Application by Assocation thoughts would be welcome

[David007]

Hi
I am sure this has been done to death, but I just wanted to do it to death again. I am from the UK. I have British citizenship (born in UK). I have however a great grandfather who was born on the Ireland of Ireland (Cork). I do not confidently think that my grandmother was/is on the foreign birth register. I am trying to find a way of accessing it currently. However, I was considering applying for citizenship by association. My civil partner is Irish, and our daughter is also an Irish citizen. Currently I cannot fulfil the residency currently due to work andschool commitments but all her parents’ family is in Ireland. I was considering trying an application by association. As for my character I am health care professional of over 30 years with numerous degrees plus a master of science degree and I just finishing a degree in counselling and psychotherapy. I think I could be useful to Ireland (more than (Joe Biden -)) I intent to do some work in Ireland around this when we go back. We will one day but I just wanted to see if I could get citizenship via this route given my family history my partner and daughter by association. May not have a cat in hells chance of the minister considering this? Thoughts would be welcome. How do you actually apply via this route?
BW
David

[Vadrar]

Your great-grandfather's child (your grandmother, I think from your post) was automatically Irish at birth no matter where she was born. She wouldn't be on the FBR, because she inherited Irish citizenship from her Irish born father automatically. For you to use FBR the child of your grandmother (not sure if your father or mother) would need to be registered on FBR before you were born.

You apply for naturalisation by association using the same online portal as all other naturalisation applications. You just select association at the appropriate drop down menu.

There is legislation to allow the relevant Minister to exercise discretion to grant naturalisation by association with just 3 years qualifying residency. In practice, no-one has heard of this happening in recent history. It may have happened of course - but the question has been discussed at length on just about every Irish immigration forum I've heard about - and no-one has come up with an example in the last few years. In addition, all immigration lawyers I know who've discussed this have said they don't know of any cases either. We know of some 3 year residency applications being granted 3ish to 5+ years ago - occasionally ordinary Joes, but more commonly by applicants who were offering Ireland eg Olympic medal prospects or massive business investment. I'm not sure anyone has even heard of cases like this recently.

In practice, I think it is safe to say an association application needs 5 years residency to qualify now. 3 year applications appear to be left on a shelf for a 2 year period and then recontacted to ask for the final 2 year residency proof before being approved.

You could, of course, be resident for 3 years and qualify as a spouse of Irish national.

In short, you can't submit a naturalisation application without residency - the application has a compulsory question requiring you to affirm you have met the residency conditions. It is at least 3 years, but in reality, I'd suggest it is 5 years. Degrees, profession, marriage, languages, relatives, parentage to an Irish child - none of this is accepted as a replacement for qualifying residential periods.

[David007]

Ahh. That’s a bit of a killer. I did think that residency could be wavered. I have no idea if my father was on the FBR to be honest. How does one search that? I’ll probably give it a miss.

[Vadrar]

I'm not an FBR expert, but if you post here: viewtopic.php?t=277641&start=7600 you will find folks who are.


If you don't get a response there, I'd start by using the contact details at the bottom of this page with proof of your father's birth to ask if he is on the register:

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/m ... er/#7d7379