COVID-19 Update
Please see here for important update from the Embassy Ottawa Passport Office.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ANYONE INTENDING TO TRAVEL TO IRELAND
The Minister for Health, based on advice from the Expert Advisory Group on Travel has signalled his intention to designate an additional 16 countries as Category 2 due to concerns relating to the presence of Variants of Concern or high 14 day incidence rates.
Canada is one of the 16 countries that has been designated as Category 2.
Passengers arriving from or via Category 2 countries and territories are legally required to quarantine at a designated facility.
This includes passengers who have been in a Category 2 country anytime in the last 14 days and any person who has travelled through an airport or port in a category 2 country, even if they remained airside.
The period of quarantine at the facility may be reduced if a passenger receives a not-detected result of a COVID-19 test that is taken after ten days. It may also be extended if a passenger tests positive during their stay.
Intending passengers are required to pre-book a place in a designated facility prior to travel, failure to provide proof of a pre-booking will result in denial of boarding on flights and ferries to Ireland.
The booking website can be found here.
For more information, see here.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR PASSPORT APPLICANTS
On 29 April, 2021, Passport Online expanded its services and is now open to all applicants of all ages resident in Canada. This means, in addition to renewals, first time applicants can apply for their first Irish passport online. As such, the Embassy will no longer be accepting paper applications from Canadian residents. Paper applications received on or after 3 May, 2021 will be returned to applicants as they will be able to apply online. To begin your application, please see: passportonline.dfa.ie. First time applicants should click 'No' in response to the question 'My most recent passport was issued less than 15 years ago.’
We will continue to accept paper application re-submissions that were returned due to missing documentation. If you submitted a paper application, please do not use the online service as your payment has been taken and your application will be processed in time.
Processing of existing paper passport applications submitted to us will not resume in Ireland until Level 3 of the COVID response framework. Unfortunately, the Embassy cannot currently provide an estimated time for passport processing. This will depend on the pace of re-opening in Ireland. All paper applications submitted to us with documentation are held securely at our offices but production of passports from paper applications will not resume until restrictions are moved to Level 3. Your documents will continue to be held securely at the Embassy. Upon return to Level 3 or lower, applications will be dealt with in the order they were received. Please note that paper applications submitted to the Embassy will not appear in the Passport Service's tracking system until they are picked up for processing once restrictions are moved to Level 3.
Online passport processing has now resumed. The Passport Service is continuing to processing Passport Online applications and aims to clear all of the current online applications within 6-8 weeks.
We will no longer be sending out paper application forms, as it will be faster to use the Passport Online system. If you currently have a paper application form and have not sent it to us, please use the online service. For more information please see: www.dfa.ie/passportonline.
Passport Online is a faster and simpler way to apply for your passport. Once you upload a photograph, it takes about 10 minutes to complete the online application form and pay with a credit card. If you are an adult renewing your passport with the same information, you normally won’t need to submit any supporting documents. If you are a first time applicant, renewing for a child or changing the information on your passport, Passport Online will e-mail you a list of documents which you need to submit directly to the Passport Service in Ireland. When your passport is printed, it will be posted back to you directly.
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR VISA APPLICANTS
As part of a wide range of travel measures announced on 26 January 2021, and in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, visa-free travel to Ireland for nationals of South Africa and all countries in South America was temporarily suspended. Nationals of these countries are currently required to be in possession of an entry visa or transit visa, as appropriate, for travel to Ireland, regardless of where they reside, or the purpose of their travel to Ireland.
In addition, the Department of Justice has temporarily ceased accepting new visa/ preclearance applications globally, with the exception of certain priority and emergency cases.
The Government Advisory against all non-essential international travel remains in operation. Travel restrictions are in place to protect public health and to mitigate the risk of new variants of COVID-19 entering the country. Details of these measures are available on the travel section of the www.gov.ie website. The strong advice is that everyone, regardless of their nationality or visa/preclearance status, or where they started from, who cannot provide proof of essential travel, should not travel to Ireland.
If your travel meets the strict criteria for essential travel, you may, in certain very limited circumstances, apply for an Irish visa. For further information on the priority and emergency criteria, please see the website of Immigration Service Delivery.
If your application meets the priority/emergency criteria, please contact the Embassy or Consulate directly, so that you can be guided through the application process, and advised on how to submit your documentation. We would draw your attention to the fact that COVID-19 restrictions are severely affecting visa processing times. Priority and emergency applications may take 4-6 weeks to be processed. Once a decision has been made on your application, you will be contacted directly. In order to ensure that resources can be used to best effect, we ask that you do not contact the Embassy to seek updates on your application.
Please note, all passengers arriving in Ireland must:
- complete a COVID-19 Passenger Locator Form
- provide evidence that you have a negative or ‘not detected’ result from a COVID-19 Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test carried out no more than 72 hours before you arrive into Ireland, or have evidence that you are exempt from this legal requirement
If you are travelling from or via a designated state then you must also pre-book and pre-pay for a place in a designated facility for mandatory hotel quarantine.
Further information is available on the travel section of the www.gov.ie website.
