Thanks for your response and good questions. By "only provider is Cigna" I mean the only provider that will cover us from day one, and not with a six-month WAiting period WAs Cigna. The Irish-based insurers require you to be resident for 6 months. By "our own insurance" I mean our US-based medical insurance that covers us worldwide. We happen to have a "PPO" policy which covers us, but only 80% of costs. This is excellent coverage for the States, but the solicitor suggested that we make sure we have "full cover" hence the additional insurance from Cigna. We ...

... Full healthcare from a provider such as cigna which will cost about 900/month?! Any alternatives for someone her age? Secondly, she must submit a financial declaration from an Irish based accountant. Does anyone have a rough estimate on how much that would cost? Finally, the INIS page I found only gave a checklist of items that she must submit. Do I WAit for the INIS to request info from myself and my husband as sponsors? Sorry if these questions have already been addressed, but I just WAnted to know what I might be getting myself into!

... provide "full cover" but require a co-payment and only pay partially. Your quote will vary, but plan on an additional €150 or so per person extra for medical coverage. From the Laya email: If you are taking out health insurance in Ireland for the first time or it has been 13 weeks since you last had private health insurance with an Irish health insurer, the following WAiting periods may apply. A 52 week WAiting period applies to maternity/infertility benefits. A 5 year WAiting period applies to any pre-existing condition. The definition of a pre-exis ...

... Priority Mail. This is the least expensive option that the USPS offers to Ireland, with a 66 LBS maximum weight. That heaviest box would cost about $250. $200 insurance comes with that, and you can add up to $450 more insured value for a small insurance fee. The postage fee is by weight but there is a max size limit (109 inches girth plus height, I think. Our boxes were 18" cubes, "heavy duty medium" from Lowes or Home Depot). It comes out to about $44 for an empty box, and everything in it is about $2/lb extra. For one high-value box with lots of electroni ...

... upon arrival in Ireland. See why here. I WAs thinking about this again recently, after receiving a question from a reader about driving lessons. Afterwards, I figured it'd be helpful if some of us could share what we've found (online, locally, in newspapers) etc regarding driving lesson prices and deals, or discounts. Specifically, Essential Driver Training (EDT), the mandatory training course for teaching fundamental driving skills to learner (or potentially skilled in this case) car drivers. Let's do that here....

... Even though the official word is that the application can take up to 12 months, I believe that this won't be the case in general. I contacted the Department of Justice some months ago and this WAs the response: "Your husband is a non visa required national and can enter the State for up to 90 days at the discretion of the Immigration officer at the airport. He should inform the officer that he is relocating to reside here on a Full time basis with you his Irish spouse. Both of you should attend your local Immigration office (if residing in Dublin you atten ...

This applies to a spouse to an Irish citizen getting work permit I emailed the Irish immigration to confirm because it sounded to simple to be true (compared to getting work permit in the u.s that requires months of WAiting and being tempted to pay 4-7k on a lawyer). Once your non irish spouse gets to the customs counter in Ireland he/she shows marriages certificate and the customs officer will inform him that he needs to go register at the local garda (police station) within 90 days. From there they'll stamp his/her passport and they're free to work. Her ...

I would add, IKEA has been our go-to with both of our expat moves (we lived in Australia for two years... we did not ship anything for that move, all WAs left behind in storage). It is cheap enough and surprisingly easy to unload at the end of your stay, as well. Also in Ireland, most rental properties are furnished. This is really important to keep in mind. Had I to do it over - my bookworm daughters would have been forced to travel with a Kindle only... myself, as well, as I'm sure the cookbooks shipped could have been purchased digitally, as well. I ...

... but the WAy it WAs taught up until recent years, just didn't enable most of us to speak it fluently. The Gaelscoil system will hopefully change that. When I WAs in school there WAsn't very many of them, and those that were around, had pretty small numbers. Now there are Full on class sizes, primary and secondary school. If you can get your kids in, it gives them a natural WAy of becoming fluent in a second language. Obviously Irish is not widely spoken around the world, but just having an education through another language is great for their little brains ...

... flight out of the country. It WAs chaos. - Our goods sat in the New Jersey port for several weeks. We contacted them at week six to ask for an update and only then did we find out. The reason WAs they required $500 for a change of address fee. They had our goods scheduled to ship to Dublin, UK, rather than Dublin, Ireland. All paperwork, all correspondence, stated Dublin, Ireland. They said someone on their end had entered UK and we were still to pay for their mistake. We did, because essentially our goods were being held hostage. - Two months ago ou ...