Green Card for Non EU (Australian)

[tommyben]

Hi
I'm 27yo Australian currently on a UK holiday maker visa. I'm single and a qualified CPA accountant. I'm in the process of looking at a HSMP permit for the UK however, I would like to return to Ireland to work instead. The problem I have is I've already used an Irish working holiday maker visa in the past in 2003

Is my only option to apply for a Green Card where I'm tied to an employer for at least 12 months? I understand each time I change employer I will have to pay €1000 each application.

Is there an equivalent permit type similar to the HSMP in the UK where I'm not tied to an employer?

Any comments would be much appreciated

Ben

[esharknz]

There isn't another type of permit for those entering on the basis of taking up employment. There used to be in the past for certain occupations, but this has now ceased. So you have to stay with the one employer for one year, and it's €1000 each time you need a new permit. Either yourself or your employer can apply for this.

With the green card, you should be able to apply for long term residency status (this is in the new immigration bill that is before the dail in Ireland) after 2 years meaning you don't have to be tied to an employer once granted. Problem with this is that it could potentially take a long time to be processed. The current long term residency applications are seemingly taking well over a year to process.

[tommyben]

Thanks.

So after 2 years with a greencard when it is renewed indefinitely it is just a pathway to naturalisation. An Irish passport would then only be granted after 5 years of working within Ireland not 2 years?

[esharknz]

You can renew the green card indefinitely after 2 years, and will be able to apply for the status of Long Term Resident, which I believe should give you unrestricted labour market access and a lot of the rights an irish citizen would have. The big question with this one is processing time, they aren't quick about processing a number of things. Naturalisation is 5 years, but the processing time on this are massive.