Would I be eligible to apply for citizenship

I have been living in Ireland since I was aged 5 . I am originally from South Africa and hold South African citizenship

I entered the state in February 2003. I arrived with my mother, have completed all of my primary school here .

I have done junior infants here, senior infants here. All of primary school , got homeschooled for the first two years of secondary , completed junior cert and leaving cert here in Ireland , and currently in college right now . But the last 6 or so years I’ve been in college but have dropped out of three courses , and I have successfully completed a QQI ITEC / CIDESCO level 6 course as of 2025.

So that’s schooling from the years 2003 - 2025.

Now the tricky part is that my mother has stamp 4 since 2005 , I have younger siblings who all have Irish citizenship because they were born here , her husband acquired citizenship back in 2014 , she attempted to apply for naturalisation back in 2010 but got refused due to legal matters. I have arrived in this county 22 years ago as child with my mother , since she still to this day has no citizenship and is still on stamp 4 I as a result have no Irish citizenship .

I have been granted stamp 4 permission since 2017 , before then I had stamp 3 because of family dependency but because I wanted to apply for a SUSI grant I requested I got changed to a stamp 4 in 2017, I have been moved 3 times from 2017 up until now from living with family , living in rented accommodation , and now living in emergency accommodation . I have had consecutive yearly stamps up until 2021 where I went off the radar because I had been living in my own fir a year , and then finally got renewed 9 months later in 2022 when I moved back home.

Oh and I have not worked a consecutive job my whole life since I lived here , I have been on disability allowance since I was 16 because I am on the autism spectrum . So because of the fact that I have not held a job my mother has been apprehensive to me successfully applying for Irish naturalisation and been granted citizenship. And this has also discouraged me from applying for naturalisation out of fear of my application being rejected.

My question was if I apply for citizenship with these breaks in my citizen ship first one being for 9 months back in September 2022, and then second one being the most recent renewal from October 2024 till November 2025 with the gap from the second last one expiring in September 2024 ( I changed address to homeless accommodation) . I have used the residency calculator on the INIS website and it states that there is a break in continuous residency in my application.

Would this gap jeopardise the chances of me having a successful application? I really need the citizenship as I have finally finished college I have obtained my qualifications I have aspirations to join my peers abroad to work on cruise ships and beauty spas, I am very limited in where I can travel with ease with this South African passport. I feel trapped with very little options for career prospects. I feel like if I can maybe produce a letter explaining the gaps including the most recent one I can maybe aid the circumstance, I was planning on consulting with an immigration lawyer anyway for my own separate naturalisation application. Or in this case would I have to wait another 2 years to apply for citizenship ? I have about 12 years of gnib residences that has breaks in between .

Sorry for the novel guys !

Let me know

You've got a lot of things going on in your post, so I'll try to clear up some myths and misguided advice you seem to grappling with.

A refused naturalisation application has no impact except that you lose the €175 and some admin time. A naturalisation rejection in and of itself doesn't affect any residency applications at all. (Although the reason the naturalisation application is rejected may also be the reason a residency application is rejected - eg criminal acts could prevent both. This is different to the naturalisation application decision per se affecting a residency application.) You can re-apply for naturalisation as often as you like. That is to say there is very little risk to a naturalisation application unless losing €175 would break you financially.

There is no relationship between employment status and naturalisation decision. Non working people get approved all the time. You need to meet the conditions for valid immigration status, physical presence in the State and be able to produce the documents showing those two conditions. Not even using state support is a relevant factor.

No matter what you do regarding naturalisation you should see when/if you are eligible for long term residency and apply when you are eligible (https://www.irishimmigration.ie/my-situ ... residency/) This will give you ongoing residency permission that you don't have to renew as often, assuming you intend on working in Ireland.

You will need unbroken immigration permission in the 12 months before you apply for naturalisation (and also until you attend a citizenship ceremony). Writing a letter explaining why you didn't have it won't work. You'll need to wait until you have this to apply. If you've got non-continuous immigration status in the years before the last year of application you simply need to make the time up with other valid permissions within the last 9 years (or for periods where you were a minor, your parent needs to be able to evidence valid immigration status). Only the last year has to be continuous.

A condition of naturalisation is that you intend to remain resident in Ireland. Wanting to use an Irish passport to work abroad isn't a justification for applying, and may be a reason to reject your application. You should strongly consider keeping any such discussion to yourself.

Once you've got 12 months of unbroken immigration permission and physical presence in RoI before you apply, there is still a good 12 to 18 months of processing time between applying and getting a passport. It isn't a quick fix, but many people find the longer the delay getting all their ducks in a row, the harder it becomes. So it isn't a quick solution but probably better done now than later.