How long does it take to get Irish citizenship? There are several ways to get Irish citizenship. Find out how long each of the processes take so you can get your Irish passport.

Prefer to watch the video? Click the picture below. Or carry on reading for the article!

How long does it take to get Irish citizenship and get your passport? 

First of all, do you fall into one of these categories?

Is one of your parents Irish?
Is one of your grandparents Irish?
Have you lived in Ireland long enough to become naturalised?

Those are the three different ways to be eligible. Let’s find out how long it takes to go through the process for each of them.

Example 1/ Your parent was born in Ireland.

If your parent was born in Ireland, or was an Irish citizen when you were born, that means you’re already classed as an Irish citizen.

So all you need to do is apply to the Irish Passport service and show them proof of your heritage. Click HERE to access the website.

You’ll need your parent’s birth certificate and your own, and if yours or your parent’s surname is different from those, you’ll need to provide documents that show how that change happened.

How long? 

If all your documents are correct, it only takes a few weeks to get your passport in the post. Currently it takes no more than two months.

Example 2/ Your grandparent is Irish

If it’s your grandparent you’re using to prove your ancestry, you need to apply to be put on the Foreign Births Registry in Ireland. Once you’ve got the certificate back from there, that’s what you use to get your passport.

How long? 

During the pandemic, and because of Brexit too, the Foreign Births Registry got loads of extra applications, so it was taking about two years to get your certificate, and then another couple of months to get your passport.

You’ll be pleased to know that people are reporting it’s taking less time now. The quickest I’ve heard of recently is seven months to get the certificate, although the website is still saying it takes much longer.

Example 3/ You don’t have any Irish ancestry, but you’ve been living in Ireland for five years out of the last nine.

If you can prove what’s called your ‘reconable residency’, you can apply for Irish Naturalisation.

Click HERE to check your eligibility and the full instructions.

There’s also a video below you can watch.

How long? 

You can expect a fairly long wait before you get a result, and there’s also a ceremony to go to so you have to wait for that, then there’s the two months to get your passport after that.

Altogether the website was saying up to two years for the application, although mine took less than 18 months. Then the ceremony depends on when the next one is in your province, that could be a month or two. So altogether, is could be anything from twenty two months upwards.

This is unlikely to get any quicker, because every case is so different. Also they do many checks, which involve getting information from lots of official sources, and that always takes a long time.  So you just need to have patience. You can’t even check up on progress. If you try, you’ll get a standard reply that every case is different so they can’t tell you anything until you get the letter of confirmation.

Article by Skatz