Must My Sons Apply For Irish Passport To Go To Ireland?

[RebelRed]

Hi,

I am an Irish citizen living in Thailand. My wife is Thai and we have 2 boys who have Thai passports. This March we want to travel to Ireland and I contacted the Irish embassy in Bangkok asking for information re my families visas. With regard to our two sons they replied the following:

I suppose your child are entitle to have an Irish passport as they are a child of an Irish citizen(who was born in Ireland). Please apply an Irish passport for your sons as our Visa office will not accepted a visa application from a person who entitle to get Irish passport.

Can this be true? Surely it is for us parents to decide if we want our kids to have a Thai or Irish passport?

Hoping someone can enlighten me.

Thanks and Regards

Liam

[beano2274]

Would you have to pay for the Visas for the kids? Surely applying for a passport is no hardship, it does not mean much, they are already Irish, and there is no conscription to the forces. Could benefit them in the future when traveling to other countries.

[Mario2008]

As siad, chosing for an Irish paspsort is irrelevant. They are already Irish citizens by having you as their father and have Thai nationality because of their mother and thus are entitled to both passports.

Without an Irish passport they would need a visa, with a passport not and they can travel to many countries without a visa.

[RebelRed]

Thank you for your responses so far. Yes I will get Irish passports for the kids eventually but we want to go to Ireland early March this year so it will be very tight to get a new passport and a visa within that time.

The question is can they refuse my son a visa as quoted in their email?

Liam

[Mario2008]

Thank you for your responses so far. Yes I will get Irish passports for the kids eventually but we want to go to Ireland early March this year so it will be very tight to get a new passport and a visa within that time.

The question is can they refuse my son a visa as quoted in their email?

Liam

Not sure. Some countries have the rule that if you are a national you must enter on a passport of that nationality. Ireland might have such a rule. Normally the answer from an embassy is correct.

You might contact them and see if they can get the passport in time and if not see what they can do.

[Richard W]

Some countries have the rule that if you are a national you must enter on a passport of that nationality. Ireland might have such a rule.

Ireland may very well have a rule that if one wants to enter on the basis of being Irish, one must present an Irish passport, just as now almost the only acceptable evidence to a UK immigration officer of having right of abode in the UK by reason of being British is to present a British passport.

[Eff1n2ret]

" our Visa office will not accepted a visa application from a person who entitle to get Irish passport.

Can this be true? Surely it is for us parents to decide if we want our kids to have a Thai or Irish passport?"

I think it probably is true. They're not making you choose one nationality or the other, it's simply because under Irish legislation, Irish citizens do not require "permission to land", and to go through the process of making your children, who are de facto Irish citizens, apply for permission would, in their eyes be illegal, so they won't do it.

The UK resolves this conundrum by offering a "Certificate of Right of Abode" sticker in a foreign passport to dual nationals who qualify, but they can't have both a British passport and a Cert of RoA in another passport, they have to choose one or the other. I don't know if there is any similar facility available to Irish citizens.

[Richard W]

The UK resolves this conundrum by offering a "Certificate of Right of Abode" sticker in a foreign passport to dual nationals who qualify, but they can't have both a British passport and a Cert of RoA in another passport, they have to choose one or the other.

The UKBA requires one of the following three documents as evidence of right of abode:

1) British passport

2) British identity card

3) Certificate of right of abode

If the RoI takes the same approach, the equivalent will be of no use to RebelRed.

[tw25rw]

The UK resolves this conundrum by offering a "Certificate of Right of Abode" sticker in a foreign passport to dual nationals who qualify, but they can't have both a British passport and a Cert of RoA in another passport, they have to choose one or the other. I don't know if there is any similar facility available to Irish citizens.

I used to have this until they decided to no longer recognise it in expired passports, costing me a job. They also made it very expensive to apply for. Basically they are pressuring RoA people into getting passports.

But of course that is OT..

[Maestro]

...Surely it is for us parents to decide if we want our kids to have a Thai or Irish passport?

Equally surely it is for the embassy to decide whether to grant or refuse a visa and the way I read their email they have told you in no uncertain terms that they would not accept a visa application if it were presented to them.

Sent from my Nexus S using Thaivisa Connect App

[samran]

Thank you for your responses so far. Yes I will get Irish passports for the kids eventually but we want to go to Ireland early March this year so it will be very tight to get a new passport and a visa within that time.

The question is can they refuse my son a visa as quoted in their email?

Liam

If they have said they can, it won't be without precedent.

The US requires that its citizens enter the US on US passports - and they won't issue visa's to people who are already US citizens.

Australia is similar - with the exception that in an emergency they'll issue a visa in the non-Australian passport of an Australian citizen if an Aussie passport is unavailable. But it is rare, and most of the time a US like rule is in force.

Not saying I know the rules for Ireland, just saying however that the rule you were quoted isn't uncommon.

[steve down under]

I suppose your child are entitle to have an Irish passport as they are a child of an Irish citizen(who was born in Ireland). Please apply an Irish passport for your sons as our Visa office will not accepted a visa application from a person who entitle to get Irish passport.

I dont think that reply was written by an Irish person as the grammar is pretty bad! almost as bad as one of those nigerian scam Emails in fact !

[samran]

I suppose your child are entitle to have an Irish passport as they are a child of an Irish citizen(who was born in Ireland). Please apply an Irish passport for your sons as our Visa office will not accepted a visa application from a person who entitle to get Irish passport.

I dont think that reply was written by an Irish person as the grammar is pretty bad! almost as bad as one of those nigerian scam Emails in fact !

Probably just a local Thai staff member replying to the email. Generally the first port of call when dealing with embassies anywhere in the world.

[ubonjoe]

If you hurry up and apply for the passport you probably could have them in time for your trip.

Info: http://www.irelandinthailand.com/passport1.html

[bozzman111]

been up this road i applied for a irish passport in dublin 6 years ago , when my daughter was born, was told you have to apply in bkk as she was born there .

so a passport of 15 euro now becomes 75 euro with their charges here !!!! it took a few weeks to sort out but got it in the end !!!!