h

I would appreciate any input from an American who moved from the US to Dublin.<BR>I travel often and have never fallen in love with a city as I did with Dublin.

Siobhan

H, I have been living in Dublin for the past 8 years and still love it. I am lucky enought to have Irish born parents so I have Irish and U.S. Citizenship. Unfortunately if you do not have an EU passport or at least 1 grandparent of Irish decent you will not be eligible for Irish citizenship (I am not sure if they stopped doing this?)<BR><BR>If you are coming over to work and do not meet the above criteria then you need to obtain a work permit. The economy is really slowing down and work is not as easy to find as a year ago and the salaries much lower than the U.S. as we pay higher taxes. If you are involved in Technology, Nursing etc this would help your chances or working for an American company that could transfer you like Microsoft/HP/Intel.<BR><BR>Lastly, you can work jobs under the table but you will not make a good salary and you will have to be careful when entering end leaving Ireland if you overstay your visa. SAying that I know people who have done this and got on well. Personally it is far to risky for my tastes. Overall it depends on you profession, age etc. What do you do? I will ask around from some friends in different companies and get a feel.<BR><BR>Definately have a plan a,b &amp; C whenyou come over if things work out differently than you expected. I did this and ended up changing my work, where I lived and found different ways to make extra money.<BR><BR><BR><BR>

StCirq

The possibility of obtaining Irish citizenship through the Foreign Births Registry ends on November 29 of this year, so anyone wishing to take advantage of the opportunity needs to get the (voluminous) paperwork completed and delivered quickly.

Ann

Well, it's not exactly ending, but they are making it much more difficult after Nov. 29.

Simon

Here are the rules taking effect soon (in effect 30 Nov, 2002) -<BR><BR>http://www.irelandemb.org/press/185.html

Ciaran

Ability to obtain Irish citizenship via the FBR (if you've a grandparent born in Ireland, but both you and your parents were born abroad) isn't changng. What's changing is ability to acquire Irish citizenship by marrying an Irish citizen - right now, Ireland has by far the most liberal laws in the EU, allowing the spouse of an Irish citizen to obtain citizenship after a year of marriage and without ever being resident in Ireland. Law will change so that three years of marriage, and three years of residence in Ireland after the marriage, are required. Also the new law requires that the spouse who is Irish has held Irish citizenship for at least 3 years - so one can't obtain citizenship through the FBR and immediately have one's spouse apply for citizenship. This doesn't impact those who have a parent born in Ireland - in that case, one is Irish by birth, regardless of when one acquires a first Irish passport. This law is still very liberal by EU standards!<BR><BR>But H, I am assuming you don't hold any second citizenship and have no close family ties to Ireland or any EU country? If you post your occupation, perhaps we could better help with ideas about work permits?

Nic

Good Website<BR>http://www.movetoireland.com