21% increase in non-EEA nationals legally living in Ireland

Ireland is attractive to migrants who want to work, study or settle, because of our growing economy and positive international reputation.

The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan TD, published ‘Immigration in Ireland: Annual Review 2017′  and according to the report..

• 21% increase in the number of non-EEA nationals legally living in Ireland over the last three years for work, study or family reasons.
• 41% increase in visa applications since 2012, with a continuing growth in tourists from key emerging markets of India and China
• 3,500 became new Irish citizens from over 120 countries during May citizenship ceremony.

The current top 10 registered nationalities for work, study or family reasons, which account for over 50% of all people registered are Brazil (14.6%), India (13.5%), China (9%), USA (7.4%), Pakistan (5.7%), Nigeria (4.2%), Philippines (3.6%), Malaysia (2.7%), Canada (2.6%), and South Africa (2.5%).

The Minister emphasised the continuing growth in the number of people coming to Ireland to visit, to work and to study:

“With a strongly growing economy, and a positive international reputation, Ireland is continuing to attract record numbers of people who want to visit our country with over 125,000 visa applications received during 2017. Across the majority of visa categories, grant rates for such applications are 90%, and with direct flights from China to Ireland coming on-stream during 2018 we can expect to see continuing growth in visitors from markets such as China and India.

“The numbers of people legally living in Ireland to work, to study, or to settle here with their families have also continued to grow strongly as our economy recovers. There are now almost 128,000 people from outside the EEA who are legally living in Ireland – these are students and workers from Brazil, from India, from China, from the USA, and from many, many other countries. They are supporting the continuing economic growth of our nation, and the diversity which they add to Irish society is hugely important.

“This important publication sets out many other statistics and updates on immigration in Ireland which deserve attention – from the 8,199 new Irish citizens in 2017 to the 14.8m passengers who arrived at Dublin airport.

The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service plans to process over 250,000 immigration applications during 2018, with continuing improvements to services and technology to deliver better customer experiences, while maintaining a safe and secure immigration system.”

New Irish Citizens

Ministers Flanagan and Stanton congratulate 3,500 new Irish citizens from over 120 countries, across three citizenship ceremonies held on 21 May 2018

The total number of citizens to have received their Certificates of Naturalisation to over 86,000 across 131 ceremonies since Citizenship Ceremonies were first introduced in 2011. If minors are included, who are not required to attend a ceremony, the total granted Irish citizenship since 2011 is over 119,000 people from 181 different countries.

Since 2011, decisions have been made in over 110,000 citizenship applications. The processing time for most standard applications has been reduced from 31 months in 2011 to less than 6 months, despite a significant increase in valid application volumes over the same period.

Top 10 nationalities for today’s Citizenship Ceremonies:

Irish Golden visa

Ireland offers a immigrant investor scheme attracting high net worth families and investors. The investment minimums are €500,000 (donation) or €500,000 Government bonds (investment returned back after 5 years). Irish citizenship can be obtained after five years of living in Ireland.

Source: inis.gov.ie