An employment permit cannot be obtained if your profession is included on the list of ineligible categories, which can be viewed on the website.

This list includes low-skilled occupations that are easy to learn or that current workers can be retrained for. For example, travel agents, social workers, fitness instructors, bank clerks, office managers, secretaries, florists, painters, plumbers, roofers, carpenters and joiners, bakers, cleaners, drivers, nannies, and similar specialties.

There are only two types of employment  permits available to most, depending on your profession:

1. General Employment Permit
2. Critical Skills Employment Permit

Both permits require that you already have an invitation from the employer. Let’s consider the second type first.

Critical Skills Employment Permit

To obtain the Critical Skills Employment Permit, you need to fulfil several criteria:

• The minimum annual salary specified in the contract must be €32,000
• The profession must be included on the special list of in-demand professions
• If the profession is not on the list, the minimum annual wage must already be above €64,000. At the same time, the profession should also not be on the list of jobs ineligible work permits.
• If you do not have higher education, you must have sufficient experience
• The contract must be at least two years

Other criteria are also taken into account, for example, the skills, experience and education of the candidate, and the composition of the company. No more than 50% of the company’s employees can be non-EU citizens. In exceptional cases, only a startup will be allowed to not meet this requirement.

Cost of the application

An application for a work permit costs €1,000, 90 percent of that will be refunded if the permit is refused. The application is submitted online, and the process now takes 4-8 weeks. Expedited consideration is available to employers who are registered with the ministry and have received the status of a Trusted Partner.

 

The advantage of this work permit is that your spouse can join you right away, along with your children. The spouse can work without restrictions, and the children will go to a free school.

General employment permit

The two biggest differences are that:

1. The employer needs to prove that it was not possible to find anyone for this position within the EU
2. The spouse and children can reunite a year after the applicant starts working.

Often, such a permit is obtained only for those who do not work in an in-demand profession in any way or when the salary is below €32,000.

Application requirements:

• The profession must not be on the list of jobs ineligible for work permits
• The salary must be at least €30,000 (it can be reduced to €27,000 for customer service, sales and digital marketing workers)
• At least 50% of employees must be EU citizens (with some exceptions)
• Labor Market Test – this is often a whole package of documents proving that it was not possible to find an employee among EU citizens
• The candidate must have a sufficient level of education, skills and experience for the proposed position

Cost of the application

The cost of the application is also 1,000 euros. 90 per cent will be refunded if permission is denied. The application is submitted online, and the process now takes 12 weeks or more.

It can be concluded that if your profession is included on the list of in-demand professionals at the moment, it is really not difficult to obtain a permit quickly, and it is also easy to bring your whole family with you. But if the profession is not included on the list of in-demand professionals, the process of obtaining a permit and finding a job can be complicated.

Read more about working in Ireland