Lisa Grimm: As some have asked me how we emigrated to Ireland from the US, here's a hopefully-brief thread of how it worked for us. I know most of you sensible people know you can't just hop on a plane as a non-EU citizen, but just in case...you start here: www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving-co...

As some have asked me how we emigrated to Ireland from the US, here's a hopefully-brief thread of how it worked for us. I know most of you sensible people know you can't just hop on a plane as a non-EU citizen, but just in case...you start here: www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving-co...

Moving to Irelandwww.citizensinformation.ie

It's important to acknowledge here that we were in a ludicrously-advantageous position - I got headhunted, so the company that brought us over did the heavy lifting to get me a Critical Skills work permit and full relocation package... enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-d...

Critical Skills Employment Permitsenterprise.gov.ie The Critical Skills Employment Permit replaces the Green Card type employment permit. The Critical Skills Employment Permit is designed to attract highly skilled people into the labour market with the...

It also cannot be underestimated how critical the housing shortage is in Ireland, so moving with a family and two cats would have been nearly impossible without corporate support - again, something that won't be accessible to all, and worth pointing out...

Dublin is *the most expensive* place I've lived from a rental perspective, and I've lived in London, NYC, SF & Seattle, among other cities. Once you can buy (if you can get a mortgage & have a deposit), it's a different story, but know up front: renting is tough...

Again, we were (and are) in a hugely-privileged position - my 25+ year career in a niche part of tech made this all possible, and we have been lucky ever since (even if that first employer was toxic af). But on to some other practicalities...

If you come on a Critical Skills permit, after 2 years you can apply to change to a Stamp 4, which lets you work for any employer, or start a business. And while your partner can also work for anyone, they *cannot* start a business - it's a weird gap... www.irishimmigration.ie/registering-...

Immigration permission/stamps - Immigration Service Deliverywww.irishimmigration.ie In This Section Introduction Register your permission Registration office passport stamping Stamp categories Stamp conditions Stamps related to EU Treaty Rights Introduction If y...

Also a gap: if you have older kids (16+), they *cannot* work - they can only be in full-time education. But if you have been in Ireland 3+ years by the time they go to uni, they (mostly) qualify for EU fees - so it's cheaper than other overseas fees, but not the 'resident' rate...

Thanks for this! My husband is an Irish citizen so I pretty much got a free pass straight to stamp 4 status. I still don't know much about other routes to residency, so this is all very interesting to hear (and handy, since USians do ask me about this sometimes).

Even though the Irish immigration system is 1 million times easier to deal with than the US one - especially if you are lucky like me and have an Irish relative - there are still some things about moving here that are far more complicated than one would expect. For example:

- Opening a bank account: you need a bank account to get utilities, but you can't start utilities without a bank account. It absolutely boggles the mind. - US driver's licences aren't valid here, so you need to take the driving test & lessons. And the waiting list for the test is many months long.

Having been an immigrant in both the US and Ireland, I've found it interesting that in the former, the immigration system is the difficult part, whereas in Ireland, it's (almost) everything else! They just seem to have designed every single system without immigrants in mind.

The PPS and bank account can be so hard if your employer doesn't do it for you - we lucked out! I lived in the UK in the 90s and have an ancient UK driving license somewhere, but haven't bothered trying to get an Irish one yet; haven't driven in a decade, so no rush for me. City privilege!

I haven't bothered trying to get an Irish licence either! But my husband is working on getting his, and it's been a massive pain. And, we eventually figured out his employer could get us a letter to help us get the bank acct. I don't know what people do who don't work for a fancy tech company.

PPS number was funny. You can only get one if you need one for certain purposes (such as employment), but for some reason *paying taxes* isn't listed as one of them. I had the most bizarre phone call with intreo where I tried to explain that I was self employed but would still need a PPS...

Thanks for posting. When I’ve interacted with visa/ work permit systems abroad (mainly US and Germany), I got a different perspective on those countries than their respective citizenry have. Similarly at home, I have no idea of the ins and outs or anomalies of our own visa/ work permit system.

Yeah, it's understandable that most people have no idea how it works in their home country unless they have a friend/relative in the system...leads to so many myths! Was straight-up told I got a 'free house from the gov't' which was news to me...

Someone's been spending too much time on the far-right part of Irish Facebook!

Hopefully, it’s a small part! That said, interviewed for jobs at FB a few times and it was such a weird scene, even by Silicon Valley standards, so nothing would be a surprise…

I know! I’ve a lot of sympathy having gone through it elsewhere. But we’re glad to have you 😁☘️

Bloody hell. Maybe you just haven't found the right government department to get your free house yet, much like that person hasn't found the sense they were born with.

Haha, right?

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