Ireland aligns International Protection citizenship wait to five years

[github-actions]

Possible change

People granted International Protection must generally have five years of reckonable residence in the State before they can apply for citizenship (was three), from 8 December 2025.

Field	Triage result
Jurisdiction	Ireland
Impact	eligibility
Confidence	high
Primary source needed	No
Discovery tier	verification

Discovery source

ISD — Changes to citizenship for people granted International Protection

Reviewer checklist

• Locate and cite the current primary legal or government source.
• Classify this as editorial/navigation, operational guidance, or a substantive legal change.
• Confirm the effective date and any transition rules.
• Identify the exact dataset entities and fields affected.
• Add or update a regression invariant with any data correction.
• Cross-check every sentence in the public brief against the evidence below.

Verified evidence

• Primary: Immigration Service Delivery — Changes to citizenship for people granted International Protection.
• Effective 8 December 2025: people granted International Protection must generally have five years of reckonable residence before applying for Irish citizenship.
• Applications received before 8 December 2025 continue under the previous three-year rule.
• Time as an International Protection applicant is not reckonable (Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 s.16A).
• Dataset: ireland-naturalization-by-residence variant international_protection at 60 months; release 0cbe72b7f60013a6. Ordinary adult route remains 60 months.

Public brief

From 8 December 2025, people granted International Protection in Ireland generally need five years of reckonable residence before they can apply for citizenship, up from three. Applications lodged before that date continue under the old three-year rule. Time spent waiting for an International Protection decision is not reckonable.

[thomas779]

Verification (2026-09-02) — ship

Confirmed live. From 8 December 2025, people granted International Protection must generally have five years of reckonable residence before applying for Irish citizenship (was three). Applications received before that date keep the three-year rule.

Primary: ISD — Changes to citizenship for people granted International Protection

Dataset

• Added ireland-naturalization-by-residence variant international_protection at 60 months
• Ordinary adult route remains 60 months; IP preferential 3-year track ends for new filings

Public brief (draft)

Ireland aligns International Protection citizenship wait to five years

From 8 December 2025, people granted International Protection in Ireland generally need five years of reckonable residence before they can apply for citizenship, up from three. Applications lodged before that date continue under the old three-year rule. Time spent waiting for an International Protection decision is not reckonable.

Disposition

Pilot updated. Telegram when publish-approved after data promote/publish.

[github-actions]

Published to @flagpaths as message 47.

[thomas779]

Shipped in release 0cbe72b7f60013a6 and published to Telegram.