Marriage in Ireland

There is no route through marriage until you are married or in a civil partnership. Once you are, you need three years of it and three of the last five years living on the island of Ireland.

The two clocks run together, so a couple who marry and live in Ireland from the same date qualify at three years, not six. Time living together before the wedding does not count towards the three years of marriage.

The question for now is immigration rather than citizenship: how the non-Irish partner gets permission to live in Ireland. After the marriage that is usually permission to reside as the spouse of an Irish citizen. Before it, the immigration service has a permission for unmarried partners of Irish citizens who have lived together for at least two years; otherwise it is usually employment.

Marriage itself does not make you Irish. The old post-nuptial declaration was abolished from 30 November 2002, and its transitional window closed on 29 November 2005.

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