Do you need an IRP card?
As a family of British or EU citizens, normally not. If one family member holds neither passport, the Irish Residence Permit becomes important. Here is how it works.
The Irish Residence Permit, IRP for short, is the residence card of Irish immigration law, and the shortest truth about it comes right here: with a British, EEA or Swiss passport you do not need one. Why that is so is explained on our page on residence rights. What follows is for the one case in which the card does come into your family.
Who needs the card
Registration is required for nationals of countries outside the EEA, the United Kingdom and Switzerland who stay longer than three months, from the age of 16. The typical case among our readers: a spouse with a passport from outside Europe who moves in with the family. For that one family member the full programme of immigration law then applies, with permission to stay, a stamp category and renewals, while the rest of the family simply moves and, with the PPS number, completes the one registration that applies to everyone.
In practice it matters that registration is no formality that can wait. The entry stamp sets the deadline of 90 days, and missing it damages exactly the residence history that must later be unbroken for a naturalisation.
How registration works
| Point | Rule |
|---|---|
| Deadline | Registration within 90 days of arrival |
| Route | Appointment through the online portal of Immigration Service Delivery (ISD), registration after arrival |
| Fee | €300 per card |
| From age | 16 |
Source: Citizens Information, "Registration of non-EEA nationals in Ireland" (page dated 18 August 2026). As of: retrieved 23 August 2026.
Registration needs proof of the basis for that person’s residence, which in the family case means above all proof of the marriage or partnership and of your life together. Which stamp category is granted and what it means for work and for the naturalisation clock is set out on the stamps page; in the consultation this case belongs on the table early, because deadlines for the whole family’s plan hang on it. Apart from the registration appointment, arriving happens where you will live anyway: in the south-east, where the house search runs alongside.
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