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.
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.
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:
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.