Sorting out your right-to-work papers needs to be your top priority if you are planning to move to Ireland. The good news is that you will not need a work permit if you, your spouse or child are an Irish or other EEA national (the EEA comprises the European Union, together with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). Those granted refugee status, asylum-seekers who have been given temporary leave to remain in the State on humanitarian grounds, post-graduate students coming here to carry out related work, e.g. postgraduate doctors and dentists with temporary registration, do not generally require work permits. You will also be exempt if you are an employee posted on an intra-corporate transfer/secondment for a maximum period of four years to a company in Ireland, provided the group has operations in more than one country. Similarly, if you come to Ireland from an overseas company for a maximum period of three years for training at an Irish-based company you will not need a work permit.

If you do not fit into any of the above categories, you will need a work permit. Your new employer makes the application and has to prove that efforts have been made to fill the position with resident EU/EEA labour. A fast-track work permits and immigration scheme has recently been announced to facilitate the recruitment of suitably qualified people for designated sectors of the employment market where skills are particularly in demand. The categories are information and computing technologies professionals and technicians, architects, construction engineers, quantity and building surveyors, town planners and registered nurses.

The new scheme makes it possible for prospective employees with job offers from employers in Ireland to obtain immigration and employment clearance in advance of arrival from Irish Embassies and Consulates. The scheme does not replace the existing work permit procedure, merely speeds up the process. But remember you will need to be located outside of Ireland at the time the application is made.