Civil or spousal Irish passport

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Shouldn't be a problem. Assuming your wife is a UK citizen with a UK passport, the Common Travel Area agreement (link) between the UK and Ireland, gives her the right to travel and live in Ireland. Once there, after 3 years, she can apply for Irish citizenship via Naturalisation; details are on the Irish Government Citizens Information website; this link will take you straight to it.

I should add, your partner has no right to Irish citizenship because she is married to you; Irish law requires her to physically live in Ireland.

I hope this helps.

Cynic

Expat Team

@Cynic

appreciate the reply, just to clarify that we have to be married and that civil partnership is not sufficient..!!?

Hi again.

My understanding is that she can do it all by herself, her UK passport is all she needs and her relationship to you has nothing to do with it. The Common Travel Agreement gets her into Ireland, and then after 3 years of living there, she can apply for Irish citizenship and an Irish passport, she does not have to surrender her UK passport.

As you have an Irish passport, if you want to emigrate to the European mainland, your wife/partner has the right to accompany you, her status as a British citizen is largely irrelevant as far as passports are concerned. This is about your rights as an EU citizen. You haven't said which country with better weather, but we have individual country forums for all of them, go and ask around in those.

I hope this helps.

Cynic

Expat Team

p.s. - I've removed your duplicate post from the Ireland forum.