When your children can become Irish
Birth in Ireland, naturalisation with the family or Irish descent: there are several roads to the passport for children. Which one applies depends on your family history and your timing.
Born in Ireland: the rule since 2005
The most common question from a family expecting a child: will a child born in Ireland get the Irish passport.Since 1 January 2005 the answer is: only if a parent lived on the island of Ireland for at least 3 of the4 years before the birth, or if a parent is an Irish or British citizen or has an unrestricted right of residence.
| Birth | Consequence |
|---|---|
| before 1 January 2005 | Irish citizen by birth, with no further condition |
| from 1 January 2005 | entitled only if a parent is an Irish or British citizen, has an unrestricted right of residence or lived on the island for 3 of the 4 years before the birth |
The Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution was approved on 11 June 2004 by 1,427,520 votes to 375,695, on a turnout of 59.95 per cent.
Source: Article 9.2 Bunreacht na hÉireann (Twenty-seventh Amendment); sections 6, 6A, 6B Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 as amended by the 2004 Act; commencement S.I. 873/2004; referendum figures: official referendum archive (referendum.ie). As of: retrieved 22 August 2026.
If one of you is British, the residence years do not matter at all. A child born on the island of Ireland to a British citizen parent is entitled to Irish citizenship from birth, the day after the move as much as years later.
For parents from the Netherlands, Belgium or the Nordic countries, time spent as EU citizens exercising free movement counts without any special condition. The exclusions in the Act concern other cases: periods without lawful residence, residence purely for study and time in the protection process, the last with an express exception for citizens of the EEA and Switzerland. So a brother or sister born shortly after the move does not yet have the entitlement; one born in the fourth year does. A family's position changes with every year.
If a parent is already naturalised at the birth, the condition does not apply: the child of an Irish citizen is entitled on being born on the island, without more. The order of a family's plans can look like that too.
How the entitlement is shown
The Act frames an entitlement, and it takes effect backdated to birth as soon as the child, or someone on the child's behalf, does something only Irish citizens are entitled to do. The classic case is the first passport application. There is no separate procedure to establish citizenship for these children; the passport is the proof.
In practice it runs through a declaration called Form A. In it the EU or Swiss parent formally declares their residence on the island in the 4 years before the birth, witnessed and with supporting documents: tax records showing enough insured weeks in each year, bank statements, social welfare letters, a tenancy agreement with proof, or school letters. The declaration goes with the child's passport application to the Department of Foreign Affairs and stands until the contrary is proved. For a British parent the residence years play no part; what the application has to show is that parent's British citizenship.
Northern Ireland counts. The parent rule looks at the island of Ireland, and the form says so expressly. If you lived part of the three years in Northern Ireland, you prove them the same way.
Children who move with you
Children born abroad who move to Ireland with the family have no residence route of their own to naturalisation as minors.Since 31 July 2023 ordinary naturalisation has been open only to adults. The three-year rule that exists for minors applies only to children born in the State who had no entitlement at birth: for them3 years of reckonable residence are enough, of which12 months unbroken before the application.
The road for children who move with you runs through the parents: first a parent is naturalised, then that parent applies for the child. These applications are at the Minister's discretion with no fixed residence condition; there is no published minimum period for the child. A joint family application is not provided for. Alternatively the child waits until adulthood and makes the adult application under theresidence requirements in force today; the years of childhood in Ireland then count.
| Form | Case |
|---|---|
| Form 9 | a parent is already naturalised |
| Form 10 | Irish descent or Irish associations |
| Form 11 | born in the State after 1 January 2005, with three years of reckonable residence |
Application fee €175 each, certificate for minors €200. Good character applies from 14; for younger children only in cases of serious violent or sexual offences.
Source: Courts and Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023, sections 6 and 8 (new sections 15, 15B INCA), in force 31 July 2023 (S.I. 389/2023); section 16 INCA in the Law Reform Commission consolidation; forms: ISD guidance. As of: retrieved 22 August 2026.
Two limits of this road belong here. The State here means, literally, the State: Northern Ireland does not count for the three-year rule for children born in the State, neither as place of birth nor as residence. And minors do not attend the citizenship ceremony; their certificate comes by post.
Children on the descent road
A child can only derive what already existed at its birth. Anyone who goes into the Foreign Births Register through the grandparent line becomes a citizen on the day of registration, not retrospectively. Children born after that day can themselves be registered through the registered parent. Children born before it cannot, because the parent was not yet a citizen when they were born.
The generations shift by one step. For the child born earlier, the Irish-born ancestor is no longer a grandparent but a great-grandparent, and great-grandparents carry no entitlement of their own. Such a child has no road left through this line. That is why anyone going through descent and planning children decides, with the timing of their own registration, on the passports of the next generation too, and builds in the current processing time of around12 months. The process in detail is on the page about descent and the Foreign Births Register.
What the child's other passport says
A British child keeps British citizenship when it becomes Irish. The UK allows dual citizenship, by birth and by application alike. One fine point concerns the generation after: a child born in Ireland to a parent who is British otherwise than by descent, for instance born in Britain, is automatically British by descent. If that child later has children of its own outside the UK, it cannot, as a rule, pass British citizenship on to them automatically; registration may then be possible in some cases. A family that settles in Ireland for good should know this before the grandchildren arrive. Source: gov.uk, Dual citizenship; Home Office nationality guidance, Children of British parents and Automatic acquisition,checked 6 November 2026.
For a Dutch child, Irish citizenship acquired at birth is not a case of loss: the Netherlands Nationality Act ties loss to voluntary acquisition, and a birth is not that. If a parent naturalises and the child shares in it, the child keeps Dutch nationality as long as the other parent is Dutch. The rule that takes Dutch nationality from dual nationals after thirteen years abroad does not run in Ireland, which lies inside the European Union. On acquisition through the Foreign Births Register we give no answer for the Netherlands before it has been checked in the individual case; the details are on the page aboutdual citizenship. Source: Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, Articles 15 and 16, wetten.overheid.nl (BWBR0003738), version in force since 1 October 2026, read 6 November 2026.
A Swedish or Finnish child born in Ireland who holds both citizenships must keep a tie to the Nordic country, or can lose that citizenship at 22. Sweden lets the child apply to keep it between 18 and 22; in Finland a written notice to a Finnish mission between 18 and 21 is enough, and so is applying for or receiving a Finnish passport in those years. A Belgian child born abroad can lose Belgian nationality if no declaration of retention is made between 18 and 28. A Finnish family that applies for the child's passport in those years has the case settled; in Sweden the application to keep citizenship is the safe route. Source:Migrationsverket, Losing or retaining Swedish citizenship; migri.fi, Retaining Finnish citizenship at the age of 22; Belgian consular service, Losing Belgian nationality; checked 6 November 2026.
The first step is a conversation
An hour with Sebastian in which your children's situation is sorted out: place of birth, order and the passports they should keep.