My Grandparent was Irish // Can I get a passport?
You’re hoping to get an Irish passport? Your parent has one, your grandparent was born in Ireland, so you want to apply to get one. Can you get one?
The answer isn’t as straightforward as you may hope. But, eventually, you will be able to apply for an Irish passport.
You may think that doesn’t really make sense. In this post, I’m going to go through what you need to do and show you how to get yourself in a position to apply for an Irish passport.
You need to apply for Citizenship!
There are a couple of things you need to consider.
You need to be an Irish citizen to apply for an Irish passport. Passports can only be held by Irish citizens.
If you or your parent were born in Ireland before 2005 you are automatically an Irish citizen. You can apply for a passport now. You can skip to this post showing you how to apply for an Irish passport if you live outside Ireland. Or, alternatively, you can just pop over to Department of Foreign Affairs and start your application.
If you want to apply for a passport through your Irish born grandparent and your parent was born outside Ireland, you are not an Irish citizen. You need to apply for a Irish Citizenship before you can apply for a passport. It all comes down to who was born in Ireland.
It doesn’t matter if your parent holds an Irish passport, just because they hold an Irish passport doesn’t make YOU an Irish citizen.
Register a Foreign Birth
To become an Irish citizen through an Irish born grandparent, you need to register your birth as a Foreign Birth.
There are other scenarios where you need to Register a Foreign Birth (For example, if your parent was a naturalised Irish citizen and you were born outside Ireland) but this post will only deal with applying for citizenship through an Irish born Grandparent.
Foreign Birth Registration, in itself, is a straightforward process but you need to have all the information you need to hand before you start the application.
As you are applying through an Irish born grandparent you will need documentation to show your family tree from your grandparent to you. That means you will also need your parent’s details.
Documents needed
These are the typical documents needed when Registering a Foreign Birth. Major Caveat, you may be asked for more documentation or slightly different documentation depending on your circumstances (eg adopted).
Documents Needed for The Applicant
- Your original long form Birth certificate
- If you’re married, original Marriage Certificate
- If you’ve divorced and remarried: Divorce Decree / New Marriage Certificate
- Certified Copy of your current Passport*
- Proof of Name and Address. You need 3 documents showing your name and address. These can be Council Tax bills, utility bills, bank statements, P60s etc.
- If you’ve Changed your name by Deed Poll, you need to submit the original and two documents showing your proof of usage of your new name for at least two years. Your Deed Poll must be valid for at least two years.
- If the applicant is a minor, you will also need:*
- Certified Copy of your current Passport* and a letter from school or Doctor confirming the child is a registered student or patient
- One proof of address from the country in which they are resident
- Two proofs of current residence from the minor’s parent
*Please note that this scenario is if the person applying for the minor is their Irish citizen parent.
As Ireland is not your place of birth and you are applying for citizenship, you would normally hold a passport from another country.
Documents Needed For The Applicant’s Irish Parent
- Parent’s original long form birth certificate
- If you’re married: original Marriage Certificate
- If you’ve divorced and remarried: Divorce Decree / New Marriage Certificate
- Certified Copy of your current Passport or
If your parent is deceased: Original Death Certificate - If they’ve changed their name by Deed Poll, you need to submit the original and two documents showing your proof of usage of your new name for at least two years. Your Deed Poll must be valid for at least two years.
Documents Needed for Irish-Born Grandparents
- If you’re married, original Marriage Certificate
- If you’ve divorced and remarried: Divorce Decree / New Marriage Certificate
- Certified Copy of your current Passport or
If your grandparent is deceased: Original Death Certificate - If they’ve changed their name by Deed Poll, you need to submit the original and two documents showing your proof of usage of your new name for at least two years. Your Deed Poll must be valid for at least two years.This is not an exhaustive list, you may be asked for further details.
Never send your valid passport with the Foreign Birth Application, always get your witness to certify / notarise a copy and send that.
All this information and documents required for other scenarios are available from the Department of Foreign Affairs website.
The Application Process
Once you’ve got all your documents together, you can start the actual application. It’s an online process and there is no definite time frame as to how long the actual process takes. It could take a year or more.
You can start the process here on the Department of Foreign Affairs website.
It’s all really simple from here. You’ll notice tabs on the application form for the applicant, parent and grandparent and then, of course, your contact details.
The first thing you’ll notice is that there are a number of options for ‘Please indicate the citizenship category to which the applicant’s parent belongs‘. This trips people up a little. The default is ‘Born Abroad to a Parent Born in Ireland’, if you are applying this way, leave it in the default setting. Look at it this way – like a family tree.
Irish Born Grandparent
vvvv
Irish Citizen Parent – Born Abroad to a Parent Born in Ireland
vvvv
Applicant
All you need to do then is fill in the ‘Irish Citizen Parent – Born Abroad to a Parent Born in Ireland’ details and the ‘Irish born Grandparent’ details.
Once you go through the the online form, and you submit the application, you will need to print off a pdf which is populated with all your answers. From this your witness needs to sign the Certificate of Identity.
Once you have everything compiled, send it to the address stated on the pdf. Make sure you send it by Special Delivery (from the UK) or equivalent so you can track that all your documents have been received.
Once you do this, it’s now waiting time.
When the process is complete, you will receive a Foreign Birth Registration Certificate which confirms you are an Irish citizen. Now, you can apply for a passport.
Good luck! Always contact your local Embassy or Consulate for any advice.
Nessymon.com takes no responsibility for any errors, omissions or changes that may happen to this process. Always contact your local Embassy or Consulate for advice.
