COVID-19 Visa Arrangements

*** To avoid any difficulties, applicants are strongly advised to please read the Irish Government’s Covid-19 travel advice at this link before planning their journey to Ireland. This advice is updated regularly and changes can be made at very short notice. ***

As of 20 May 2021, the Irish Visa Office can confirm that the following visa categories have been added to the list of Priority/Emergency cases and we will resume processing these categories immediately:

1. Long-stay Join Family Members including:

• All Long Stay D Visa join family applications (including third country national family members of Irish nationals and persons exercising free movement under the EU Directive), and

• Preclearance applications for: De Facto Partner of an Irish National; De Facto Partner of a Critical Skills Employment Permit Holder, or of a non EEA Researcher on a Hosting Agreement and Non EEA Family members looking to join a UK National in Ireland.

1. People travelling for employment purposes who have been granted an employment permit by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment.

In addition to the above, the Priority/Emergency cases that will continue to be accepted/processed by the Irish Visa Office include the following: 

• Workers or self-employed persons exercising critical occupations including: healthcare workers, frontier and posted workers as well as seasonal workers as referred to in the Guidelines concerning the exercise of the free movement of workers during the COVID-19 outbreak.

• Patients travelling for imperative medical reasons;
• Transport workers or transport service providers, including drivers of freight vehicles carrying goods for use in the territory as well as those merely transiting;
• Pupils, students and trainees who travel abroad on a daily basis and third-country nationals travelling for the purpose of 3rd level study;
• Join Family applications;
• Persons travelling for imperative family* or business reasons;
• Persons entitled to avail of the provision of the EU Free Movement Directive;
• Diplomats, staff of international organizations and people invited by international organizations whose physical presence is required for the well-functioning of these organizations, military personnel and police officers, and humanitarian aid workers and civil protection personnel in the exercise of their functions;
• Passengers in transit;
• Seafarers;
• Journalists, when performing their duties.

It remains the position that we are not accepting any short-stay visa applications, except for cases that fall under the Emergency/Priority criteria set out above. The suspension of short stay and English Language Study applications will continue to be reviewed in consultation with the relevant authorities in the coming weeks. 

* Please note that applicants seeking to travel for imperative family reasons are assessed on an individual basis and are largely confined to emergency cases that may arise in a family situation. This does not include the following: missing a loved one; wanting to attend a birth; or wanting to attend a wedding or a milestone birthday. Please note that this list of examples is not exhaustive and whether your application meets the criteria or not is determined by examining the circumstances and supporting documentation of each case on an individual basis. 

If you believe your application falls under one of these categories, please contact irishvisabeijing@dfanet.ie so that we can guide you through the application process and advise you how best to submit your documentation.

Important: What you must do before you arrive into Ireland from abroad. 

Please note that all passengers arriving into Ireland from designated states after 4am on the morning of Friday 26 March 2021 are now required to pre-book accommodation in a designated quarantine facility, and to pre-pay for their stay. Further information can be found here.

All passengers arriving into Ireland must: 

• Complete a COVID-19 Passenger Locator Form- http://www.gov.ie/locatorform/  
• 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 - https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/b4020-travelling-to-ireland-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/#requirement-for-a-pre-departure-covid-19-rt-pcr-test 
• 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  
• It is an offence not to comply with the above mentioned requirements, and it is punishable by a fine not exceeding €2,500 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or both - gov.ie - COVID-19 Travel Advice (www.gov.ie) 
  

Further information 

A 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) document about the impact of COVID-19 on Immigration and International Protection in Ireland has also been published and can be found here. 

For the most up to date information on the coronavirus in Ireland, please visit https://www.gov.ie/en/campaigns/75d92-covid-19-travel-advice/ 

For our customers based in China, please visit https://www.vfsglobal.cn/ireland/china/ for further updates. 

For our customers based in Mongolia, please visit:  https://www.vfsglobal.com/ireland/mongolia/ for further updates.