Recruitment Eire

GETTING A WORK AND RESIDENCE PERMIT IN IRELAND

Work Permits are NOT required for a citizen of a Member State of the European Economic Area (EEA) where such a citizen is pursuing an activity as an employed or self-employed person within the State, his or her spouse and any of their children who are under the age of 21 years or are dependent on the EEA citizen. [The EEA comprises of Member States the European Union... together with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

EU citizens and Irish citizens and people from Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein need no work permits. Everyone else does and there are two types of permits:
1. The standard Work Permit. The standard Work Permit allows you to work in Ireland for only 1 year at a time. It costs your employer money and hassle to file for this. Your employer has to apply for a standard work permit for you.
2. The much more desirable Working Visa or Work Authorisation. This second category is for people with certain high end skills much in demand here. These in-demand jobs are computer professionals, construction engineers, architects and surveyors and all sorts of medical positions. Most particularly, this includes nurses.

Nearly 50,000 work permits per year have been issued in recent years. Three quarters of all such work permits have been for low skilled jobs with almost a quarter working in catering. Nearly half of these work permits were issued to nationals from EU Accession states. The mission of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is to boost Irish employment. Only if there are no Irish and EU citizens available do they even want to think about handing out work permits.

So, the Department keeps trying to make it tougher for non-EU citizens to work here. Employers who apply for work permits are required to establish that it has not been possible to fill the vacancy with an Irish or other person for whom a work permit is not required. The proof demanded requires that a letter from FAS must accompany all new applications detailing the employer's efforts to recruit using the FAS website. This is also a good place to look if you are seeking a job.

FAS is the Irish national training and employment agency and they have to advertise a job for at least one month before they will issue the necessary paperwork. Further proof that will be acceptable includes national advertising or a letter from employment agencies other than FAS. The annual work permit fee is €500 euro, which must be paid on renewal every six or twelve months.