Stamp 4/ Unemployed

[file girl]

Hi to all,

Does anyone have some advice for me please...my husband has received stamp 4 since April this year (married to me, an Irish citizen) now he is out of work, and though we never expected this situation, are now looking into him applying for unemployment assistance, out of necessity.
My understanding is that this may look bad on his record when eventually applying for naturalisation/ citizenship a few years down the line. A I right?
Since I obviously don't want to mess up the already long time we have been waiting already to get him the stamp 4, should we just try to struggle on without any assistance?

Thank you

[scrudu]

Hi File Girl,

Firstly, how long has your husband been working in Ireland? Unless he has worked for 2 years he is unlikely to get any State Support. Usually you have to contribute 2 years of PRSI stamps to be entitled to Dole payments.

As for whether receiving such payments affects citizenship applications, I am unsure. It has definitely had repercussions (i.e. refusal of application) for people who are on Work Permits/Visas and who applied for citizenship. As none of this is documented anywhere by INIS, it's hard to know what the exact story is. Try calling INIS and ask if this will affect your husband's eventual application. Remember though that it's over 2 years down the line before he can apply for Citizenship and a few more before it will be granted.

[scrudu]

For reference of others: I spoke to Citizenship Section of the Dept of Justice regarding this, and they said that "all applications are considered on their own merits, and there is no general rule regarding this". The operator did go on to say that if the applicant had paid their PRSI Stamps and was entitled to Benefits because of this (e.g. JobSeekers Benefit, formerly dole), then this would not affect any citizenship application. She recommended that if the applicant was entitled to any benefits from other State departments, then they should acess such payments and not defer or disregard them based on any citizenship application. She also advised that as any application would take 2-3 years to be processed, the applicants situation may have changed by the time the application was being considered.

She said it could be a different story if on the other hand an applicant was shown to be reliant on the State (e.g. JobSeekers Allowance). Receipt of such payment would mean that the applicant was unable to support themselves. This would be viewed negatively.

I'd be interested to know for those whose applicaitons were refused on the basis of receiving Benefits whether they were in receipt of JobSeekers Benefit (based on PRSI Stamps paid into system) or JobSeekers Allowance (means tested based on need regardless of PRSI stamps paid).

[file girl]

Hi Scrudu, thanks for the quick reply about this topic. Also for going to the trouble of looking into it further by calling up the Department. I guess it really isn't something that's tried and tested yet.
We have decided not to apply right now and see if we can get by another while. Although it seems that he can apply for benefits, we would like to avoid that right now, not out of fear but just from our personal principals!
Thanks again

[scrudu]

Hi Scrudu, thanks for the quick reply about this topic. Also for going to the trouble of looking into it further by calling up the Department. I guess it really isn't something that's tried and tested yet.
We have decided not to apply right now and see if we can get by another while. Although it seems that he can apply for benefits, we would like to avoid that right now, not out of fear but just from our personal principals!
Thanks again

Don't worry, I wasn't ringing for you personally This is of relevance to me too.

Regarding your husband, whatever decision you make on JobSeekers Allowance/Benefit make sure he is registering for Tax Credits at least!