Ireland work permits explained: which route fits you?

Work down the questions in order and stop at the first yes.

• Are you an EU/EEA, Swiss or UK citizen? You need no permit. UK citizens are covered by the Common Travel Area.
• Do you already hold Stamp 4, or Stamp 1G as a graduate or as the spouse or partner of a permit holder? You can work without a permit. Graduates, see working in Ireland after graduation.
• Is your job on the Critical Skills Occupations List, with a two-year offer of at least €40,904 and a relevant degree? Use the Critical Skills Employment Permit.
• Does the offer pay over €68,911, in any occupation not on the Ineligible Occupations List? The Critical Skills Employment Permit again, and you do not need a degree if you have the experience.
• Is the job eligible, at €36,605 or more, with an employer where at least half the staff are EEA nationals? Use the General Employment Permit, after the labour market test.
• Is your current employer moving you to its Irish company? Look at the Intra-Company Transfer permit.
• Are you from a working holiday partner country, within its age limits, and not yet in Ireland? A Working Holiday Authorisation may suit a first year.

This path summarises the Department’s published criteria. It is not legal advice, and only the Department can decide whether you qualify. If your case is borderline, read the permit checklist or contact the Employment Permits Section before paying the fee.

This is the permit to aim for. It exists to bring skilled people to Ireland with a view to them settling, and it comes with the best terms: no labour market test, family can join you straight away, and a direct route to Stamp 4. There are two ways in.

The first is an occupation on the Critical Skills Occupations List paying at least €40,904 a year, with a relevant degree or higher. If you got that qualification in the 12 months before applying, the threshold drops to €36,848. The list covers ICT professionals, engineers, doctors, nurses and midwives, health and social care professionals, accountants and tax specialists, data and analytics roles, architects, quantity surveyors and construction project managers, among others. For nurses and midwives, the test is a qualification that the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland accepts for registration.

The second is any occupation paying over €68,911 that is not on the Ineligible Occupations List. Here you do not need a degree if you have the necessary experience.

• The offer must be for at least two years. For a shorter contract, use the General Employment Permit.
• Only basic salary (at least the national minimum wage) and employer-paid health insurance count towards the threshold. Bonuses do not.
• The employer must be registered with Revenue, trading in Ireland and meet the 50:50 rule: at least half its employees must be EEA nationals. Start-ups under two years old that are supported by Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland can be exempt.

The General Employment Permit starts from the other end: every occupation is eligible unless it is on the Ineligible Occupations List. The standard threshold is €36,605 a year. It is €34,009 if you have a relevant degree from an Irish college awarded in the previous 12 months, and €32,691 (with at least €16.12 an hour) for horticulture workers, meat processor operatives, healthcare assistants and home support workers.

In most cases the employer must first run a Labour Market Needs Test: advertise the job with the Department of Social Protection’s Employment Services/EURES and on one other online platform, each for at least 28 continuous days, and then apply within 90 days of the first advert. The test is not needed for Critical Skills occupations, offers of €68,911 or more, or where Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland recommends the hire.

The permit can be granted for up to two years at first and renewed for up to three more. Renewal applications can be made within 4 months before expiry, and renewal fees are €750 or €1,500 depending on length.

Check this before anything else. No permit is granted for an ineligible occupation, whatever the salary, because the government considers there are enough Irish and EEA workers for it. The list covers most administrative and secretarial roles, sales and retail, customer service and call centres, cleaning and housekeeping, road transport drivers, childcare, and elementary occupations, as well as many skilled trades.

Read the exceptions carefully, because they are specific. Chefs are ineligible except executive, head and sous chefs with 5 years’ experience and chefs de partie and commis chefs with 2 years’, working outside fast-food outlets. The list is reviewed regularly: in the review confirmed in May 2026, roles such as dental hygienists, pharmaceutical technicians and steel fixers were removed from it. If your title is close to an eligible one, ask the employer whether the real duties match an eligible classification. Never misdescribe a job to fit a list.

• Intra-Company Transfer permit: for senior managers and key personnel moving within a multinational, at a minimum of €49,523 a year, after at least 6 months with the overseas company. Trainees can transfer for up to 12 months at €36,605, after at least 1 month.
• Working Holiday Authorisation: for young people from Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the US, plus Taiwan through a separate quota. It lasts up to 1 year (up to 2 years for Canadians) and places are limited. You cannot apply for an employment permit from inside Ireland while on it, so treat it as a way to build Irish experience and contacts.
• Graduates of Irish colleges: Stamp 1G lets you work full-time for 12 or 24 months while you find a permit-eligible job. See the international students guide.
• Dependants of Critical Skills holders who are not spouses or partners can get a free Dependant/Partner/Spouse Employment Permit, with no labour market test.

Either you or the employer applies through Employment Permits Online. The application must be received at least 12 weeks before the proposed start date. Applications are processed strictly in date order, in separate queues for Trusted Partner and standard employers. On 11 September 2026 the Department was working on Critical Skills applications received on 3 September and new General Employment Permit applications received on 6 August.

If the processor asks for more information, you have 28 days to send it. A refusal can be reviewed if you ask within 28 days, and a new application is still possible afterwards. The fee is €1,000 for a Critical Skills permit and €500 or €1,000 for a new General Employment Permit, and 90% is refunded if the application fails. If the employer applies, it may not recover any fee or expense from your pay.

An employment permit is not permission to live in Ireland. If you need a visa, apply for one once the permit is granted. After arrival, register your permission with Immigration Service Delivery and get your IRP card.

On your first permit you are expected to stay with the first employer for 9 months, down from 12 before September 2024. After that you can move to another employer within the same profession, and the permit is reissued before you start there. Since 2 September 2024, promotion or an internal transfer using the same skills is allowed with the same employer.

If you are made redundant, notify the Employment Permits Section within 4 weeks of dismissal using its redundancy form. You then have up to 6 months to find another job, and a General Employment Permit holder in that position does not need a new labour market test. Contact immigration about your status if you have not found work within the 6 months.

Critical Skills holders can bring a spouse or de facto partner and dependent children straight away. For the General Employment Permit and most other permits, the family can apply after 12 months, and you must meet minimum income limits for your family size. De facto partners must show at least 2 years of relationship.

Since 15 May 2024, spouses and partners of Critical Skills, General Employment Permit and Intra-Company Transfer holders who come under the family reunification policy get Stamp 1G, which lets them work without their own permit. Since 26 November 2025, eligible dependent children of these permit holders get Stamp 1G at 16. For rebuilding a partner’s career, see the accompanying partners guide.

Stamp 4 lets you work for any employer without a permit and run a business. A Critical Skills holder can apply for it after 21 months of working on the permit, directly to the Department of Justice; the Department of Enterprise’s support letter has not been needed since 30 November 2023. It is issued for two years and renewable. General Employment Permit holders can apply after 57 months. Critical Skills holders can apply for long-term residence after 60 months of residence permission, and time on Stamp 1 and Stamp 4 counts towards citizenship by naturalisation.