Irish Citizenship: Residency Requirements

Question

I'm looking at possibly applying for a job in Dublin and would be interested in obtaining Irish citizenship. I'm a UK citizen, so getting job permits for Ireland is pretty easy. I travel a fair amount for work and am slightly confused by the requirements.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving_country/irish_citizenship/becoming_an_irish_citizen_through_naturalisation.html#l6615c

Here's a concrete example.

• Year 1: Spent 300 days in Ireland (more than six weeks away).
• Year 2: Spent 300 days in Ireland (more than six weeks away).
• Year 3: Spent 300 days in Ireland (more than six weeks away).
• Year 4: Spent 300 days in Ireland (more than six weeks away).
• Year 5: Spent 330 days in Ireland (less than six weeks away).

Would I be eligible for (the residency part of) Irish citizenship?

You must have lived in the State for a certain length of time. The specific requirements are that you:

• Have a period of 365 days* (1 year) continuous reckonable residence in the State immediately before the date of your application for naturalisation and
• During the 8 years before that, have had a total reckonable residence in the State of 1,460 days* (4 years)

You can leave Ireland for up to 6 weeks (in total) per year and still be considered resident in that year. If you leave for more than 6 weeks in one year, you should not count this period when you are calculating your reckonable residence.

Altogether you must have 5 years (5 x 365 days*) reckonable residence out of the last 9 years. *You must add 1 day for any period which includes 29 February (a leap year).

Up until the final part, all seems ok:

• I need to be in Ireland for all but six weeks of the last year before my application;
• I need to spend 1,460 days in Ireland during the previous eight years.

But then the final part: is this now counting years or days? It would be a struggle to stay in Ireland for all but six weeks per year each year, but not a struggle to rack up 1,460 days in Ireland in five years.

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Originally posted on Law StackExchange: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/77846/irish-citizenship-residency-requirements. Someone there recommended asking here.

Answer 1

But then the final part: is this now counting years or days?

Days, since the calculator returns the amount of days, the printout of which you must submit togeather with your application.

Naturalisation Residency Calculator

• Residence in the State (Your target is 1825 or 1826 days over 9 years)

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The Calculating reckonable residence doesn't apply to EEA, UK and Swiss nationals accourding to the text inside your link:

If you are citizen of an EEA country, Switzerland or the UK, you do not have to enclose a ‘reckonable residence’ calculation with your application. You have to show your residence by enclosing documentary evidence of your history in Ireland. The application form has a list of documents that are suitable for this purpose.

The EEA includes the EU and Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein.

If you are a citizen of the EEA, Switzerland or the UK, you do not have to register for an Irish Residence Permit. All periods of residence in Ireland are counted towards naturalisation. You do not have to include a printout from the reckonable residence calculator with your application.

Inside the online residency calculator link:

UK, EU, EEA & Swiss nationals
Do not use this calculator. Instead, you must submit various documents that prove the length of your residence in Ireland.

There the Proof of Residency is described, that also contains a link to an Excel file that contains a list of documents that can be used as Proof of Identity and Proof's establishing lawful Residency in the state (xlsx).