How easy is it to get an Irish Passport?

[jimmjam]

I was reading an article about getting an Irish passport if a parent or grandparent was an Irish national?

Im british, my grandmother passed away a few years ago. She was from Ireland.

Does that enable me to get an Irish passport?

Is it difficult to get?

What is the process?

[cmarshall]

Have you ever heard of Google?

 

https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/great-britain/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/

[jimmjam]

1 minute ago, cmarshall said:

Have you ever heard of Google?

 

https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/great-britain/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/

I wanted to find out someone else's experience of obtaining one.

????

Thanks for the link though.

[baansgr]

Straight forward enough, always worth the effort a 2nd passport..

[cmarshall]

36 minutes ago, jimmjam said:

I wanted to find out someone else's experience of obtaining one.

????

Thanks for the link though.

My brother did it a few years ago.  If you have the documents it's not hard.  Getting the documents may not be easy.  The Irish Consulate is apparently willing to take into consideration various intricacies of Irish family life.  For example, my mother's birth certificate has her name as Mary, but her family never called her Mary, but right from birth called her Eileen instead.  She naturalized as a US citizen with the name Eileen and that's the mother's name on my brother's own birth certificate.  So, Mary was born in Ireland, but Eileen gave birth to the American applicant for Irish citizenship.  It would seem to me to be an imperfect record of the transmission of citizenship, but the Consulate accepted it.

[jimmjam]

Just now, baansgr said:

Straight forward enough, always worth the effort a 2nd passport..

Thats what im thinking, my uk passport gets full within a year with all my non o visas and extensions. Hate sending it off back to the uk and having to wait for its return. Especially if something like this happened while it was in the uk.

[jimmjam]

2 minutes ago, cmarshall said:

My brother did it a few years ago.  If you have the documents it's not hard.  Getting the documents may not be easy.  The Irish Consulate is apparently willing to take into consideration various intricacies of Irish family life.  For example, my mother's birth certificate has her name as Mary, but her family never called her Mary, but right from birth called her Eileen instead.  She naturalized as a US citizen with the name Eileen and that's the mother's name on my brother's own birth certificate.  So, Mary was born in Ireland, but Eileen gave birth to the American applicant for Irish citizenship.  It would seem to me to be an imperfect record of the transmission of citizenship, but the Consulate accepted it.

My grandmother passed away a few years ago, so id have to see if my grandad has all the documents still. He is 90 years old, so his memory isnt great.

Plus with this covid crisis i will have to wait any way.

At least they seem a bit lenient with what you have said.

[roo860]

4 minutes ago, jimmjam said:

Thats what im thinking, my uk passport gets full within a year with all my non o visas and extensions. Hate sending it off back to the uk and having to wait for its return. Especially if something like this happened while it was in the uk.

How many pages in your UK passport?

[steve187]

7 minutes ago, jimmjam said:

Thats what im thinking, my uk passport gets full within a year with all my non o visas and extensions. Hate sending it off back to the uk and having to wait for its return. Especially if something like this happened while it was in the uk.

why are you sending it back to the UK.

[jimmjam]

2 minutes ago, roo860 said:

How many pages in your UK passport?

48 i believe, but alot of pages are unusable for stamps or visa's.

[jimmjam]

7 minutes ago, steve187 said:

why are you sending it back to the UK.

When you apply for a new uk passport at bangkok, they send it back to the uk. Vfs trendy building. 

[jimmjam]

Just now, jimmjam said:

When you apply for a new uk passport at bangkok, they send it back to the uk. Vfs trendy building. 

Btw i use an agent, as i live in isaan.

[Number 6]

Italian as well. Possible. Fairly liberal at least for US.

[jimmjam]

10 minutes ago, steve187 said:

why are you sending it back to the UK.

I am mistaken, the agent i use keeps hold of the passport and sends it all back to me when the new passport arrives.

Think i need a beer.????

[Dominion]

As long as she didn't give up her citizenship then you are fully entitled. You need her birth and death certificate. Address of where she lived. Contact the Irish embassy. I got mine last year. Took about 3 months.

[jimmjam]

Just now, Dominion said:

As long as she didn't give up her citizenship then you are fully entitled. You need her birth and death certificate. Address of where she lived. Contact the Irish embassy. I got mine last year. Took about 3 months.

Will have to check, cheers.

[MartinL]

47 minutes ago, jimmjam said:

I am mistaken, the agent i use keeps hold of the passport and sends it all back to me when the new passport arrives.

Think i need a beer.????

When I renewed my UK passport via agent last year, I asked for the old one to be returned to me and they did so. When the new passport was available at Trendy, I then had to send the old one back to the agent so that they could collect the new.

Edited April 9, 2020 by MartinL

[jimmjam]

1 minute ago, MartinL said:

When I renewed my UK passport via agent last year, I asked them to send the old one to be returned to me and they did so. When the new passport was available at Trendy, I then had to send the old one back to the agent so that they could collect the new one.

Yeah, a bit of a ball ache if you need the old passport for something, having to send it back and forth. Suppose its better than travelling to bangkok though.

[jimmjam]

Loads of people have 2 passports, why not.

Yes it is convenience. Are you upset because you cant have 2?

@JoeMc

[thequietman]

If you're Irish - easy enough. ????

[donnacha]

5 minutes ago, JoeMc said:

Another one looking for a 'passport for convenience'  .. 

Nonsense. Under our constitution, if he has an Irish grandparent he is already an Irish citizen.

The passport is just a document confirming his citizenship, but he had the actual citizenship from birth.

Also, just in case anyone assumes that you are saying that as an Irish person, I want to make it clear that the people of Ireland overwhelmingly welcome members of our massive diaspora to reconnect with their Irish heritage. This has nothing to do with our immigration and refugee problems, completely separate issue.

 

[donnacha]

I am Irish but spent most of my life traveling with a British passport - when I got my first one at sixteen, they were cheaper and, unlike the Irish passport at the time, allowed you to visit the US without a visa. I loved spending time in the US during my teens.

After the Brexit vote, I applied for my first Irish passport. I think I might have supplied my mother's birth cert. The passport office was very busy at the time but I got it a week or two after my application. There was no interrogation or requests for further information. They were friendly and happy to oblige me.
 

I also paid an extra €35 for the optional passport card, as a backup to my passport book. You can use this credit card-sized passport to identify yourself for official purposes within Europe, including flying. I find it very convenient in Thailand to carry with me all the time, while the passport book remains at home in my safe. I use the passport card in banks and anywhere else you would usually require a passport. Well worth it for something you will use for ten years.
 

Until they introduced fingerprinting in the airports, dual passports enabled me to stay in Thailand full-time on tourist visas without any awkward conversations with IOs. I would simply alternate the passport each time I would get a visa in a neighboring country's Thai consulate. Sadly, fingerprinting put an end to those shenanigans.

Having dual passports is still useful in other ways:

1. You have full entitlements and rights within the EU.

2. If you lose one passport, or it is seized, you can still get out.

3. Some hotels insist on holding onto your passport, which is inconvenient if you actually need it to get a visa or exchange money.

4. In some countries, you get friendlier treatment if they regard you as Irish. A surprising number of people, in even the most unlikely countries, turn out to have some familial connection with Ireland or an old Irish friend they are fond of. The atmosphere when you are checking into a hotel sometimes gets warmer when they see your passport.

5. If you are ever on a plane that is hijacked, and they started dividing up the passengers, definitely say you are Irish and start singing rebel songs.


I would absolutely recommend getting an Irish passport to any of you who are entitled to do so. It does not make you any less British or American or Australian or whatever your main nationality is. We are proud of the connection we share with you. I always thought it was a beautiful thing that one of the true greats of comedy, Spike Milligan, decided to embrace his Irish citizenship.

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by donnacha

[Proboscis]

6 hours ago, cmarshall said:

Have you ever heard of Google?

 

https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/great-britain/passports/how-to-apply-for-a-passport/

Actually a hidden condition of getting a Irish citizenship is that you have to be able to use Google or another search engine, such as DuckDuckgo.

[StrandedBusinessPerson]

I've always wondered about this, as an American with an Irish Grandmother and Grandfather, but all I know about them is their last name, and decade they might have immigrated to America (in the early 1920's, maybe even 1918). That's all I know. What are my chances... anything above Nil? thx. 

[crazykopite]

If your grandmother was Irish you should have no problem but you will need certain documents to support your application the law is a bit stupid for instance I am Irish by birth and have an Irish passport however my wife is English so in order for her to be eligible for an Irish passport / citizenship she has to reside in Ireland for one whole year to qualify yet my children could get an Irish passport as I am there father and an Irish citizen have you ever heard anything so tik in your life .

[crazykopite]

6 hours ago, jimmjam said:

Yeah, a bit of a ball ache if you need the old passport for something, having to send it back and forth. Suppose its better than travelling to bangkok though.

Marksendingmachine  he is on FB lives in Bangkok he does many different passports from all nationalities he did my UK one all done and dusted within 15 days my old passport came back with the new ones but had a hole in it to deem it no longer in use took them both to IO where they changed visa stamps etc that cost 500 baht . Mark is very reasonable and trustworthy UK passport office closed two weeks ago but I hear today that they have been called back in so it looks like it could be up and running after Easter.

[iaminwa]

8 hours ago, jimmjam said:

My grandmother passed away a few years ago, so id have to see if my grandad has all the documents still. He is 90 years old, so his memory isnt great.

Plus with this covid crisis i will have to wait any way.

At least they seem a bit lenient with what you have said.

I did it.

My mother was from Southern Ireland - I was born in England.

I had to get her original birth certificate from the City she was born in (as she passed 20 years ago and the original I had was unreadable and falling apart) - I called and paid with a credit card, then received it about 2 weeks later.

This was a few years ago, you can probably apply for the birth certificate online now maybe?

I now have a UK Passport and an EU Irish passport.

Worth the effort.

 

[THAIPHUKET]

Interesting subject!

[donnacha]

9 hours ago, crazykopite said:

however my wife is English so in order for her to be eligible for an Irish passport / citizenship she has to reside in Ireland for one whole year to qualify yet my children could get an Irish passport as I am there father and an Irish citizen have you ever heard anything so tik in your life .

Unfortunately, they have no choice. They have to make sure the relationship is real and they can only do that if you are in Ireland during the checking period. Otherwise, anyone in the world of Irish descent could be paid €5,000 by Nigerian or Indian gangs to have a fake marriage and give instant EU citizenship to anyone. It's a big problem.

Don't forget, Ireland has also legalized gay marriage, so, anyone could marry anyone.


 

Edited April 9, 2020 by donnacha

[wobblyjohn]

Where would I get my grandmothers original birth certificate since she died in 1964 she was born in Dublin