The Minister for Justice, Heather Humphreys TD, and the Minister of State for Law Reform, Youth Justice and Immigration, James Browne TD, have today announced that two new categories have been added to the priority/emergency list of visas being processed at this time.
Visa applications will now be accepted from people who are seeking to join their family members in Ireland, and from those who are travelling for essential business or employment purposes and have been issued with an employment permit by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The decision to temporarily cease accepting new visa/preclearance applications, with the exception of priority or emergency applications, applies to all countries and has been in place since 29 January 2021. No short stay visa applications are currently being accepted, except for cases that fall under the Emergency/Priority criteria.
All travellers arriving into Ireland must continue to comply fully with the public health measures required by law, including completing a COVID-19 Passenger Locator Form, pre-arrival PCR test and quarantine in a designated facility or at home, as appropriate. The situation will continue to be reviewed in consultation with the relevant authorities in the coming weeks
Announcing the changes, Minister Humphreys said,“Throughout the pandemic, measures on travel taken by the Government have sought to balance the urgent need to protect public health with the need to facilitate essential travel and to sustain connectivity into and out of Ireland. We remain fully supportive of the general policy against non-essential travel.“
Minister Browne said,“Expanding the priority categories to include people granted employment permits by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment gives a key signal to employers that Ireland remains open for business.“