Moving from SA to Ireland

Member since 23 June 2014

AndiswaMember23 June 2014 08:51:48

HI all,

I m new here have tons of question some of which may sound rather stupid please bare with me. I am a South African still based in SA and have been thinking about immigrating since 2008. I have finally decided that Ireland it is though Im torn between Ireland and Canda however Ireland seems like the best option as far as the immigration process is concerned.

I know as South African I don't need a visa for a visit but if I intend to work I need a work permit. My questions are:

Do I have to hold a permit to start looking for employment?
How possible is it to obtain one while still in South Africa?
I have a seven year old son which I intend immigrating with have already done the passports and unabridged for both of us. How easy is it to find good schools preferable Christian schools?
Do I need to have my South African qualification assessed by an educational board in Ireland?

I would really appreciate your assistance or advise

Thank you in advance

Andiswa

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Amel13 New member

Member since 10 June 2010

Amel13New member07 July 2014 17:20:05

Hi Andiswa
You should be able to find most of the answers to your questions on the official website if the department of justice www.inis.gov.ie
Since 2007 I am afraid no new work permits are being issued, you have to be part of some agreement from government to government so the exceptions are hospital staff for example.
The way it did work was that you needed to be sponsored by a company who invited you over and had to prove that they could not find someone in Ireland and then in Europe to fill the post that's why they outsourced outside Europe and then you weren't free to change employer as you were stuck with the same work permit ...and things got even tighter since the economical crash as the unemployment has very significantly increased there is a view of having enough of a work force available in house I'm afraid!!
You can read a little bit more about it on the migrant right centre website www.mrci.ie as they have been dealing with work permits for a very long time...I guess you would need to look at another way of emigrating, maybe through a university programme, or research maybe, I'm not too sure.
Your qualifications definitely would need to be assessed it is currently extremely problematic as they are very slow in doing it and half of the time don't recognise qualifications from a lot of countries...mind you I think SA is ok.
Finally regarding the schools, the Irish state is not separate from the catholic church so 80% of the national schools are catholic schools, the majority of which are uni sex schools...the rest are non denominational schools (educate together for example) and then church of Ireland (protestant schools)
I hope that answered your questions, unfortunately there is no lottery system like in Canada and regarding the immigration system here it is very ad hoc, almost everything is at the discretion of the minister which makes everything very complicated and a lot of appeals are stuck in the system. Sorry if I'm sounding negative!!! you might find an answer in the government web site.
Best of luck