A person with a grandparent who was born in Ireland can apply for Irish citizenship by descent by applying to have their birth registered in the Register of Foreign Births at their nearest Irish diplomatic or consular mission. Once your birth has been registered in the Register of Foreign births you will be provided with a certificate of confirmation. This certificate can be used as proof of Irish citizenship when applying for an Irish passport..
Irish Citizenship: Application Requirements
In order to start your application for Irish citizenship you will require proof that one of your grandparents was born in Ireland. Usually this will be a full form birth certificate.
If you find that you are unable to obtain certain documentation for your Irish born grandparent it may still be possible to make a case for Irish Foreign Birth Registration using other supporting documentation, such as birth certificates for siblings, census returns and emigration records. Our team at Timeline have helped make successful cases for applicants who could not locate a birth or baptismal record for their Irish born grandparent. However, we cannot guarantee that, in the absence of the required documentation, your application will be successful. Irish Foreign Birth Registration is granted at the discretion of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
If your Irish born grandparent’s birth was not registered with the civil authorities, it is necessary to have their birth registered as a late registration. In order to have the birth registered as a late registration you will require a baptismal certificate for the child, preferably showing the date of birth as well as baptism of the child and the names of the parents. You will also require a civil marriage certificate or church marriage record and death records for the parents. If the parents of the child died outside of Ireland, you will require their full form death certificates from the country in which they died. Once you have obtained this documentation, you can contact the General Register Office in Roscommon for the application form CRA 12(L) for late registration of births and you can continue with your application for Irish Foreign Birth Registration.
A list of all of the required documentation for your application can be found on the ‘Supporting Documents’ section of the website of the Department of Foreign Affairs
Irish Citizenship: Supporting Documentation
On the same website you can start the application process online, but make sure you have already gathered all of the relevant supporting documentation before you start the online application process.
Generally, the supporting documentation will be your own birth and marriage certificate. The birth, marriage and death (if applicable) certificates of your parent and the birth, marriage and death (if applicable) certificates of your Irish born grandparent.
Timeline offer a fast and efficient service for locating the relevant documents that you will require for your Irish citizenship application. Please contact us for a quote. When contacting us, please provide as much information as you can about your Irish born grandparent and your parent.