Citizenship by descent/association

[paulcg87]

Hello,
my spouse and I are currently living and working in Ireland (we are Canadian); my spouse is on a Stamp 1 and I'm on a 1G as their spouse. We've been here 3 years now and I'm thinking of applying for citizenship by descent. I'm not eligible for the Foreign Births Register because my most recent Irish ancestors were born in the 1800's.

Long story short, my distant grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Canada during the famine in the 1850's. I can trace my ancestry back to both of these grandparents through birth and death certificates over the last 170 years. I do realize this is a distant link, but it's still a proven link to Irish ancestors by blood.

I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has been in my situation and has applied for naturalisation this way through citizenship by Irish descent/association with ancestors as distant as mine. Worst case scenario, we get rejected and apply again in another 2 years when we've been here 5 full years, but I'm proud to be of Irish ancestry so I would prefer to do it this way. My understanding is that even with this distant ancestry, I can at least apply after 3 years of reckonable residence as long as I can prove my ancestry. Does anyone have any tips or lessons learned in this process? Thanks!

Source: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to- ... ociations/

[Oswaldo]

I believe it will depend on how far back your Irish connection is. The solicitors that I used for my application by association (pending) told me that the furthest they will go back is great-grandparent. I am not an immigration lawyer though, so maybe you should get some legal advice.

[CAF1986]

Hi, I applied via irish association after 3 years, but with a different association. I thought the same as you, "sure, I'll just try now and if they say no I'll re-apply after 5 years residency". However, my experience was that they didn't look at my application until another 2 years had passed (bringing total to 5 years). Similar remarks can be found in other threads on here. In the end it took almost 4 years to get a decision. I wish I had waited till 5 years and just applied that way, waiting so long became depressing. So yes, feel free to apply, but don't expect that you'll have a timely decision.

[Shakey]

Hello,
my spouse and I are currently living and working in Ireland (we are Canadian); my spouse is on a Stamp 1 and I'm on a 1G as their spouse. We've been here 3 years now and I'm thinking of applying for citizenship by descent. I'm not eligible for the Foreign Births Register because my most recent Irish ancestors were born in the 1800's.

Long story short, my distant grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Canada during the famine in the 1850's. I can trace my ancestry back to both of these grandparents through birth and death certificates over the last 170 years. I do realize this is a distant link, but it's still a proven link to Irish ancestors by blood.

I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has been in my situation and has applied for naturalisation this way through citizenship by Irish descent/association with ancestors as distant as mine. Worst case scenario, we get rejected and apply again in another 2 years when we've been here 5 full years, but I'm proud to be of Irish ancestry so I would prefer to do it this way. My understanding is that even with this distant ancestry, I can at least apply after 3 years of reckonable residence as long as I can prove my ancestry. Does anyone have any tips or lessons learned in this process? Thanks!

Source: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to- ... ociations/

Hi,

I just received citizenship by association. I applied after four years residence. Mother is Irish citizen by FBR.

Whilst my application took 21 months to process I effectively received approval after nine months once the 5 year mark was passed so we can say it was “fast tracked” compared to normal applications that would almost certainly still be waiting if they had applied at the 5 year point.

With the distance to your Irish ancestor I wouldn’t be so sure if you would get the same result as myself but like you said you currently have nothing to lose.

The big advantage of Irish by Association is that citizenship cannot be stripped if you subsequently leave Ireland.

[paulcg87]

I believe it will depend on how far back your Irish connection is. The solicitors that I used for my application by association (pending) told me that the furthest they will go back is great-grandparent. I am not an immigration lawyer though, so maybe you should get some legal advice.

Yes I agree, and I was worried about this. Clearly, I'm not of recent Irish ancestry. I have two ancestral grandparents from Dublin and I can prove it, but they are my great great grandparents, which I realize is distant. To be honest, I'm not trying to take advantage of the system. I'm very proud of my Irish roots and I think there is also some benefit to naturalisation by descent because my spouse and I are Canadian as well and we will probably eventually move back to Canada (not for some time - probably not for a decade or more). We love it here and we'll become citizens either way but of course it's a lot more meaningful to get it by descent and honour my ancestors who originally left Ireland. I read it the same way you do and I assume I'm not eligible as someone with great great grandparents from Ireland, even though I have the reckonable residence as a long term resident here. It's really unfortunate and I was hoping maybe someone else in my situation had succeeded.

[paulcg87]

Hi, I applied via irish association after 3 years, but with a different association. I thought the same as you, "sure, I'll just try now and if they say no I'll re-apply after 5 years residency". However, my experience was that they didn't look at my application until another 2 years had passed (bringing total to 5 years). Similar remarks can be found in other threads on here. In the end it took almost 4 years to get a decision. I wish I had waited till 5 years and just applied that way, waiting so long became depressing. So yes, feel free to apply, but don't expect that you'll have a timely decision.

Thanks for your reply. I completely understand what you're saying. We have an Irish-born child and we plan on staying here for some time, but eventually, in 10-15 years, we will want to move back to Canada so our child can get to know the rest of our family there. The benefit of naturalisation by descent/association for us is that we don't have to worry about our Irish citizenship being taken away if we do move back. But it sounds like my ancestors are too far back for me to be eligible anyway, so I guess that's a concern we'll have in the future.

[paulcg87]

Hello,
my spouse and I are currently living and working in Ireland (we are Canadian); my spouse is on a Stamp 1 and I'm on a 1G as their spouse. We've been here 3 years now and I'm thinking of applying for citizenship by descent. I'm not eligible for the Foreign Births Register because my most recent Irish ancestors were born in the 1800's.

Long story short, my distant grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Canada during the famine in the 1850's. I can trace my ancestry back to both of these grandparents through birth and death certificates over the last 170 years. I do realize this is a distant link, but it's still a proven link to Irish ancestors by blood.

I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has been in my situation and has applied for naturalisation this way through citizenship by Irish descent/association with ancestors as distant as mine. Worst case scenario, we get rejected and apply again in another 2 years when we've been here 5 full years, but I'm proud to be of Irish ancestry so I would prefer to do it this way. My understanding is that even with this distant ancestry, I can at least apply after 3 years of reckonable residence as long as I can prove my ancestry. Does anyone have any tips or lessons learned in this process? Thanks!

Source: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to- ... ociations/

Hi,

I just received citizenship by association. I applied after four years residence. Mother is Irish citizen by FBR.

Whilst my application took 21 months to process I effectively received approval after nine months once the 5 year mark was passed so we can say it was “fast tracked” compared to normal applications that would almost certainly still be waiting if they had applied at the 5 year point.

With the distance to your Irish ancestor I wouldn’t be so sure if you would get the same result as myself but like you said you currently have nothing to lose.

The big advantage of Irish by Association is that citizenship cannot be stripped if you subsequently leave Ireland.

Thanks for this! I am assuming the worst - that I will not be eligible for naturalisation by descent/association because it's my great great grandparents who were from Dublin and left for the New World, and that's too far back. I wish my grandparents had naturalised and that subsequent generations could have been entered on the FBR so that this wouldn't be an issue, but it never happened and I can't take back time. It's a shame that they don't seem to consider people with more distant but proven blood ancestry like mine; I posted on here hoping to hear from someone who was successful at this with ancestry as distant as mine, but it doesn't appear there's anyone out there reading this. I expect we'll probably get denied and will have to naturalise through the regular process and spend the rest of our lives worrying about losing our Irish citizenship if we ever move back to Canada.

[Wow90]

Hello,
my spouse and I are currently living and working in Ireland (we are Canadian); my spouse is on a Stamp 1 and I'm on a 1G as their spouse. We've been here 3 years now and I'm thinking of applying for citizenship by descent. I'm not eligible for the Foreign Births Register because my most recent Irish ancestors were born in the 1800's.

Long story short, my distant grandparents emigrated from Ireland to Canada during the famine in the 1850's. I can trace my ancestry back to both of these grandparents through birth and death certificates over the last 170 years. I do realize this is a distant link, but it's still a proven link to Irish ancestors by blood.

I'm just wondering if anyone else on here has been in my situation and has applied for naturalisation this way through citizenship by Irish descent/association with ancestors as distant as mine. Worst case scenario, we get rejected and apply again in another 2 years when we've been here 5 full years, but I'm proud to be of Irish ancestry so I would prefer to do it this way. My understanding is that even with this distant ancestry, I can at least apply after 3 years of reckonable residence as long as I can prove my ancestry. Does anyone have any tips or lessons learned in this process? Thanks!

Source: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/how-to- ... ociations/

Hey! I recently was awarded with citizenship based in Irish associations cause of my great great grandparents. Both of them left to the "new world" around 1880.

I was under a stamp 4 and applied to naturalization
After 2.5 years residency here. They only approved it recently, after 5 years of residency have passed for me. They seem to do that, at least according to other cases. They tend to wait until your have 5 years residency to approve it.

[Wow90]

Just to add, they did approve mine based on great great grandparents but like they say everyone's application acn be different. I work for an Irish charity as well so I think that added more weight to the decision.

My advise would be just give it a try once you have 3 years. Worse case scenario after 5 years if they reject it you can apply based on residency

[paulcg87]

Just to add, they did approve mine based on great great grandparents but like they say everyone's application acn be different. I work for an Irish charity as well so I think that added more weight to the decision.

My advise would be just give it a try once you have 3 years. Worse case scenario after 5 years if they reject it you can apply based on residency

Thank you! We share the same level/type of association so this does give me a huge amount of hope. I really appreciate the information, and congratulations on your naturalisation!