Madam, – Comments made by a Department of Justice spokeswoman about the current policy in relation to granting residency permission to non-EEA nationals in de facto relationships, as reported (Home News, August 10th), require clarification.
According to the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service’s (INIS) current policy, as outlined on its website, non-EEA nationals who wish to remain in Ireland in a de facto relationship (including a same sex de facto relationship), must be able to provide evidence that they have been a couple for at least four years. However, this applies in situations where both people in the relationship are citizens of a country outside the EEA.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland would like to draw attention to the fact that, as stated on the INIS website, if a non-EEA national is the partner of an Irish or EU citizen, the couple are required to demonstrate just two years of relationship history as part of their application for residency.
We would be concerned if this omission were to cause certain people who have been in a de facto partnership for two years to believe they weren’t eligible to apply to live here on the basis of their relationship.
On a related note, we would encourage INIS to clarify on its website that the current administrative arrangements in regard to de facto relationships includes same sex couples. This is currently not stated and the ICI has received many queries from people in such circumstances who, upon reading the guidelines set out on the INIS website, feel they do not qualify.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland believes the Civil Partnerships Bill lacks clarity in relation to the ability of same sex couples, where one partner is a non-EEA citizen, to live together as a family in this country. Putting INIS’s current policy on a statutory footing would help overcome one failing of the Bill in this regard. – Yours, etc,