Irish Residence Permit (IRP)

When you are given permission to stay in Ireland, you must register it. Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) says registration is how it records your permission, and the IRP card it posts to you is your proof that you are legally in the State. The card shows your stamp category, which sets what you can do, and the date it needs to be renewed. Regulators and test centres still sometimes call it by its old name: RCSI notes the IRP was previously called the GNIB card.

ISD says anyone from outside the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland who intends to stay in Ireland for more than 90 days to work, study, live or join family must register. For a nurse, doctor or therapist arriving on an employment permit, the permission is usually Stamp 1 (or Stamp 1H for some hospital doctors), and a spouse or partner is often registered on Stamp 1G.

1. Arrive in Ireland. Appointments can only be booked after arrival, through your ISD Customer Service account.
2. Register within 90 days. ISD says it will not cancel your permission if you cannot get an appointment in time.
3. Attend the Registration Office at 13-14 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2. Since 13 January 2025 ISD, not the Garda National Immigration Bureau, registers everyone in the Republic of Ireland.
4. Bring the documents listed for your stamp, such as your passport and employment permit. Your photograph and fingerprints are taken; ISD says the visit should take no longer than 30 minutes.
5. Pay the fee of €300 by card, unless you are in an exempt class under S.I. No. 421/2025.
6. Your card is posted to you, which ISD says should take 10 working days.

Renewals are made online through ISD's renewal portal, up to 12 weeks before the card expires. You must be in Ireland to apply. ISD processes applications in date order for each stamp and publishes the dates it has reached. If it asks for more documents and you do not reply within 14 days, the application is refused. After approval, the new card can take up to 15 more business days to arrive. The new permission runs from your old expiry date, so applying early costs nothing.

• Applying late. Renewal queues can be long, so apply as soon as the 12-week window opens.
• Incomplete uploads. Missing documents send your application to a separate, slower queue.
• Travel during renewal. ISD considers re-entry visas only in genuine emergencies.

Keep your card valid and with you: RCSI, for example, asks for a valid IRP or another accepted immigration document before you can sit the nursing aptitude test. Plan your first appointment alongside your PPS number, which you need for payroll. Children under 18 have their own registration rules, which ISD sets out separately.