Non eu getting married to non eu question

[munzab]

Hi everyone, its great seeing a forum with people interested in helping each other with this matter. ive had the dickens of a time trying to figure out things, and you can never get through any department, and if you do, you get 3 different answers everytime you ring.

im in a bit of a limbo an would greatly appreciate your help on this matter.

im a non eu mauritian citizen and have been in ireland since 2001. i studied until 2007 and started work in July 2007. Im a doctor and have been on work permits since 2007 (as the training scheme i was on, even though i have it till 2012, required 6 monthly contracts from the different hospitals i rotated in.) since this year though, ive been able to get a 1 year GNIB stamp 1 visa as doctors now are a little bit better off than before. (up to 2 years when you are on a trainee specialist scheme - which i am).

anyway, currently my gnib and visa (which was introduced for mauritians in December 2009) is until april, and ill have no trouble extending both (I hope!) when i queue up again at 4-5am on a weekday to get them done in april.


now my issue:

i am planning on getting married to my fiancee (been together 7 years) and she is mauritian as well. She studied in Paris as a psychologist and in 2007 had applied to come work to ireland. at the time there was the transition between working visa and work permits and though she got a job, the work visa application fell through and she went back to mauritius and has been working since there.

We were planning on getting married in December this year. As you know, we are both anxious to be together after so long apart and would have liked to have come straight after the wedding to ireland.

but i am trying to figure out:
1. we get married in mauritius in December, get a marriage certificate and she applies for a dependent joining dependent - however this will take at least 2 months as all the posting required, and we are a bit afraid of losing documents in the post. Also we have to apply directly to ireland as there are no embassies near mauritius.

would it be possible for me to bring all her documents with me and post it in ireland while im back here for work again in early january? would the department send it to me so i can dhl it back to her?

2. would it be an option for her to apply for a tourist visa for the period january to say march and come with me when we get married in december, then once we are here go down to the visa and GNIB and get it changed to a spouse/dependent visa? if that was possible, i think it would have been the one we'd be most happy with and might be the quickest and less possibility of losing applications etc?

3. can she come on a tourist visa and we get married here in ireland?would that even be an option?

4. i wont be eligible for a permanent residency or apply for naturalisation until july 2012 and wondering in her case if she will also become irish by virtue of my status then or does she stay non eu?

it would be something we would look into that she would look for work at some point next year once everything is legalised. She has an MSC in psychology and would be anxious to be able to work in some capacity.

Thanks again for your help, i really need the advice, this is wrecking my head and ive got exams here and there!

[koded]

would it be possible for me to bring all her documents with me and post it in ireland while im back here for work again in early january? would the department send it to me so i can dhl it back to her?

I doubt if you can submit any document for her in Ireland since visa has been introduced to people from your country. In that case she is regarded as visa required national and which means she must submit all her application at the Irish embassy abroad.

can she come on a tourist visa and we get married here in ireland?would that even be an option?

Again, I doubt she can change her status once on tourist visa since visa has been introduced. Of course she can visit you on tourist visa but i dont think she can change her status.

4. i wont be eligible for a permanent residency or apply for naturalisation until july 2012 and wondering in her case if she will also become irish by virtue of my status then or does she stay non eu?

that I think depends on your status in Ireland and the length of period she has lived in Ireland. this should not worry you now because she still have a long way to go in that case.
I hope other will contribute to your queries.
Good luck!

[munzab]

thanks for the quick reply

munzab wrote:
would it be possible for me to bring all her documents with me and post it in ireland while im back here for work again in early january? would the department send it to me so i can dhl it back to her?
-
I doubt if you can submit any document for her in Ireland since visa has been introduced to people from your country. In that case she is regarded as visa required national and which means she must submit all her application at the Irish embassy abroad.

by that i mean, she applies for everything online back there, but i come over to ireland and drop the documents to the visa section. im wondering if they'd post it to me in dublin then i can send it all back to her faster..


id be grateful for further answers thanks!

[agniukas]

visa office in dublin deals only with re-entry visas. all visas are processed at irish embassies abroad. i don't know which embassy is the closest to mauritius. usually when she starts filling in her online visa application the irish embassy will be assigned to her application and details given as to which country she has to send all the documents to.
so you can forget about giving the documents to visa section in dublin.

if she came here on c visit visa, at the end of her stay she must leave the country. there is no chance of getting an extension or changing her visa type to dependant.

if you were thinking of getting married in ireland, the process takes more than 3 months. first you must submit an application form to wed, and then wait 3 months before you are allowed to get married. in between of this time there will be an interview/meeting with both parties, and only then the wedding day can be chosen. so chances are that you won't be able to fill all that into one 3 month visit, and she would have to come again.

once you are married, she can apply for a D join spouse visa, then get stamp 3 from GNIB for a period of 1 year, renewable on the yearly basis. but she will not be able to work in ireland. once you become a naturalised irish (if you apply in 2012, that will be around 2014-2015), she will be able to change her status to spouse of irish national with stamp 4.

[munzab]

once you are married, she can apply for a D join spouse visa, then get stamp 3 from GNIB for a period of 1 year, renewable on the yearly basis. but she will not be able to work in ireland. once you become a naturalised irish (if you apply in 2012, that will be around 2014-2015), she will be able to change her status to spouse of irish national with stamp 4.

if she came over, and had an interview and had an offer of a job, as implausible as that sounds, would she be able to change her visa/GNIB to a stamp 1 depending on the job?

thanks.

its becoming clearer we are not going to be together after the wedding.shame.

[agniukas]

if she came over, and had an interview and had an offer of a job, as implausible as that sounds, would she be able to change her visa/GNIB to a stamp 1 depending on the job?

she would be allowed to work only if granted a work permit or a green card. she would need to have an employer willing to apply on her behalf. if she is granted that, then and only then she could probably change her status to stamp 1 (work permit) or stamp 4 (green card). but she is still a visa required national, so chances are that she would have to write into DOJ asking for a change in status. not sure how long that takes nowadays.