What is the change?

The Minister for Justice announced on 22 April the extension of the 5-year multi entry short-stay visa option to all visa required countries.

A multi entry visa permits the holder to travel to Ireland on a number of occasions during the dates shown on the visa.

Prior to this announcement, Ireland has offered 1-year, 2-year and 3-year multi-entry visas, with the option of a 5-year multi-entry visa only available to Chinese passport holders.

Key points:

• Implementation time frame:
  This change takes place with immediate effect (22 April 2022).
• Who is affected:
  This eligibility has been extended to all visa required nationals, providing they meet the other criteria of eligibility.
• Next steps:
  Prior to this announcement, multi entry visas have only been issued to applicants who have shown a compliant Irish travel history. However, people who have frequent travel to the UK, Schengen zone, USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand and have observed the conditions of those visas will also be able to apply for the option of a multi-year visa, even if they have no previous Irish travel history. The multi-entry short stay visa can be applied for any duration from 1 to 5 years.

A multi entry visa may also be approved for some business travelers, under certain conditions, who have no previous travel history to Ireland.

The standard single entry visa option also remains available, and with all visa applications the granting of a multi-entry visa is at the discretion of the relevant Visa Officer.

A short stay visa entry will permit an individual to enter Ireland for up to 90 days at a time (final discretion with the Border Management Unit).

Analysis and Comments:

Deloitte welcomes this announcement from the Department of Justice.

To echo Minister for Justice McEntee, this is a very positive and convenient measure in the fact it will allow individuals travelling to Ireland for family or business reasons to make one application that enables travel over a 5-year period.

If you have questions regarding the above changes, please contact the Deloitte immigration team to assist.