Six Week Travel Notification After Citizenship Application

[da_dublin]

Hi everyone,

I found a few related threads but could not spot my exact question. Hope you all can shed some light.

My question is about this requirement: If you are outside the State for longer than 6 weeks after you submit your application, you must notify ISD by letter or email to explain why.

Any thoughts on how the 6 weeks apply here? Options could be:
- Continuous period of 6 weeks outside Ireland, regardless of year. This is how it reads to me.
- Total of 6 weeks i.e. could be multiple trips, within any 12 month period. This is similar to the year-before-application requirement.

Thank you all for your help!

[littlerr]

Both. The idea is the same. You are considered a resident (for citizenship purposes - not for tax purposes) if and only if you live in the country with a max absence of 6 weeks per year. Any extra absence above that needs to be explained.

[professor_007]

Is this outlined in any official document or website? Could someone pls point me in the right direction?

[littlerr]

Is this outlined in any official document or website? Could someone pls point me in the right direction?

Nope. It’s open to interpretation and wide open for potential court cases. I’d rather prefer to be on the safe side, but you can of course have your own interpretation and risk a potential refusal (and then a court case to get them clarified…)

[professor_007]

Is this outlined in any official document or website? Could someone pls point me in the right direction?

Nope. It’s open to interpretation and wide open for potential court cases. I’d rather prefer to be on the safe side, but you can of course have your own interpretation and risk a potential refusal (and then a court case to get them clarified…)

Yeah, you're right, the whole process isn't clear at all and everyone can have their own interpretation. Our hands are tied as we are on the receiving end. We just have to be safer that's all I wonder how many rejections have happened so far due to this reason?

With the current delay, I guess it's going to take at least two year before the approval. It's super annoying to expect people to travel outside the country only for 6 weeks. Considering almost everyone who has applied is from outside Ireland, just one visit to their home country would wipe off 4 weeks. And if one has to travel for holidays and work then it's very easy to cross 6 week mark.

God help us

[littlerr]

To be fair, the department did include this in the General Schemes of the Civil Law amendments this year, which proposes the absence limit to be increased to 70 days per year, plus an extra 30 days for exceptional reasons.

Even though this is not going to be debated or enacted any time soon, at least we know that their plan is to relax the 6 weeks rule. Whether that will have any positive or negative implication for existing applications, we won't know.

[da_dublin]

Thank you all for your replies!

Very good to know about the proposal. Any link online that provides information about this? I agree 10 weeks is much more realistic.

[littlerr]

All general schemes, bills and acts are on the government website.

Again, note this is a general scheme. It’s not enacted at the moment. You can think of it as something the government intends to debate and pass in the next while, but there is no guarantee it would actually be debated or passed eventually.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/653aa ... bill-2021/