IBC parents told to apply for kids’ citizenship
The Department of Justice has advised naturalised parents of children born in Ireland without an automatic right to citizenship to apply for their naturalisation.
The statement from the department follows the revelation that some new Irish citizens – who had children after the State stopped granting automatic citizenship to those born in Ireland – have been applying for Irish passports for their children even though they are not citizens.
So far the Passport Office has refused such applications. In one particular case, the Passport Office told a naturalised father of a child born here in 2007 that the passport application “cannot be accepted”.
In response, the department said: “Children born in 2007 are automatically Irish citizens if one of their parents has reckonable residency (ie with a permission from the Minister [for Justice] that was not for study purposes or not while having asylum claims decided) for three out of the previous four years. Many parents in the IBC scheme may fail to comply in this regard.”
The statement added that such parents “must apply for naturalisation for their children if the children were not automatically citizens at birth. The relevant forms are on the citizenship website.”
When contacted, the Passport Office echoed the same views, adding that this has been the case since 1 January 2005 when the Irish Born Child Scheme (IBC/05) was implemented.
