Yeah, the information on the immigration website states that he can't work during the 6 month wait for a residence card. It looks like under the EU Treaty Rights he will need to apply under form EU1 - http://www.inis.gov.ie/en/INIS/Pages/EU%20Treaty%20Rights
It just seems odd that he would not be able to stay as a spouse. Fingers crossed his employer will provide a work permit. I don't see why they wouldn't considering I already have a job opportunity. Does anyone know the processing time for a work visa?
Kate - you may want to read this response from the immigration people that someone posted here. It might help... http://irelandmoveclub.com/forums/topic/employment-and-job-permit-for-spouse-of-eu-citizen/page/2/#post-1695
We have now been in Ireland for about a month and are in the limbo period for my husband to start working. He is a spouse of an EU citizen and therefore has the right to work in Ireland. The legal way is that he would have a temporary work permit to bridge the gap for his residence card, which he is technically not supposed to apply for until he has been in Ireland for 6 months. Below has been our experience with our local immugration officer.
1. EU Spouse Immigration – We met with the local immigration officer at the Guarda station our second week here so my husband could apply for residency. The first question he asked was if we filled out the EU Treaty Rights Application, which we had not. We told him that the immigration officer at the airport just handed us a card telling us to go to our local immigration officer to register. His response ”of course he did!” while laughing. He then took a look at my husband’s passport and chuckled and said ”technically you are fine as long as you don’t leave the country” – the reason being that the officer at the airport just did an entry stamp in his passport and not the typical 90 day entry visa stamp. So the local officer’s advice was to fill out the application and resubmit, but there was no rush as he was technically cleared to live and work here as long as he didn’t leave the country. We left that appointment thinking ”did that really just happen?”
2. EU Spouse Working – my husband is still waiting for his transfer to come through with work and has been applying/interviewing elsewhere. One of the questions he has been asked is if he is clear to work here, of which he has been saying yes based on what the guard told him. To ease his mind, he called the Guard and asked again if he was cleared to work. The Guards response was ”well, do you want it to do it legally? technically, you are cleared to work however if you want to do it legally, you will need to apply for the residence permit, but you’ll be grand in the meantime, just don’t leave the country.” So again, GREAT for us, but not necessarily the response/advice you would expect from an immigration officer, especially coming from the US.
I am trying to find it but I seem to recall that they had 30 days to process the application. Found it, and that is only for a Visa if they need a visa to visit.
Not too surprising, Kate. A very 'Irish' encounter 🙂 of which I'm sure you'll have many more
Yes, we were very happy with the response haha! He is supposed to wait 6 months to apply and then the application has to be processed within 6 months. That being said, the guard said just to let him know if we needed it sooner and he would "get it done".
Hi all,
I am very overdue with this update from my side. We moved to Dublin in August and we had sought the advice of a solicitor on a few matters. She told my husband to put his EU spouse work visa application in once we had documentation from my employer that I am employed and once we had a letter from our landlord. She told us not to wait until we had all the items on the long list but to just then keep on sending in items like my pay stubs as they became available. My husband had his appointment with the immigration office after about a month and got his temporary stamp 4 even though we had not submitted everything by then. I think because we knew what was needed and were methodical in going about getting everything, I am pleased to report that it has actually been quite an easy process:)
Best,
Rikke
@rikkes, thanks for the update, Rikke. I'm glad everything is going so smoothly for you. Anything else you'd like to add on any other topic that others will be dealing with is much appreciated 🙂
Please my husband is also non EU while am Italian citizen.
We both still are in Italy but we are planning of moving to Ireland.
He has many years experience in IT sector.