If you have ever helped someone move to Ireland for work, you know the process has two doors, not one. First you deal with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment (DETE) for an employment permit, and then, separately, with the Department of Justice for your immigration permission or entry visa. Two applications, two sets of paperwork, two timelines. The Government has agreed to change that.
What was agreed
In December 2022, the Government agreed in principle to develop a single application procedure that combines the employment permit and the immigration permission into one process. The commitment was set out in parallel announcements from the Department of Enterprise and the Department of Justice.
To turn the idea into a plan, the Government established an Inter Departmental Working Group and asked it to bring forward an implementation plan within six months. The group worked through the operational, policy and legal questions and proposed the timeframes.
Why it matters
Today the two systems run at very different speeds. At the time of the announcement, the Department of Justice noted that employment and study visas were taking an average of eight weeks, while the Department of Enterprise was issuing employment permits in three to five business days. When two approvals from two bodies have to line up, the slower one sets the pace, and applicants carry the cost of the duplication.
A single procedure aims to remove that friction: one application, assessed once, for both the right to work and the right to reside.
The ministers behind it
The reform had cross-government backing. The then Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Leo Varadkar, said the work would let the Government consider opting in to the EU single permit system at a future date. The then Minister for Justice, Heather Humphreys, called it a very good reform and pointed to the savings possible through digitalisation and centralisation. Minister Damien English framed it as a more user-friendly, single-application system that would strengthen Ireland's attractiveness for investment.
The European backdrop
Ireland is not moving in isolation. In April 2022 the European Commission proposed a recast Single Permit Directive, which lets a non-EEA national apply for the right to live and work in a member state through one combined procedure. It forms part of the wider package that followed the EU's New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Because Ireland has an opt-in arrangement for these justice and home-affairs measures, building a domestic single procedure keeps the option of opting in firmly on the table.
Who was at the table
This is a genuinely cross-departmental reform, which is why the working group was broad. It brought together the Department of Justice, the Department of Enterprise, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Housing, the Department of Further and Higher Education, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of the Taoiseach and An Garda Síochána, whose immigration officers handle registration around the country.
What it means for you right now
The important thing to be clear about: until the single procedure is built and commenced, the two-step process still applies. If you are applying this year, you still secure your employment permit from DETE first, then arrange your visa where required and register your immigration permission for your IRP once you arrive. We explain that current journey step by step in our companion piece on how Ireland's two-step system works today.
Our take
We welcome this reform. The two-door system is one of the most common sources of confusion and delay for the people we work with, and a single, well-designed application would take real friction out of moving to Ireland. The honest caveat is timing: a reform agreed in principle still has to be designed, legislated and built, so we plan every current case around the system that exists today while keeping an eye on the one that is coming. If you are unsure which approvals your move needs, that is exactly the kind of question we are here to answer.