Wife Citizenship - Border Control Question

[MrWickwire]

Hey guys,

First time poster. Looking for some help/advice!

I have a question regarding my wife's Irish citizenship status. My wife who is a U.S. citizen but currently has her Foreign Birth Register Certificate showing her Irish citizenship & is currently waiting to apply for her Irish passport but is unable to at this moment due to COVID and the Irish embassy in NYC currently being closed and not taking passport applications.

I'm an Irish citizen planning on flying home from NYC to Dublin in mid-August and my wife is planning on following me 2 weeks later, my question is will my wife have any difficulty at customs/border control since she does not have her Irish passport (she will be travelling on her U.S.passport)? Or will the FBR certificate be sufficient proof of her citizenship upon entry?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[littlerr]

She will be perfectly fine with or without the FBR cert. Simply tell the border control that she is a dual national. Present them with the US passport. A copy of FBR cert should be sufficient to cut down any unnecessary formality checks.

Bring a copy of your marriage certificate as well. That might come handy in case the officer may want to register her as a US visitor. (With the marriage cert, the officer can register her as spouse of Irish National and give her a long term stay stamp on her US passport.)

[Vorona]

Your wife will be allowed to enter the State if she provides her FBR certificate. She will probably get a warning from the border control officer and will be told to get a passport next time, as Irish citizens must enter the country using Irish passport. Marriage certificate will also be helpful.

Remember, visitors from USA are currently banned from the country as a high risk visitors. She will be told to self-isolate.

[MrWickwire]

Thanks so much for the reply Vorona & littlerr.

I thought she would be fine but always good to get other peoples opinions. I'll definitely make sure she has our marriage cert and maybe a picture of my passport showing I'm an Irish national so they can match the name to the marriage cert. Yes we know she will have to quarantine when she gets here but that's no problem once she gets in!

Again thanks for the replies.

Stay safe!

[littlerr]

Irish citizens must enter the country using Irish passport.

This is a requirement for dual national citizens entering US, but there is no such thing in Ireland.

As a matter of fact, INIS explicitly said that dual nationals can enter Ireland with whichever passport they want (which is the whole purpose of getting a Stamp 6).

I (and many other people on this forum) travelled in and out of Ireland with the non-Irish passport alone countless times. Never has anyone been stopped by border control. Immigration know what they need to look for.