13
Fast forward to last year. My partner and I broke up. It was traumatic and I was a bit of a mess. I went into the guards to explain the situation a month before my stamp was up, and they were sympathetic, but said they couldn't do anything until I wrote to the DOJ. They said not to worry about not having a stamp, as long as the application was in process.
I wrote to the DOJ and after a lot of back and forth (I was slow on documents because I was still a mess over the breakup and trying to put my life back together), they gave me another stamp 4 on my own merits (such a relief!). I was in the country without a stamp for 3 months, and contrary to the previous visit, the immigration guard was really irritated that I'd "been illegal in the country" and told me that whatever her colleague told me was wrong. Still, I got my stamp, and it's good until July 2014.
I'll be applying for another stamp 4 soon, and am hopeful they'll renew it again as nothing has changed: I'm still supporting myself, have health insurance, etc.
Anyway, I have 5 years residency already, but that lapse/break last year means it will be late this year before I can apply for naturalisation. Still, I'm trying to gather things together now. I know you need to send copies of all your previous stamps, but I don't have them all because of the lost passport in 2009. Can I ask the DOJ for a list of my visas so far? Also, my current passport expires in Sept, so I'll need to apply for another new one soon. Should I get certified photocopies of all the visas in there?
Thanks a lot!
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