Ireland is set to tighten its naturalisation rules, proposing that applicants must reside in the country for eight years and pass a language test before they can apply for citizenship.
Key elements of the proposal
- Residence requirement – Applicants would need two years of continuous residence immediately before applying, plus an additional six years of residence within the ten‑year period preceding those two years. This replaces the current rule of one year continuous residence plus four years within the preceding eight (five qualifying years in a nine‑year window).
- Language test – For the first time, naturalisation will require a test in either Irish, English or Irish Sign Language.
- Legislative status – The amendment is not yet drafted. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan plans to seek approval for priority drafting of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2026 and to submit an outline to the Oireachtas justice committee for pre‑legislative scrutiny.
Context and comparisons
- Current Irish framework – The Immigration Service Delivery checklist for naturalisation includes full age, good character, reckonable residence, intention to remain in Ireland, and a declaration of fidelity, but no language requirement.
- EU benchmarks –
- Language testing: Denmark, Luxembourg and Cyprus already test applicants; Cyprus requires CEFR level B1.
- Residence periods: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Portugal require five years. Austria and Spain require ten years, Denmark nine, Cyprus seven, and Sweden recently increased from five to eight years (effective from 6 June 2026).
- With an eight‑year requirement, Ireland would sit above Germany, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Luxembourg, but below Denmark, Austria and Spain.
Impact on specific groups
- Investors – The change applies to holders of Stamp 4 residence, including those who entered through the now‑closed Immigrant Investor Programme (closed to new applications on 15 Feb 2023). Those investors’ residence clock starts when Stamp 4 is granted, so the additional three years affect them equally.
- Continuous residence – The proposed shift from one to two years of continuous residence may be the most challenging change for highly mobile applicants. Section 15C of the 1956 Act (added in 2023) currently permits up to 70 days of absence during the continuous‑residence period, with a possible extra 30 days at ministerial discretion; how this will apply under the new rules remains unclear.
- Stamp 0 holders – A separate package approved in Nov 2025 suggested excluding Stamp 0 (independent‑means residents, retirees, dependent elderly relatives) from reckonable residence, but the amendment does not yet clarify this.
- Temporary protection – Proposals also aim to exclude time spent under the EU Temporary Protection Directive (activated in March 2022 for Ukrainian displaced persons) from reckonable residence. The Department of Justice has treated such time as non‑reckonable, though Section 16A of the 1956 Act does not list it explicitly.
Administrative considerations
- Citizenship volume – The government seeks to curb the number of naturalisations, citing 25,000 grants in the previous year and a total of roughly 235,000 since 2011. Reported figures for 2025 range from 26,400 (Irish Examiner) to 25,000 (minister’s statement).
- Fees – Application fees remain €175 for the request and €950 upon a positive decision, unchanged since 2011. A review of fees against other EU countries was announced in Nov 2025 but no new rates have been set.
The proposals, if enacted, would make Ireland’s naturalisation pathway longer and introduce a language competency requirement, aligning the country more closely with several EU members while still remaining less stringent than the longest residence periods in the bloc.
Source article: www.imidaily.com
