Employment Permit/IRP Renewal

[ellbriwat]

Hi,

I'm confused with the General Employment Permit/IRP renewal process—any help is much appreciated.

As far as my understanding goes, I need to renew my employment permit before I can renew my residence permit (the former expired before the latter). I applied for my employment permit renewal in early January, and I'm still waiting.

The dates on my one-year (PDF) General Employment Permit ran to the end of March...but my IRP is valid until the end of April. Am I unable to work while I wait for the employment permit renewal?

I saw news that permissions were extended until the end of May, but is that just for residence permits? Since I applied for renewal of my employment permit months ago, it doesn't make sense to me that I would be penalised because of delays? That I would be legally resident but not legally employed?

And once my employment permit is finally renewed, I'll need to apply for a new IRP...will I need to leave Ireland if I cannot accomplish that by the end of the May extension period?

I feel like I've done something wrong...but there would not be an issue if it weren't for the delays.

Hopefully I am just confused. Thanks for your help.

[meself2]

Hey!
Well, first of all, from DETE website (https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/What-We-Do ... nt-Permit/) :

In general, the immigration permission of an employment permit holder is linked to their employment permit permission with the immigration permission expiring upon the expiration of an employment permit. The Department advises that an employment permit holder may continue to work whilst their renewal application permit is being processed and in such instances no person will be asked to cease work or to leave the country, where the employment permit has expired. When an employment permit has issued the permit holder may apply to the Department of Justice and Equality to update their immigration permission.

So if your permit is processing, you can still work, according to this.

IRP is a tricky one. In theory, all IRP cards are extended till May, even though you may not be in a possession of an employment permit, and it kind of lines up with this "can work while processing" thing, so I would hope it covers you as well.
Certainly not much fault of your own (they do ask you to submit applications 4 months in advance, but 3 should be a decent time as well), so I assume you can get this renewed before May and get (or apply for, at least) new IRP ASAP.

[ellbriwat]

Thanks! I appreciate the response. There's not much I can do now but wait...but good to know I'm not working illegally!

[littlerr]

Your Stamp 1 conditions are as follows:
Permitted to remain in Ireland on conditions that the holder does not enter employment unless the employer has obtained a permit, does not engage in any business or profession without the permission of the Minister for Justice and does not remain later than <a date>.

They used to stamp these conditions in your passport, but they no longer do that unless it is your first registration, however, they should still tell you clearly your stamp conditions.

Because you are expected to have a few weeks of gap between the date you obtain your permit and you obtain your IRP card, the interpretation should be that you can only work when your work permit is valid, but you can remain in the country until your IRP expires.

Anyway, as meself2 has pointed out, as long as you have submitted a renewal application before your current status expires, you can continue working without any interruption.