Hello all,

I've read this forum for a while and found it very helpful, but only now found the need to post.

My partner (Australian) arrives in the country in 2 days, we marry on March 18th (I am Irish), and our plan was to go to our local immigration officer (Roscommon) shortly after to be stamped with a stamp 4 granted all documents are ok (we have them all ready to go).

I contacted the local immigration officer earlier today (and I have shared emails with him before), and he has said that since she will arrive in the country on a tourist basis initially, he will not be able to stamp her with a stamp 4. Instead we will need clearance by sending details to the 'spouse of an irish national unit', but I'm afraid of how long that will take.

Alternatively, he suggested leaving and re-entering the Country after marrying, we would be stamped differently on entry and he could them stamp us with a stamp 4. But he said that this comes with a small risk of being refused on entry.

This is a bit of a kick in the teeth, as having read so many documents online and visited immigration lawyers for advice, my understanding was that once we have all documentation and visit the local officer, we should be ok.

My question is - should my fiancee state her intention at passport control that we intend to marry and apply for a long term visa in Ireland? Would that help by receiving a different stamp upon entry (rather than a tourist stamp)?

Alternatively (but ideally not), what's the best way to navigate the 'spouse of an irish national unit'? He said that if I send them all the necessary application info, I should hear back in 2 week hopefully with an approval letter, and I can then get a stamp 4. But I'm afraid that this process will take much longer.

Sorry about the long essay, any advice on what we should do here would be greatly appreciated.