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The Morning Lead
Stress, anxiety and life being put on hold: Readers on the incoming citizenship reforms
In September, the government announced the biggest shake up to citizenship rules in decades.
EARLIER THIS MONTH, we asked you, our readers, to let us know whether the incoming changes to citizenship rules will affect you.
We received a huge number of responses.
People wrote to us about their plans for their future, their love of Ireland and their desire to build their lives here.
Many people said all of this has been thrown into uncertainty since the new legislation was announced by Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan.
The majority of people who contacted us had no issue with the language and civics tests that are set to be introduced — a lot of people argued that these are important for integration and even overdue.
But across many of the emails we got, the same issues were repeatedly raised: stress, anxiety and a feeling that the rug has been pulled from underneath people as a result of the period of reckonable residency being increased from five to eight years.
With thanks to everyone who reached out to us, here is what you had to say.
Exemptions for people already here
Across all the emails we received, the same argument was made repeatedly: A transition period to the eight-year rule should be introduced for people already living here.
Manu Gosal (40) moved to Ireland from India to study, and built his career via the skilled employment permit system. Before moving to Ireland, he studied for and passed an English language exam. He now lives in Cork.
Under the current rules, he expects to become eligible to apply for Irish citizenship in June 2027.
“When I came to Ireland and started building my life and career here, I did so based on the rules that were in place,” he wrote.
“I want to make clear that I do not have an issue with reasonable integration requirements.
“I believe that whatever rules the State decides to introduce for the future, people who came here and have already built their lives under the existing system should be treated fairly.
“In my view, transitional arrangements for existing legal residents would be a reasonable way of recognising that,” he said, arguing that the rule change creates unfair uncertainty for people who have already spent years living in Ireland.
Similarly, Alex from Belarus has lived in Dublin for the last four years and works for a global tech firm.
“When I moved here, the pathway was clear…I have built my life around that framework and, under the current rules, expect to become eligible to apply in October 2027,” she wrote.
Like Manu, she said she has no objection to demonstrating English proficiency, knowledge of Irish society, good character, integration or economic self-sufficiency.
She said what she finds “troubling” is the prospect of requiring three extra years of reckonable residency.
“For me, those additional three years are not simply an inconvenience or a longer wait for an Irish passport.
“They could have immediate consequences for my ability to work and travel.”
She explained that since 2023, Belarusian citizens living abroad have generally had to return to Belarus to renew an expired passport.
“For people in my circumstances, returning is not a straightforward or secure option,” she said.
Alex said she travels a lot for her job and is running out of pages in her current passport for more visas, which creates what she described as a “very real problem” for her.
“How am I supposed to maintain the travel documents necessary to do my job during those additional years when I cannot simply renew my passport at my country’s embassy?
“I did not come to Ireland expecting special treatment or immediate citizenship. I came through a government-designed route intended to attract skilled workers. I have worked, paid taxes and built my life here under the rules Ireland established,” she said.
Alex said the uncertainty has changed how secure she feels about her future in Ireland.
Another reader, who moved to Ireland from Ukraine in 2022, made the same point.
They wrote: “Ireland can change the rules for people deciding whether to come here. I cannot go back to 2022 and make my decision again.
“I still want to grow older in this country. I’d like to be able to plan for that with the confidence I had when I arrived.”
Concern for teenage children
Another issue that was raised again and again in the stories we received from readers was fears for teenage children.
Many of the parents who wrote to us questioned what the extension to the five-year rule will mean for teenagers who will turn 18 before the eight years are up.
Ivan Tuzhilkin, who moved to Ireland from Russia and now lives in Dublin 18 with his family, wrote to us about his fears for his teenage daughter.
“I came to Ireland on a Critical Skills permit. We chose this country over others we could have gone to. I have about ten months left on the present five-year path. I would sit a language test and a civics test tomorrow. That is not what this is about,” he wrote.
Tuzhilkin made the point that under the new eight-year rule his daughter would be 18 before the family can apply for citizenship and would have to apply on her own as a young adult.
“She is 14. She sounds Irish. Her friends are Irish. She has no Irish Residence Permit and no visa. At an airport she is the teenager who has to explain why she has no residence permit.
“Stretching my clock does not make her more integrated. It keeps her without papers through the Leaving Certificate and then treats her as a separate applicant.”
Tuzhilkin said he does not want to see the civics and language tests dropped, but he wants to see the “finishing line left where it was for people already most of the way there”.
“And I want a child who grew up in an Irish school not to age out of a family application because the adult number changed,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by numerous parents.
Speaking about her 14-year-old son, 39-year-old Yue from China, who lives in Dublin, wrote: “As a mother, I want him to feel secure and to know that he belongs in the country where he is growing up.”
Another reader in a similar position suggested that there should be specific protection for children who turn 18 during the additional three-year waiting period, including recognition of qualifying childhood residence and parental financial support.
Meanwhile, readers from countries with mandatory military service were also particularly concerned for their teenage boys.
One reader, who did not want her name published, told us how she moved to Ireland from Russia in 2023 with her wife and son, who is now 19 years of age and due to start university.
She made the point that for her family, returning to Russia is not safe or realistic.
“Our son is now at an age when military service becomes a serious concern, and being a queer family in Russia is increasingly unsafe,” she wrote.
“We are not asking for citizenship without requirements…People who have already been living legally in Ireland for years, following the rules and building their lives here, should not suddenly find the conditions changed around them,” she said.
Marriage, Civil Partnership and sick relatives
Many of those who emailed us were concerned about something happening to a loved one or a family member in their home country and not being able to return to care for them without breaching the continuous residency requirement.
Adam (41) is from Australia and lives in Dublin 8 with his Irish husband.
“My family is still in Australia. If a family emergency happens and I have to go back for an extended period to support a sick parent or sibling, under the strict continuous residence rules I would risk breaking my residency and having to apply again when returning,” he said.
He explained that he and his husband will also be negatively impacted by the provision in the draft bill to increase the length of time that a person seeking citizenship must be married or in a civil partnership with an Irish citizen from three to five years.
“For same-sex couples, this detail is particularly frustrating. Marriage simply wasn’t legally available to us for most of our years together. While Australia and Ireland have since passed marriage equality, many countries still haven’t.
“Marriage equality still doesn’t exist in many parts of the world, meaning many partners literally cannot legally marry until they arrive in a country like Ireland.
“We legally registered our relationship in Australia in 2018, but because Ireland stopped recognising new foreign civil partnerships after passing marriage equality, that certificate isn’t recognised here. We got married in July 2024, so increasing the marriage requirement to five years adds a significant delay to my timeline,” he wrote.
Stress and anxiety
Some people who took the time to share their experiences with us said the bureaucracy and admin that comes along with each extra year before citizenship is granted takes a toll on a person’s mental health.
Anton Tur (41) from Russia and living in Dublin wrote:
“The consequences for me are not particularly dramatic. I will carry on working, paying my rent and living much as I do now. I will simply have to wait longer. And yet it is remarkably annoying.”
He said when he first moved to Ireland, he was surprised how often people spoke about mental health.
“Eventually I came to see it as something admirable. Ireland seems to pay more attention to the less visible parts of human welfare: not only whether people are safe and employed, but how it feels to live their lives,” he said.
“Residency in Ireland does not impose many serious restrictions on my everyday life. But it does demand attention.
“There is a residence permit to renew. Documents to collect. Immigration rules to check. Visas to apply for when travelling to Europe. Updated documents to upload to the bank. Applications to monitor. Expiry dates to remember.
“None of these things is terrible. But each occupies a small corner of the mind.
“The result is a kind of chronic micro-stress: never serious enough to become a crisis, but persistent enough to consume attention,” Tur said.
He added that “project-managing your own immigration status” is essentially a second job and that the additional three-year wait will have an impact on a person’s “peace of mind”.
“What was supposed to be a path to citizenship can turn into a cycle that keeps resetting itself,” he wrote.
“I can wait eight years. I would simply prefer to spend more of them contributing, rather than waiting.”
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