Status of Irish critical skills permit if work from USA office on L1 visa

Question

I am an Indian citizen and hence hold an Indian Passport. I am currently working in Ireland with critical skills employment permit which is valid for 2 years after which I do not need a permit to work in Ireland and can take up permanent residency.

The company that I currently work for has its parent office in US. It has been around 8 months on Critical Skills visa for me in Ireland.

Questions -

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If an L1 visa is raised so that I can work with the parent company in US:

• Is my critical skills permit at risk?
• Can I now not get Ireland stamp 4?
• Is it possible to work on L1 visa in US and still hold my irish visa permits/rights?
• After working for some time in US on L1 visa, if I want to switch to another company in ireland, Will I have to apply for work visa again?
• Does L1 visa changes my employer?

Any insight to above will be helpful. I did research online but critical skills information on sites only talk about eligibility criteria and do not mention scenario which I am facing.

Answer 1

It doesn't look like it's possible:

In accordance with section 24(1) of the Employment Permits Act 2006 as amended should a non-EEA national, for whatever reason, cease to be employed by the employer during the period of the Critical Skills or Green Card Employment Permit’s validity, the permit and the employer’s certified copy must be returned to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation within four weeks from the date of termination or cessation. A permit holder or an employer who fails to comply with this subsection is guilty of an offence. All such permits which are returned to the Employment Permits Section in line with this will be changed to a Cancelled status on the Employment Permits Management System and these permits will no longer be valid.

It might be possible is you are still employed by the same Irish company, not officially employed by the US office but I don't know if that is allowed on an L-1 visa. You do have to have worked for the non-USA office for at least 1 year. Ask your company's (perhaps the parent company) immigration lawyers.