De Facto Partner Visa
If you are in a relationship with an Irish citizen but you are not married to them, you might be able to apply for the De Facto Partner Visa and come join them in Ireland. Find out more about the requirements and the application process.
To receive assistance with your De Facto Partner Visa application, call our lawyers today on +353 061 518 025.
What is the De Facto Partner Visa?
The De Facto Partner Visa is intended for non-EEA partners, including same-sex ones, of Irish citizens or permanent residents. To qualify for a visa to Ireland as a de facto partner, your relationship has to meet the following criteria:
- You and your Irish partner are not married but are in a genuine, long-term relationship
- You and your partner have lived together for at least 2 years
- You and your partner are not related
- You and your partner intend to live together in a way that resembles marriage or civil partnership.
The De Facto Partner Visa belongs to the Join Family Long Stay Visa category, which means that successful candidates can come to Ireland for longer than 3 months.
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Who is eligible for the De Facto Partner Visa?
Citizens of EU/EEA countries, as well as citizens of Switzerland, do not have to apply for a visa to come to join their de facto partners in Ireland. The same applies to citizens of certain countries, such as the US and Canada, which have special agreements with Ireland.
Those who are from one of the visa-required countries, however, need to obtain the De Facto Visa prior to arriving in Ireland.
To be able to obtain the De Facto Partner Visa to Ireland, you have to prove that your relationship with the Irish citizen or permanent resident is genuine and that you have lived together for at least 2 years. As part of the application, you will have to provide evidence that confirms it.
If you are not sure whether you need a visa to travel to Ireland, consult our immigration lawyers. They will assess your eligibility for the De Facto Partner Visa and will help you submit your application.
How to apply for the De Facto Partner Visa?
The first step of the application process is to apply for Irish Immigration Preclearance. The application for it costs €100 and only after you receive it can you submit your De Facto Partner Visa application online.
In the online form, you have to provide personal details and state the reason for your journey to Ireland. After you submit the form, you will see a web page with your application summary sheet. Make sure to print it as you will need to add it to your portfolio of evidence. Moreover, it contains the information about the immigration office you need to send your supporting documents to.
Then, you have to pay the visa application fee. How much you will have to pay depends on whether you are applying for a single or multiple-entry visa. For the former, you will have to pay €60 and for the latter €100.
After paying the fee, you can start preparing documents that prove your eligibility for the De Facto Partner Visa. You will have 30 days from submitting the online visa application to send them for processing.
On average, applications for the De Facto Partner Visa are processed within 6 months. If your case is complex or if you make mistakes in your application, however, the waiting time can be longer.
What supporting documents do I need to submit?
There are a number of supporting documents that applicants for the De Facto Partnership permission need to include in their applications. These include:
- Valid passport
- Two passport size photographs in colour
- Letter of application in which you explain why you want to come to Ireland
- Evidence showing that your application with the Irish citizen or permanent resident is pre-existing and genuine
- Proof confirming that you and your partner lived together for at least 2 years
- Full account of your relationship history
- Financial information of you and your partner in Ireland.
Depending on your circumstances, there might be additional documents you need to submit. Hire one of our immigration lawyers and they will help you prepare a complete portfolio of evidence. Thanks to their help you will be able to avoid delays in the processing of your application caused by not providing sufficient evidence.
What financial information do I need to provide?
When applying for the De Facto Partner Visa to Ireland, you have to submit information about your and your partner’s finances. There is no specific amount that you have to be earning but you have to demonstrate that you and your partner will be able to support yourselves as a couple after you join them in Ireland.
Evidence explaining your financial situation that you need to submit includes:
- Bank statements from your and your partner’s bank accounts for the period of the last six months
- Your partner’s P60s for the last 3 years (if they have been working in Ireland)
- 3 recent consecutive payslips of your partner.
All documents you submit have to be originals. If immigration officials determine that you and your partner do not earn enough money to cover your expenses after you arrive in Ireland, they might reject your application.
How can Total Law help?
At Total Law, our highly-qualified immigration experts are committed to helping partners avoid separation. Applying for the De Facto Partner Visa to Ireland can be complex as there is a lot of evidence you need to submit to prove that your relationship is genuine. Luckily, our experts can guide you through each step of the process and can help you make sure that your portfolio of evidence includes all documents that might be required.
If you hire one of our immigration specialists, you will be offered professional legal advice and assistance with submitting your application. This way you can be sure that it has been completed to the highest standard and that there are no mistakes in it.
Your advisor will always be around to answer any questions you might have, making the whole process clear and stress-free. Moreover, they can write you a Letter of Representation to further strengthen your case. Our consultants are well-versed in immigration law, and provide the same expertise as an immigration lawyer.
Call Total Law today on +353 061 518 025 to find out more about how our consultants can help.
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Frequently Asked Questions
All applicants for the De Facto Partner Visa Ireland have to apply for Immigration Preclearance, granting them permission to apply for a visa and enter Ireland. If your application for Irish Immigration Preclearance is successful, you will be issued a preclearance letter, giving you 6 months to enter Ireland. If you do not arrive in Ireland within these 6 months, you will need to apply for Preclearance once more.
If your application for Preclearance is unsuccessful, you will not be allowed into Ireland.
If your application for the De Facto Partner Visa is unsuccessful, you will be issued a letter giving reasons for the decision.
The most common reason why people’s applications for De Facto Visas to Ireland are rejected is they do not provide enough evidence to prove that their relationship is genuine. To avoid your visa being refused on such grounds, hire one of our lawyers.
It is possible to appeal the visa refusal, but you should consult an immigration advisor before you do so.
A de facto relationship is a relationship that meets the following criteria:
- You and your partner are not married, but you live in an exclusive committed relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership in practice, although not in law
- Your relationship is pre-existing and genuine
- You lived together for at least 2 years.
Both heterosexual and homosexual relationships might qualify as de facto relationships for immigration purposes.
If you are not sure whether your relationship with an Irish national or permanent resident qualifies as a de facto partnership, talk to our immigration consultants. They can look at your individual circumstances and help you determine whether the De Facto Partner Visa Ireland is the right permit for you.
The De Facto Partner Visa Ireland is a Long Stay ‘D’ Visa, which means its holders can stay in Ireland for more than 3 months. Keep in mind that to receive permission to remain in the country for more than 90 days, you have to register at an immigration office after you arrive in Ireland.
While in Ireland on the De Facto Partner Visa, you will be able to work without applying for an employment permit. You will also be allowed to start and run your own business in Ireland. Get in touch with us today to begin your de facto application.