My FBR and 1st passport application experience

[citysurf]

Hello all. After spending a lot of time reading these forums and getting some invaluable advice, I thought it only fair to give an account of my own experience acquiring Irish nationality and my first passport.

Start of the process
I originally decided to apply for Irish nationality about a year ago, partly out of sentimentality, and partly as an insurance against David Cameron's psychotic approach to Britain's membership of the EU (I live in Spain, so this directly affects me). I have claimed Irish nationality by decent through my late grandmother on my mother's side of the family.

I originally had no access to my own or family members' birth, marriage and death certificates. However, it was an easy process ordering these online from both the British and Irish record offices. If memory serves me right, British certificates cost about 20 euros each, and Irish ones about half that price. They took around two weeks to arrive, setting me back around 120 euros in total.

FBR application
My next step was to apply online for the FBR certificate (https://www.dfa.ie/passports-citizenshi ... ign-birth/). This was an easy process which required more or less just inputting all the data from the certificates which I had ordered. I submitted and printed the application. The tricky part was finding someone to countersign my application. The list of accepted professions is fairly limited, but I eventually found a lawyer to sign my forms and photos. I paid 260 euros by bank transfer, and sent off my application and supporting documents to the embassy in Madrid. Prior to this, the embassy also promptly answered a few questions I had by email. It seems the same can't be said for other Irish embassy's around the world, but I can't fault any of the dealings I had with the staff in Madrid! A few days before I received my FBR certificate and my documents back, I got an email notifying me that it had just been posted and was on its way. All in all, this process took 7 weeks.

Passport aplication
With my FBR certificate, the embassy had helpfully included a passport application form. I completed it and had it countersigned by a headteacher that I know. The supporting documentation required was my FBR certificate, birth certificate and a few documents with my name and address. I paid the 80 euros fee by bank transfer (half the price of a British passport), and sent it off my registered mail. Keep a note of the barcode number on the form. I've been tracking my application, and my passport has just been posted to me. All this, and only 5 days since they received my application in Dublin!

So, all in all, this whole process has taken me about a couple of months. I can't complain from my experience with the embassy in Madrid. Maybe they give North American applications a harder time due to the fact that they are also conferring EU nationality on people that don't already have it?

If anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer them based on my experience.

[jasonoz]

Thank you for sharing this information. It is most helpful.