How many days in a year can I be outside Ireland if I am trying for Stamp 4 & Citizenship?

Hi there,
I am from Non-EU.
Can you please tell me how many days in a year I can stay out of Ireland if I am eyeing to get Stamp 4 and later citizenship?

Let's start with what you have now. Are you on Stamp 4?
Different programs have different requirements (eg investors have a ton of days to spare), but they usually expect you to be in the State for 9 months/year.
For citizenship - each time you're out of the country for more than 6 weeks in a year (in total for the whole year), these days don't count as your residency and you need to add these days to 5 years you need to apply for citizenship (unless you travel for business and your employer says so, but that's another story).

Hi there,
I am on a Critical Skills Employment Permit (Stamp 1 visa). A couple of questions please:
Question 1:
To be eligible for Stamp 4, I guess I must have lived in the state for 21 months. That means I can leave Ireland for 3 months in the next 2 years. Am I right?

Question 2:

You can leave Ireland for up to 6 weeks (in total) per year and still be considered resident in that year. If you leave for more than 6 weeks in one year, you should not count this period when you are calculating your reckonable residence.

Let's say that I landed in Ireland in May 2021.
Am I eligible to stay outside Ireland for 6 weeks between May 2021 and December 2021 then another 6 weeks between Jan 2022 and December 2022
or
I am just eligible to stay outside Ireland for 6 weeks between May 2021 and May 2022?

1) I'd say so. Take a look at the requirements for Stamp 4 support letter to see what DETE will ask you for closer to the date. And, obviously, not sure how happy your employer will be with you if you'll travel too often.
2) And that we don't know! Most people use calendar years, I used tax years (as your second example), but no idea which way is correct.

Regarding question 2:
A) It’s not date you landed but the date you get your IRP card or stamp on passport from INIS as before this date you are on visa and not on residency permit.
B) then from date of IRP to next 12 months, you can be away for 6 weeks with no issues ( ex march 21 to march 22).

mmssaa wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 10, 2022 7:07 am

Hi there,
I am on a Critical Skills Employment Permit (Stamp 1 visa). A couple of questions please:
Question 1:
To be eligible for Stamp 4, I guess I must have lived in the state for 21 months. That means I can leave Ireland for 3 months in the next 2 years. Am I right?

Question 2:

You can leave Ireland for up to 6 weeks (in total) per year and still be considered resident in that year. If you leave for more than 6 weeks in one year, you should not count this period when you are calculating your reckonable residence.

Let's say that I landed in Ireland in May 2021.
Am I eligible to stay outside Ireland for 6 weeks between May 2021 and December 2021 then another 6 weeks between Jan 2022 and December 2022
or
I am just eligible to stay outside Ireland for 6 weeks between May 2021 and May 2022?

With regards to "Stamp 4" eligibility — I see this official website says,

Foreign Nationals are eligible to apply for their Support Letters from this Department only when they have completed 21 months continuous employment in the State on foot of their Critical Skills Employment Permit and not more than 12 weeks before the expiry of their permit.

It says "21 months continuous employment in the State".

A couple of questions:
1. The "continuous" word in the above quote means I need to "continuously" live and work in the state for 21 months without going out of Ireland?
2. If possible, can you please share the link where I can see how many weeks I can be outside Ireland in relation to Stamp 4 and Citizenship?

1-) You should be working in Ireland for 21 months continously, which means you shouldn't be unemployed. You are allowed to leave country up to 6 weeks but not allowed to be unemployed or you can't get that support letter.

2-) You are allowed to leave country 6 weeks for each year without an issue. You can leave for longer than 6 weeks, but then you will have to explain why you left and durations longer than 6 weeks will not count towards your residency days in Ireland. This is the general rule, I remember that I read "up to 3 months is okay for Stamp 4 holders" in this board but I didn't see any official source for this. All immigration pages mentions 6 weeks of absence for each year is okay, that is the only thing you should focus on.

Think this, whatever you plan to do, you should be able to explain your actions, and you should be able to prove that you still have connection to Ireland else it will hurt your immigration history and naturalisation application.

You don't get a golden ticket of being able to leave this country for months once you get Stamp 4 residence permit.

And keep in mind that you'd legally have to send a yearly declaration that you want to keep your Irish citizenship if you plan to live abroad with it for long (7 years or so), but that's for the future.