Hello! We are a family of four (two adults, two small kids) considering applying for stamp 0 to do a year in Ireland. The information online says that you need to prove income of 50,000 EUR Per Person. Can this be, for each child also? So as a family of four would we need to show an income of 200,000 EUR Per year?? Other countries with a similar "independent means" visa seem to have a different rule, like a certain amount you must have plus an smaller amount on top Per additional family member. For example, in Spain, it's a requirement of about 25,000 EUR plus an additional 6,500 EUR Per additional family member. So... is it actually 50,000 EUR Per family member for Ireland? I tried emailing Unit 2 about this but they basically just copied and pasted the same info from their website.

I have read the rules and they require 50,000 Per Person. No family discount. But I would not be surprised that INIS would bend the rules for families. But good luck getting them to rewrite the rules to be more clear. There are similar rules for other visa categories which are written in a family unification policy by INIS. I don't have the policy handy but it goes into considerable detail on how to calculate income requirements for families including grandparents. As a start, check out this INIS publication. See Non-EEA citizens section:

Leaving Cert points Per grade

Someone on another forum shared a link to the family unification policy. It's not directly applicable to Stamp 0 but could Perhaps be used as a guide as its well written and detailed, something Stamp 0 policy is sorely lacking.

Hey Sean It's unfortunate you can't get a proper answer from Unit 2. I've heard similar in the past, where they go to little to no effort to explain the details. We've had this question here in the past. Let me see if I can find who asked it. Maybe they've already gone through it. It's pretty clear Stamp 0 WAs never really meant for long term use, and/or for families. It WAs most likely designed for retirees looking to spend a year in Ireland. Very little thought went into how else it might be used by others.

Hi Libbie--I'm new here as well. Hubby (who is retired) and I (not retired yet; still WAiting for a few yrs) have been kicking around the idea of leaving the U.S. for a variety of reasons. Ireland WAs one of our top spots but I completely agree with you--€50,000 Per Person Per annum, plus the Person must have access to a lump sum of money to cover any unforeseen major expenses, is a LOT of money and prices us right out of the idea. I realize the cost of living in Ireland is more than the U.S. but requiring over 100K plus essentially the cost of a dwelling ...

Liam pointed me toward this page where this information is found for those of us who are retired and would like to live in Ireland: Persons of independent means For Persons of independent means, the financial threshold is generally considered to be €50,000 Per Person Per annum, plus the Person must have access to a lump sum of money to cover any unforeseen major expenses. This should be equivalent to, for example, the price of a dwelling in the State. Financial documentation should be presented in tabular form and converted into Euros, clearly showing all income and expenditure on a monthly basis. This must be certified by an Irish accountancy firm who have the expert knowledge to interpret the format of the overseas banking / accountancy documentation. Each application is dealt with on a case by case basis. It's the "accountancy firm" that stumps me!

Interesting that €50,000 Per Person Per annum is higher than the average salary in Ireland. Quite frankly Ireland is implementing much the same policies that the UK has over the last 15 or so years. My opinion from the outside is they are making immigration from outside the EEA harder to try and control numbers because they can't control the EEA numbers. Average salary WAs gathered from this article:

@dalesimmons i thought Stamp 0 WAs 50k Per Person (100k combined). i am relocating with my 12 year old daughter and the attorney said i still had to show the 100k for the two of us even though she is a minor

I understand the independent means requirement that each Person (my wife and I) must have a passive source of income to the amount of 50K Euros Per year. However, I have recently been told that each one of us must have a lump sum of cash equal to the average price of a house in Ireland (250k euros). I had previously been told that we would meet the lump sum requirement if we jointly owned a house worth 250k Euros. does anyone have any experience on this issue? Any advice greatly appreciated as we cannot meet the requirement if we both have to have $250K Euro cash/house availability.