Non sequential years proof of residency

[siwS]

Hey folks.

I am looking to apply for citizenship and am a bit confused by the Residency B Score 50 requirement.

I want to use my credit card statements as they're the easiest for me to obtain, but for two out of the five years (during COVID times when not much was happening), I have only four months of statements, and they are not consecutive. The other years, I have statements for most months. Does the "9 points of sales purchases spread evenly over a 3-month period" requirement mentioned for bank statements apply to credit cards, too? (I find it odd that they are not very explicit about their requirement).

Semi-related, but can different types of proof B be used for different years? (ie. Credit card statements for 2019-2020, rental agreement for 2021+ or any other combination.)

TIA!

[Vadrar]

Fine to use different proofs for each year, many do.

The recommendation is for 3 months of consecutive credit card statements with 3+ POS transactions. It’s the consecutive nature that shows ongoing residency rather than just trips to Ireland.

You mention credit card statements being easiest to get. If however you have alternates that do meet the requirements the strong recommendation is to use those. Non-compliant proof often creates requests for additional documents, and this add a lot of time to the process. You’ll need to use an affidavit if you can’t submit listed documents.

If you haven’t already, make sure you now are.generating compliant B proof. You may be asked for them as additional docs if you can’t supply listed proofs, to show you do now have compliant docs.

[siwS]

Thank you for the quick response, Vadrar,

I should be able to cover the requirements by providing rental agreements/ PRTB letters (I am reading in other questions that those are accepted, and we can provide one agreement to cover the full year?), so it sounds like I should prefer those over credit card statements.

Good to know that they will reach out in case they need more information; in the guide, they make it sound like they might just reject the application, leading to losing your fee

Finally, I am pretty sure the answer to this is no, but using two types of Requirement A instead of one type A and one type B is not allowed, right?

[Vadrar]

Correct, 2 A’s don’t work.

They can simply reject, that is their right, but usually they’ll reach out. But this is one reason why submitting compliant docs first time is always preferable.

Lease and RTB a much better idea than questionable credit card statements. One lease or RTB per year is perfectly sufficient.

[siwS]

Great, I'll go with that so, thanks again for the advice!

[siwS]

Hey everyone,

I am preparing my citizenship application for submission, and I have one remaining question in regards with the years of residency.

My situation is: I have been living and working in Ireland since 2015. The citizenship requirement documents that I have collected so far are from the last five years (2019- March 2024).

However, in 2020, I was outside the state for 3 months (March-May 2020) due to COVID restrictions and was unable to return to the country (I was abroad when the first lockdown happened). I included that in my application, but now I wonder whether it's preferred to skip 2020 from my application altogether, given that the years do not have to be sequential according to https://www.irishimmigration.ie/wp-cont ... cument.pdf and provide documentation for 2018 instead.

Proof for 2018 is reasonably straightforward for me to obtain, I am just uncertain what is preferred:

- declare the 80+ days I was out of the State in 2020 as a result of the COVID restrictions, stating I was visiting family abroad and couldn't return to Ireland (in this case, provide documentation for the years 2019-2023 which I already have)

OR

- skip 2020 altogether and submit my documentation for 2018 instead? (I can still mention that I was not in Ireland for 3 months in 2020 in the respective section and provide documentation for 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023). I will still have to provide some documentation that mentions 2020, given that I have a lease that started later in the year when I moved houses (October 2020), which is my proof for the years 2021 and 2022.

I would add both if it weren't for the "Don't submit more documents than necessary" guideline in the documentation, but now I wonder if either is preferable.

Any advice?

Thank you

[Vadrar]

Have you submitted already? If so you need to wait to see what they say. If you haven’t submitted the safest way is to make up the 80 days and include residency proof of the relevant dates.

However some people who were locked out during Covid have successfully received approval as long and they declare the absence and include proof - eg tickets of departure and entry date. So Covid absence isn’t an automatic rejection. People with absences longer than 80 Covid days have been approved.

Obviously it’s your choice, but the usual recommendation is that if proof of sufficient presence is easy it’s unclear why an applicant would risk the question being raised. You don’t have to provide evidence for the full year- just the 80 make up days. Bank statements and some utility bills are typically regarded as the easiest way to prove presence when you only need part of a calendar year.

In this instance these documents aren’t ‘additional’ - they are proving minimum physical presence (as your application dates specifying your qualifying residence would align with them) so they don’t break the ‘no additional documents’ guidance.

But with a Covid absence of 80 days, with some proof of that, you are likely fine either way.

[siwS]

Thank you for the very helpful response @Vadrar, I didn't realize I could make up for the remaining 80 days by adding on top of the 5 years, really appreciate the suggestion.

I haven't submitted the application yet (I am in the pre-submit paranoia phase where I am thinking about all the things that may go wrong ), so I can amend and add documentation for the extra 80 days and proof of the flights. I also have proof of the flights that were cancelled as I was trying to return to the country, I can include that too.

Thank you very much again