Teddyburkebryan wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 10:06 pm
Hi,
My father is eligible for Irish citizenship by descent because of his paternal Irish grandmother. He has not yet registered on the Foreign Birth Registry. I believe that because my father did not register before my birth, I am not eligible for citizenship myself. However, I did have a few questions.
The 1956 Irish Citizenship Act states in Section 4 that "A person born before the passing of this Act whose father or mother is an Irish citizen under subsection (2) [child born outside Ireland to Irish parents], or would be if alive at its passing, shall be an Irish citizen from the date of its passing." From the context of that law, it seems that my father's citizenship would be retroactive to 1956. I was born in 1965. I also read from a law firm specializing in Irish citizenship that in some cases, a person who had an Irish-born great-grandparent could apply if their Irish-by-descent grandchild was born prior to 1956. I took that information with a grain of salt, but is there any possibility I could be a citizen? Thanks.
There is a certain firm in Ireland who likes to tout the success of applications for citizenship through Irish association via great grandparents. Grain of salt is the wise way to take that information. Primarily it can be used for people who are of Irish descent and are already resident in Ireland as a way to waive some of the conditions for naturalization but you can imagine that it is clearly not intended as a way to grant citizenship to every person who has Irish great grandparents.
The Citizenship act of 1986 amended the act of 1956 as follows -
2.—Section 7 of the Act of 1956, which relates to formalities to be complied with in certain cases, is hereby amended by the insertion of the following proviso after paragraph (b) of subsection (2):
“Provided that the citizenship of a person who, after the passing of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1986, is registered under section 27 shall commence only as on and from the date of such registration.”.
And because the DFA rules state - "To become an Irish citizen, your great-grandparent's grandchild (ie your parent) who is of Irish descent must have registered in the Foreign Births Register between the years 1956 and 1986, or if you were born after 1986 they registered before you were born."
I think you are unfortunately not eligible, because your father would have needed to be registered prior to 1986.
