Author
Refugees and subsidiary protection beneficiaries in Ireland receive a ‘Stamp 4’ residence permit.[1] For refugees this grants permanent residency and an Irish Residence Permit (formerly the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) card) is issued firstly for one year and then renewed for three years renewable. Refugees are able to apply for naturalisation after three years from the date of their asylum application (see Naturalisation).
Subsidiary protection beneficiaries also receive a ‘Stamp 4’ residence permit. This allows them to stay in Ireland for a specified period of time, which is normally of three years’ renewable duration. They have a right to apply for naturalisation after five years from the date they were granted subsidiary protection.
In 2016, the Department of Justice introduced a new online booking system to address the long queues that migrants living in Dublin faced outside the ISD office at Burgh Quay to register for or renew their residence card. However, issues were reported using the online booking system, although a set of software fixes were introduced in September 2018 to prevent the booking of block appointments with internet bots. The Department of Justice announced in 2018 that there would be a tender to replace this system but by the end of 2019, it stated that the tender would not be advertised until the New Year.
In June 2020, an online immigration permission renewal system was launched for applicants living in Dublin. This system was subsequently extended to all applicants in December 2020.[2]
In January 2022, a new Immigration Service appointment scheduling system, which will streamline and further improve the registration process, was announced. The interim ISD Registration office Burgh Quay created a free phone number to call, so applicants resident in Dublin could book a first-time registration appointment.[3] As of January 2023, the revised appointment and scheduling system was fully operational, however, applicants continued to experience significant delays in obtaining appointments in order to register their permission.[4] As of February 2024, these delays had largely alleviated with most applicants waiting approximately 2-4 weeks for an appointment to register.[5]
From 13th January 2025, the responsibility for registering all applicants in the Republic of Ireland was transferred to the Immigration Service Delivery and will no longer be carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau, as was previously the case whereby an applicant resides outside of Dublin. In order to make an appointment for first time registration, an applicant is required to book an appointment online through the Immigration Service Delivery website.[6] As of February 2025, applicants seeking to register were reporting significant delays of approximately 2-3 months in obtaining appointments.[7
Regularisation scheme
On 3rd December 2021, the Minister for Justice announced the establishment of a scheme to regularise long-term undocumented migrants which opened for applications on 31st January 2022. The scheme enables applicants and their eligible dependants to remain and reside in Ireland and to regularise their residence status whereby the applicant has a period of 4 years residence in the State without an immigration permission, or 3 years for applicants with minor children, immediately prior to the date on which the scheme opens for applications. Those with an existing Deportation Order were also permitted to apply whereby they met the minimum undocumented residence requirement. Additionally, international protection applicants who had an outstanding application for international protection and had been in the asylum process for a minimum of 2 years were also permitted to apply pursuant to a separate application process. Applications for those in the International Protection strand opened on 7th February 2022.[8] According to data released by the Department of Justice, 6,548 applications in respect of 8,311 people were submitted under the Long-Term Undocumented strand of the scheme, including 1,108 applications in respect of minors, submitted as a part of family applications. As of the 12th December 2022, 4,857 decisions had been issued to applicants and of these 4,796 (97%) were positive decisions and 94 (2%) were negative decisions, while 47 (1%) applications had been withdrawn by applicants for various reasons[9] (See National forms of protection).
Under the International Protection strand of the scheme, 3,198 applications were received. 1,434 grant decisions had been issued, while a further 1,020 applications were accepted but applicants were granted an alternative immigration permission such as refugee or subsidiary protection status or permission to remain.[10]
The establishment of the regularisation scheme has been hugely welcomed by NGOs, stakeholders, and perhaps most significantly, the undocumented community in Ireland, many of whom have resolutely campaigned for over a decade to achieve the realisation of such a scheme.[11] However, NGOs have noted a number of gaps in the scheme. For instance, in circumstances where a person has spent time in the protection process and subsequently received a negative decision, the time spent in the protection process does not count towards time spent ‘undocumented’ for the purposes of the mainstream regularisation scheme. Similarly, persons who were previously undocumented and are now in the protection process cumulatively may have been in Ireland for more than two years but do not qualify for either the undocumented strand or the international protection strand of the scheme.
[1] INIS, Permission, stamps & conditions, available: here.
[2] ibid.
[3] Information provided by ISD, January 2022.
[4] Information provided by Irish Refugee Council Information and Advocacy Service, January 2023.
[5] Information provided by Irish Refugee Council Information and Advocacy Service, February 2024.
[6] Immigration Service Delivery, ‘Information on registering your immigration permission for the first time’, 10 January 2025, available: here.
[7] Information provided by Irish Refugee Council Information and Advocacy Service, February 2025.
[8] Department of Justice, Regularisation of Long Term Undocumented Migrant Scheme, 13 January 2022, available: here.
[9] Acting Minister for Justice Heather Humphreys, Response to Parliamentary Question No 290, 15 December 2022, available: here.
[10] Information provided by Department of Justice and Equality, January 2023.
[11] Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland, Justice for Undocumented wins major victory after 11 year campaign, 3 December 2021, available: here.