The Department of Justice have made some changes to the citizenship application requirements. This applies to anyone making an application after 01st January 2022.
Passports
It is no longer necessary to send your passport with your application. A full colour copy (including front and back covers) is now acceptable but it must be certified by a solicitor/commissioner of oaths/notary public. Each page of the passport, including blank pages, must be copied and certified and initialed by the solicitor/commissioner of oaths/notary public. Copies of any previous passports containing relevant immigration stamps must also be certified and sent with the application.
Approximately 10% of applicants will be asked to send original passports in order to complete verification checks. Read more about this here.
Proofs of address and residence in Ireland
Changes have also been made to the proof of address and residence requirement. Each acceptable proof of residency is now given a point score. A total of 150 points is required for each year of residence relevant to the application (usually the last 5 years). The Department of Justice has provided a table setting out each acceptable proof of residency and the point value of each. For example, an electricity bill is valued at 10 points and a P60 is valued at 70 points. It is important to note that for each year you must provide at least one of the following:
- P60/Employment Details Summary/Notice of Assessments
- Department of Social Welfare annual statement
- 6 months current account bank statements
The remaining points can be made up from a number of different proofs such as utility bills, insurance bills and tax proof of payment as well as others.
Example: Abdul is applying for his citizenship in 2022 and needs to show five years residency. He must provide 150 points worth of proof for every year from 2017.
For 2021 Abdul has a copy of his employment details summary (this is worth 70 points), a paid electricity bill (this is worth 10 points) and a copy of his rent agreement (this is worth 50 points). These proofs only add up to 130 points and are not enough. Abdul finds his paid car insurance bill (this is worth 10 points) and his paid TV licence (this is worth 10 points). All five proofs of address now add up to 150 points for 2021. Different documents for each year are needed and they must add up to 150 points for each year.
Further information can be found here. A full list of acceptable proofs of residence and the points awarded to each one is available on page 18 of the Form 8.
