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My wife and I are non-EU nationals. I am currently in the process of obtaining a Green Card, and we should be moving to Cork in December. As far as I can understand, my wife can come with me immediately (of course, we both need visas to land in Ireland), and we can apply for familiy reunification then.

My questions are:

  1. What is the exact procedure for family reunification? What sort of documents do we need to submit (e.g. a court-stamped translated copy of our marriage certificate, copy of my Green Card/GNIB, copy of my employment contract)? Is there an application form that can be downloaded and filled out in advance?

  2. Is there a fee to be paid?

  3. Can we apply somewhere in Cork City, or do we have to go to Dublin (or maybe mail the documents)?

  4. What is the usual waiting time? I heard 12 weeks usually, 6-8 if we're lucky. My concern is that her entry visa to Ireland will be stamped for 90 days, and reunification isn't approved in that time frame. I guess she would need to go back home, and wait for approval, and then re-apply for an Irish visa to come back again?

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    Have you checked this FAQ?
    – Gala
    Sep 8, 2014 at 15:09
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    It should be noted that this question appears to be about the Irish Green Card, not the US "green card" as the greencard tag suggests. Sep 8, 2014 at 20:27
  • @Gala Yes, but I still don't understand - do we apply when we arrive in Ireland, or at the embassy here?
    – neuron
    Sep 9, 2014 at 8:19
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    @ssantic Upon reading the FAQ more carefully, I see it only applies to people with refugee status so it does not apply to your situation. This page has further info for Green Card holders. In any case, I don't know the answer but asking many things at once is not recommended on this platform. It's why I asked what research you did before to narrow down the question.
    – Gala
    Sep 9, 2014 at 8:28

1 Answer 1

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  • Cork has its own GNIB centre in the city-center. No need to go to Dublin.
  • Once you are in Ireland, the GNIB stamp is more important than the visa. So, it does not matter if your wife's visa expires, as long as she has permission from the GNIB office to stay in Ireland.

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