Naturalization Application - Preparation Questions

[richardandrews123]

Hi All,

I am applying for Naturalization in about a month (in March 2022) on basis of 5 Year, Non-EU Stamp 4 basis and I have the following questions. I would appreciate it if anyone with some more experience with applying recently can enlighten me a bit.

1) Continous Residence: I was away for about 10 days for business purposes in the last year of December. Does the application form that you can not leave the state for even a single day in the last 365 days before you apply?

2) Did you use any solicitor to file the application? Or did you file it yourself? Does it make sense to get a solicitor? Any recommendations?

3) I am the first in my family to apply and then I have my spouse and 2 children who will spend 5 years in September. We are planning to travel back home for about a month in the April holidays and I am really confused about last year's continuous residence. I just hope if we spend one month outside of the country in April even if my spouse and children will qualify in April, they will not have to wait until next April to apply.

I would appreciate any ideas/guidance.

Thanks

[meself2]

Hi! I'll answer in a bit of a different order.

1) I think if you were out for less than 6 weeks, you're fine. As they say here:

If you spend more than 6 weeks outside of Ireland in the year immediately before your application, you may have to wait until the following year to make an application.

Also, since it was on a business trip, you can explain it as well, enclosing employer's letter, to be safe. As you had to do it due to work, it would be unfair to count it against you.
3) same as above for same reasons.

2) I, personally, filed it myself, but since I had to go to a solicitor anyway to sign the witness form, they had a quick look at it anyway. Should be fine for you to do it on your own.

[cleire8]

I'm in agreement with the above.

"Last year inc 1 year continuous residence" meaning you didn't live in any other country. As you are non-EU, I assume your passport was stamped on exit and entry for them to verify your days out of the county? So as long as this adds up to less than 6 weeks then you are fine. But as stated, might be nice to explain this on the form with something from your employer, just to remove any doubt on the departments side.

I did the form myself and had the notary public sign and witness my forms. I then sent the form off and handled all correspondence since. No need to get them / solicitor involved again until other paperwork needs to be signed (or I need to threaten the department with a JR ).

[richardandrews123]

Thank You both.

I appreciate it,

[richardandrews123]

One more question.

Did you fill the form 8 by hand? Or you use any PDF editor to type the information out?

Thank you

[mentalmind]

That form is too complicated to be filled by PDF editor, I tried with Acrobat DC and it doesn’t recognize the fields and you have to create editable fields manually and it takes really long time. Just use traditional hand writing.

[richardandrews123]

Thank you so much.

One more question, please.

I had an overspeeding ticket couple of years ago and I paid for the ticket and got the confirmation.

Would I need to say yes to this question? Is an overspeeding ticket a conviction?

11.3 Do you have any convictions in the
State or any other country (including traffic
offences) or any civil judgements made
against you?


Many thanks again. I appreciate your help

[Nala2021]

Thank you so much.

One more question, please.

I had an overspeeding ticket couple of years ago and I paid for the ticket and got the confirmation.

Would I need to say yes to this question? Is an overspeeding ticket a conviction?

11.3 Do you have any convictions in the
State or any other country (including traffic
offences) or any civil judgements made
against you?


Many thanks again. I appreciate your help

This seems like a fixed penalty notice which you paid and didn't have to go to court over. Did you mention this overspeeding ticket somewhere else in your application, and the way it was resolved along with proof?

[richardandrews123]

Thank You.

Yes, it was a fixed penalty notice which I paid. No court etc. It was a file that came to my house and I paid in the post office and got the receipt.

I did not mention it anywhere, I am wondering if it must be mentioned?

Thanks a lot in advance.

[mentalmind]

Yes you should mention all your incidents including traffic offences in your naturalization application.

Check this: ireland/citizenship-application-traffic ... 14960.html

This one is more severe but the idea is the same, all incidents, offences (either gone to court or not) should be mentioned in your application. There is a gap that asks if you had any incidents with Garda, and I am sure getting traffic ticket is an incident with Garda.

[Nala2021]

Thank You.

Yes, it was a fixed penalty notice which I paid. No court etc. It was a file that came to my house and I paid in the post office and got the receipt.

I did not mention it anywhere, I am wondering if it must be mentioned?

Thanks a lot in advance.

As said above, you should mention it. It would be even better to have proof/details of the payment, such as the receipt.

On the application, it is section 11.4 (Under Section 11: Background)

Best of luck

[littlerr]

Thank you so much.

One more question, please.

I had an overspeeding ticket couple of years ago and I paid for the ticket and got the confirmation.

Would I need to say yes to this question? Is an overspeeding ticket a conviction?

11.3 Do you have any convictions in the
State or any other country (including traffic
offences) or any civil judgements made
against you?


Many thanks again. I appreciate your help

You committed an offence, so you need to answer YES to question 11.1.
You have not been convicted in court, so you answer NO to question 11.3.

If you have not disclosed this information when you submitted your application, you must send a registered mail to them with details of your offence and proof of payment. Most people would also attach a letter of remorse. Failure to disclose offences will almost always lead to a rejected application.

[Nala2021]

A letter of remorse? For an overspeeding ticket? That didn't lead to court? I mean I get the whole being legal thing, and the filling of the form, and the proof of payment..but this seems a tad over the top to even mention for this context.

[richardandrews123]

Thnk you both.

I have one more question please.

In terms of Stamps, my wife has 1832 days which is about 6 days more than the required ones.
But during this 5 year period, she was away to my home country for 6 months for medical reasons.

Do you guys think she should spend 6 more months and then apply? Or she should also apply with me with a letter of explanation for the absese for 6 months?

Thanks in advance.
I appreciate these responses a lot.
Kind regards

[nisi]

One more question.

Did you fill the form 8 by hand? Or you use any PDF editor to type the information out?

Thank you

I found the form filling features in the current version of the free Adobe Acrobat Reader worked very well. They recognised most of the fields, and the few that it didn't were easy to manually point it at. Much easier than writing it by hand, especially when you wanted to edit or correct something!

[Nala2021]

Thnk you both.

I have one more question please.

In terms of Stamps, my wife has 1832 days which is about 6 days more than the required ones.
But during this 5 year period, she was away to my home country for 6 months for medical reasons.

Do you guys think she should spend 6 more months and then apply? Or she should also apply with me with a letter of explanation for the absese for 6 months?

Thanks in advance.
I appreciate these responses a lot.
Kind regards

Do you mean that the 6 months' absence was taken at once, or does it total to 6 months in X amount of years?

[richardandrews123]

Actually, she was away with kids for 6 months at a stretch. There was no other travel out of the state.

So, a total 5 years of residence, one time out of the state for 6 months at a stretch.

thank you

[Nala2021]

Actually, she was away with kids for 6 months at a stretch. There was no other travel out of the state.

So, a total 5 years of residence, one time out of the state for 6 months at a stretch.

thank you

This is quite a huge absence. What stamp is your wife on? I am assuming that the renewal dates for the stamps cover the 1832 days, but at the end of the day, she was not resident here for the 6 months. I don't think that an explanation will cover the absence. Are you calculating the days for the last 5 years only, or have you been resident for over 5 years in the Republic? (As INIS is looking for 1825 or 1826 days over 9 years )

[mentalmind]

Actually, she was away with kids for 6 months at a stretch. There was no other travel out of the state.

So, a total 5 years of residence, one time out of the state for 6 months at a stretch.

thank you

If a person is out of state in a year up to six weeks then all good. More than 6 weeks, you should send an email to INIS, explaining the situation. If it’s more than 90 days in a year it will be a problem.

Find a solicitor, talk and see what can be done, don’t rely on information you get here. 6 months absence is a really long term.

And when calculating residence days, if absence is more than 6 weeks then you don’t add those days to your reckonable residence. So, if your wife was away for 6 months in year 2020, then you deduct this 6 months from 365 (or 366days) residence for year 2020.

[richardandrews123]

Ok, thanks a lot Guys.

[johnpromise01]

Thank You.

Yes, it was a fixed penalty notice which I paid. No court etc. It was a file that came to my house and I paid in the post office and got the receipt.

I did not mention it anywhere, I am wondering if it must be mentioned?

Thanks a lot in advance.

I used solicitor for my application and i had fixed penalty notice after my application and i paid the fine but solicitor notified them immediately and forwarded a copy of fine receipt to them. My solicitor said the best thing is to let them know, else they will use it against me. My solicitor also advised me to write a remorseful letter which i did and my application was approved recently. Also i was advised in this great forum by some members to let them know about the fixed penalty notice too which i did. I've seen people who had no conviction but failed to mention their fixed penalty notice and was refused. So please don't waste your time and money, mention it and write a short remorseful letter. No crime in that. At least be on a safer side. You will get your citizenship. Goodluck.

[richardandrews123]

@johnpromise01 thank you so much.

I was wondering if you could let me know which solicitors you used? I would appreciate it.

Kind Regards
​

[CR001]

@johnpromise01 thank you so much.

I was wondering if you could let me know which solicitors you used? I would appreciate it.

Kind Regards
​

Members are not permitted to post the names and details of solicitors on the forum.

[johnpromise01]

@johnpromise01 thank you so much.

I was wondering if you could let me know which solicitors you used? I would appreciate it.

Kind Regards
​

Unfortunately members are not permitted to post details of solicitors on the forum. You can Google details of some solicitors in Dublin. Good luck.

[richardandrews123]

ok, thank you so much.

I will.

I have one more question.

So, I calculated all my absences from the state, and here is my analysis.

Total Number of days required: 1826 Days
I stayed in Ireland physically so far: 1775 Days
Total Period from the 1st Stamp: 1938 days
Total Travels outside of Ireland: 6
Total Travels outside of in Excess of 6 Weeks: 2 (1st for 45 days and 2nd for 118 days)
Total physical days outside of Ireland: 225

So, I am wondering. Should I wait to complete the 1826 physical days before I apply or should I only exclude the periods out of the country for more than 6 weeks.

Are the travel days that are not in excess of 6 weeks trip are to be included in 1826 or not.

I would appreciate some advice. I think I will also go for a solicitor, and take it from there.

thank you.