Visa information

Ireland offers two employment-permit routes in the 2026 guide — Critical Skills and General — plus Stamp 0 for financially independent persons, and it is explicit that there is no digital nomad visa. The guide scores Ireland 60/100 for visa and bureaucracy, the lowest in this batch, and its one income figure is Stamp 0's roughly $55,000 a year.

The routes the guide names

Critical Skills Employment Permit — the guide's schemes list adds that it carries a 2-year PR path (the guide's own abbreviation; read as a permanent-residency path).

General Employment Permit — named with no salary threshold or conditions in either source.

Stamp 0 — for financially independent persons in the visa list; the schemes list phrases it as “Stamp 0 for retirees with ~$55k/yr income.”

No nomad visa — the remote-work section states it plainly: “No nomad visa; remote work for foreign employer requires residence permission.”

The income figure — what the sources actually say

The guide prints one route income figure: Stamp 0 at ~$55k/yr, in its schemes list, and its retirement text adds that Stamp 0 requires a high annual income. It prints no salary thresholds for either employment permit, no Stamp 0 savings or lump-sum figure, and there is no Ireland entry in the site's country FAQ to supply more. This page publishes no permit thresholds rather than filling them from general knowledge.

The guide also records, in the same schemes list, that the Immigrant Investor Programme closed in 2023 — it is listed as closed, and this page does not present it as a route (see Tax & Legal).

At the guide's exchange rate of $1 ≈ €0.86, euro figures convert at roughly that rate for planning.

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not government fees

The guide does not list individual government permit or Stamp 0 fees. Its bundled “Visa, permits & translations” plan lines are the only sourced cost figures for the application itself:

• $1,200 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,700 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $4,050 — Luxury plan (the plan notes the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $3,100 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification.”

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier; the Retirement paperwork stage adds pension or income letters certified and apostilled, a police certificate, a medical, and birth and marriage certificates translated.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file.
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the other tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Residency paths — the honest limit of the guide

The one pathway statement in either source is the schemes list's Critical Skills Employment Permit with 2-year PR path. No years-to-citizenship, Stamp 0 renewal intervals or absence limits appear in the guide or the site data, so this page does not state them.

Frequently asked questions