Dual Citizen: Republic of Ireland and USA

Get your Irish passport now. It will take some time because the Irish passport office is inundated with UK residents applying for an Irish passport at the moment.

My Registry of Foreign Birth citizenship certificate was treated as an interesting curiosity, and nothing more. It has legal value but on the ground held no weight with any government staff in our area for immigration purposes. No one had ever seen one before so they passed it around the office, marveled at it, handed it back to me and asked if I had an Irish passport. Everything was much more complicated until I got my Irish passport, which was taken seriously and served the purpose.

Cullin, how long did it take to get your Irish passport?   We plan on visiting Ireland for 6 months after I retire in 2019 and my husband will need one then and I'll need a Visa; he too is a dual citizen thru his Irish grandmother.     Thanks for your help.

My situation was complicated by the fact my birth name and the name by which I'm known on all paperwork (pay checks, social security, driver's license, marriage cert, etc) is different. I've been known by my nickname since I was 14 years old.

It will probably take a few months to get the passports. The paperwork is all processed in Ireland, not by the embassy staff. The embassy acts as a go between. They advised me to wait as I'd stupidly left it too late before we moved and there was a good chance it might arrive in the US after we moved. It just opened up a lot of messy possibilities to combine the short time frame and the name complication. Your situation is much easier and you do have the time.

They make a world of difference, though. I think you won't need a visa if you enter under your Irish passport. We did a one-month tryout of the house we ended up renting for six months so we had problem.

You're not supposed to travel on two different passports when you go back and forth. But I know people who do just that when they go to visit family and have no problem.

There is no way we could have immigrated without that citizenship. It's the golden key for you both. We joke that my husband has to be nice to me because he's allowed to stay only if he's married to a citizen. We're counting the months until he can apply for citizenship, but it's by no means a given.

Cullin,    Where are you living?   We want to stay around the  Killarney area.  I hope we too can find a place to rent for 6 months, most ads I see require 1 year.   My husband does plan to get his Irish passport before we come over but I think I'll still need a Visa since he is the one with the citizenship.   Good luck in your visit.