If you’re British, but recent political events on our little island have left you
wanting to guarantee your ongoing EU citizenship and free movement rights, then this is the
video for you! I’ll explain how you know if you’re one of the lucky ones eligible
to get an Irish passport, and how to apply.
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Demand has surged among Brits wanting an Irish Passport, so who can get one? Well quite simply,
anyone with Irish Heritage - which is apparently at least 10% of the UK population. So what
does Irish Heritage mean?
Many people in the UK are Irish citizens without even realising it - and even more are eligible
to become Irish citizens quite easily.
By the way, don’t worry if you don’t catch all the information I’m about to go through
- all the relevant links are in the video description for you to read at your leisure
after watching the video.
If you, or either of your parents, was born on the island of Ireland before 1st January
2005 then you’re already an Irish citizen - lucky you, you can skip straight to applying
for a passport! This also applies if you were born in Ireland after 1st Jan 2005 and your
parents were British or Irish citizens.
If not, but either of your four grandparents was born on the island of Ireland, then you
can become an Irish citizen by registering on the Foreign Births Register. At the time
of making this video, this costs €278 for adults and €153 for under-18s. There’s
a link in the video description with all the details but basically you need to provide
Proof of residence (like a gas or electricity bills, a copy of your current passport, Yours,
your parents and your grandparents’ original long-form birth certificates and Marriage
certificates if there have been marriages and name changes along the way
Don’t be put off by needing the original birth certificates - the term “original”
really just means official, so if you don’t have it then you can order a “certified
original”. For England and Wales you can order these from the General Register Office
and they only cost less than a tenner each. For Northern Irish birth certificates you’ll
need to go to NI Direct to order what they call a “life event certificate” - they
charge £15 each. For certificates from Ireland itself, you can go to certificates.ie and
they charge €20 per document.
As part of the process, you’ll need to get your application witnessed with the signature
of someone who isn’t related to you, and is of a “high standing” profession, eg.
a bank manager, magistrate, doctor, vicar, police officer etc.
Once you’ve paid your fees online and sent the documents off, wait at least 6 months
(mine took about 7 months) and then you should receive a nice shiny certificate of Irish
citizenship!
At this point you’re now in the same boat as the lucky ones who were either born in
the right place or whose parents were, and you can now apply for your passport.
It’s just a case of getting one of these paper application forms and filling it in
with all the correct accompanying documentation, such as your original long-form birth certificate
and proof of your Irish citizenship. For those who registered on the Foreign Births Register,
you just send your certificate of registration. For those who were either born on the island
of Ireland or who have a parent who was, you’ll need to include those birth certificates and
also any relevant marriage or deed poll certificates if you need to show first name or surname
changes.
Quick tip: When you’re getting your photos taken, make sure you specify that they’re
for an Irish passport, as the requirements are quite different from British passport
photos.
And this here (hold up passport) is the prize - a nice shiny Irish passport and continued
EU citizenship, whatever happens with Brexit.
These are just the easiest and most common ways that people qualify for an Irish passport
- if none of what I’ve gone through applies to you, don’t lose all hope - there are
some other slightly more obscure circumstances in which you might qualify, as well as the
naturalisation option. I’ve put a link in the video description with more details.
But for now, please give this video a thumbs up and share it with anyone else who is wanting
to get themselves an Irish passport, too - on Twitter or on any Facebook groups you might
be in. If you’ve already got an Irish passport then let me know in the comments section below!
This YouTube channel isn’t generally about politics and passport-related stuff, but if
the video has helped you out then you can help me out by subscribing, that would be
really appreciated and you can click the logo here to do that now. Thanks for watching and
happy travelling!