Ireland wants to raise the citizenship residence period from 5 to 8 years: who is affected and what to do now

In brief

• Irish citizenship now requires 5 years of lawful residence: 1 continuous year before applying and 4 more years within the 8 years before that.
• Under the General Scheme the period rises to 8 years: 2 continuous years and 6 years within the 10 years before them. For spouses of Irish citizens it rises from 3 to 5 years, and the marriage must also have lasted at least 5 years.
• A language test, a civics test and an income requirement will be added. Time under temporary protection will not count towards residence.
• This is not law. The scheme was approved on 9 September 2026 and awaits pre-legislative scrutiny by a parliamentary committee. The Bill has not been introduced in parliament.
• According to the notes to the scheme, the new rules on counting residence do not apply to applications made before the law comes into force. The scheme gives no separate protection to those living in Ireland who have not yet applied.

Two years in a row and six out of ten: how the new period is counted

The current rule is in section 15 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956. An applicant must have lived in the State for 1 year without a break immediately before the date of application and for a further 4 years within the 8 years before that year. That is 5 years in total, gathered within a 9-year window. Short trips are allowed: during the year of continuous residence you may be absent for up to 70 days, and in exceptional circumstances the Minister may allow up to 30 more.

The General Scheme replaces this formula. The continuous period before applying rises from 1 year to 2, and the remaining residence from 4 years to 6, now counted within a 10-year window. That is 8 years in total within a 12-year window. For spouses and civil partners of Irish citizens the scheme raises the required length of the marriage from 3 to 5 years and the residence to 2 continuous years plus 3 of the previous 5.

The period is not the only change. The Minister will be able to set a test in English, Irish or Irish Sign Language and a test on Irish society, government and politics. There will be an income requirement: the minimum level will be set by separate regulations, taking into account statistics on earnings and the cost of living. Applicants must not receive prescribed welfare payments or housing supports when they apply or during the 2 years before. The exception is no more than 6 months of such payments within those 2 years. Debts to Revenue or social welfare and unpaid court fines will close the route to citizenship.

Below I compare the current rules with the scheme point by point. The top two rows matter most: they decide when you are entitled to apply.

What this means for you. If the scheme is adopted as it stands, a person with 5 years of residence will have to stay another 3 years. The language, civics and income requirements will add preparation and tests on top of that.

It is not law yet. Where the text stands

The debate often speaks of an "amendment", which gives the impression that the new rules are about to apply. In fact the text has taken only the first step. On 9 September 2026 the Government approved priority drafting, and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration published the General Scheme. A General Scheme is a list of future sections with explanatory notes. Government drafters then use it to write the Bill itself.

The next step, according to the Department, is pre-legislative scrutiny by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice. The committee may invite experts, review submissions and recommend changes. As of 20 October 2026 no hearing date has been announced. I checked the official list of Bills before parliament: there is no citizenship Bill on it yet. The subject has nonetheless been debated in both Houses: statements on naturalisation and migration were taken in the Seanad on 24 September and in the Dáil on 30 September.

Under the scheme the law will apply from the day the Minister appoints by order, and different sections may start on different days. The Department calls the Bill a priority, but scheduling debates and votes is a matter for parliament. Naming today the exact month from which 8 years will apply would be guesswork.

What this means for you. Until the text is adopted and in force, all applications are assessed under the 5-year rules. Your task is to file a complete application while those rules still apply.

Who will be hit hardest

Hardest hit will be those who have lived in Ireland for 3 to 5 years and planned to apply within the next year or two. For them the difference is not just three years but family plans: renewing work permissions, choosing schools, buying a home. These are the people the protest campaign speaks for: its supporters want the five-year rule kept for those already living in the country.

The second group is spouses of Irish citizens. Today 3 years of marriage and 3 years of residence are enough. The scheme raises both to 5 years. In its notes the Department links this directly to deterring marriages of convenience, but the rule will apply to all spouses, including those married for years who moved recently.

The third group is people living in Ireland under temporary protection. The scheme excludes this time from residence for naturalisation. Many of them are Ukrainian nationals who arrived from 2022. Under the current Act years under temporary protection count as lawful residence; under the scheme this route closes. Years spent on a student permission do not count now either, and the scheme does not change that.

The reform will not affect those who obtain Irish citizenship by descent, through parents or grandparents. The scheme changes the conditions for naturalisation by residence, not citizenship by birth. EU citizens also live in Ireland without permissions, but they too will need the new period to naturalise.

What to do if you are less than a year from five years

If your residence is approaching 5 years, I advise preparing your application now rather than waiting for the outcome in parliament. The notes to the scheme say that the changes to counting residence do not apply to applications made before the law comes into force. That is the most reliable protection the text offers. There is no separate transitional rule for the new 8-year period, and you cannot count on a generous transition before the Bill text appears.

1. Calculate your residence from dates, not from memory. Take every residence permission with its start and end dates and every trip abroad over recent years. In the final year before applying, absences must not exceed 70 days.
2. Check for gaps between permissions. A day without valid permission is a day without residence. If your permission expires soon, renew it early: the scheme requires lawful residence for the whole time the application is being decided. Renewal is described on the page on residence permit renewal.
3. Leave out years spent on a student permission. They do not count now or under the scheme.
4. Gather proof of residence year by year: tax documents, leases, bank statements, letters from employers. An incomplete application risks being returned, and the time will be lost.
5. Check for debts to Revenue or social welfare and unpaid fines. Under the scheme they become a direct ground for refusal, so settle them before applying.
6. File a complete application as soon as you have the residence. Applying "just in case" before 5 years will not help: an application without the required residence does not meet the conditions of the Act.

If you are more than a year short of 5 years, applying before the law passes is probably not possible. In that case I advise preparing early for the language and civics tests and keeping your income documents in order. These requirements will come whatever number of years ends up in the law.

What this means for you. What protects you is not residence as such but a submitted application. Five years of residence without an application on the day the law comes into force, judging by the scheme, guarantees nothing.

When there is no need to rush

In some situations the news changes almost nothing. If you have less than 2-3 years of residence, you cannot apply before the law is likely to pass anyway. Hurrying is pointless; it is more useful to collect proof of residence and income calmly and prepare for the language test.

There is also no need to rush if you want Irish citizenship mainly for the freedom to live and work in Europe. Permanent residence or a residence permit in another EU country may solve that faster. An overview of options is on the page on residence abroad, and programmes that grant citizenship without years of waiting are in the section on citizenship. Ireland is not the only country where the naturalisation period is debated. We covered how requirements work in other countries using the examples of Portugal and Greece.

Finally, do not file in a hurry if your set of documents is incomplete. A refusal or returned application costs time, and a second attempt may fall under the new rules. It is better to spend a month gathering documents than to risk the application.

Open questions: transition, income threshold, tests

The main open question is a transition for people already living in Ireland. The protest campaign wants the five-year rule kept for exactly this group. The General Scheme contains no such rule. Whether it appears in the Bill will become clear after committee scrutiny.

The second question is the minimum income. The scheme names no figure: it will be set by ministerial regulations taking into account earnings statistics and the cost of living. Until the regulations exist, it is impossible to judge whom this requirement will exclude. The same goes for the list of welfare payments and housing supports that will bar an application and for the language level of the test.

The third question is timing. The Department calls the Bill a priority, but parliament sets its own schedule. In support, the Government points to other countries: according to the Department, residence periods of 7 to 10 years apply in Austria, Italy, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. These comparisons are likely to be challenged in committee.

Two points are worth watching: the date of the Joint Committee on Justice hearing on the scheme and the publication of the Bill text. Only the text will show whether 8 years has been kept and whether there is protection for people already living in Ireland.

How this piece was prepared

This piece is based on the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration press release of 9 September 2026 on approval for priority drafting and on the published General Scheme of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2026. The current rules were checked against the revised Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act 1956 (sections 15, 15A, 15C and 16A) as maintained by the Law Reform Commission, up to date as of 6 October 2026. The absence of the Bill from parliament and the debates of 24 and 30 September 2026 were checked against official Oireachtas data on 20 October 2026. Details of the 18 October 2026 protest come from the campaign organisers' announcement. The Bill may change. This is not legal advice on your situation.