Many Americans Are Eligible…
Are all passports created equal? Nope.
The Irish passport is currently ranked #3 worldwide by passport-ranking firm Henley & Partners. That means it offers visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 189 countries and territories. Only Singapore (193), Japan (190), and South Korea (190) outrank Ireland in visa reach.
However, the Irish passport comes with a quirk that might make it even more valuable than its rivals. A quirk far more powerful than “visa reach.”
Ireland is a member of the European Union—which means Irish citizens can live and work in any of the 27 EU countries, automatically.
Want to live in Spain? Portugal? France? Greece?
If you have Irish heritage and qualify for an Irish passport—you can live in any of those countries without having to apply for any kind of visa. All you need is your Irish passport.
But wait—there’s more!
Irish citizens can also live in any EEA country—that adds Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, and the Kingdom of Norway to the list of countries you can live in visa-free.
But wait—there’s even more!
Because of the complicated—often difficult—history between the islands of Britain and Ireland (Britain, of course, occupied and ruled Ireland for hundreds of years before the Irish won independence), a so-called “common travel area” exists now between the islands.
That means that holders of British passports have the right to live and work automatically in Ireland, and vice versa. So, your Republic of Ireland passport also gives you automatic access to all four nations in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). In effect, Irish citizens are the only EU citizens that still have an automatic right to live in the UK, since the UK left the EU in 2016.
Add it all up… and your Irish passport gives you the right to live, work, or retire in a total of 34 nations across all of Europe!
Ireland also allows full dual citizenship, meaning you can retain your current nationality while reaping all the benefits of being Irish. That’s a rare combo among top-tier passports. All the countries above Ireland on the passport mobility list forbid dual citizenship.
And the best news is, if you have Irish heritage (which more than 30 million Americans do)—getting an Irish passport can be easy.
Easy Citizenship
Ireland has one of the most generous and easy-to-navigate ancestral citizenship systems in the world. If you can prove you have an Irish-born parent or grandparent, you’re eligible for citizenship—and a passport—without relocating to the country.
This has historically proved attractive to North Americans with Irish ancestors. It’s important to understand, however, how the process works. If…
- One of Your Parents Was Born in Ireland: You are automatically an Irish citizen at birth, even if born outside Ireland. There is no need to register. You can simply apply for an Irish passport with proof of your parent’s birth in Ireland.
- One of Your Grandparents Was Born in Ireland: You are eligible to claim Irish citizenship by registering yourself in the Foreign Births Register (FBR). Once registered, you can apply for an Irish passport.
- Your Great-Grandparent Was Born in Ireland: You may qualify only if your parent (the grandchild of the Irish-born person) registered with the Foreign Births Register before you were born. If your parent was not registered before your birth, you are not eligible through that great-grandparent.
In all cases, the chain of citizenship must be unbroken. It’s broken, for example, if one of your ancestors formally renounced Irish citizenship, served in the armed forces of a foreign country without permission from the Irish government, or violated a few other rare conditions.
Once approved, you will receive a certificate of entry in the Foreign Births Register and can then apply for an Irish passport.
Once registered, your future children can also claim Irish citizenship through you—if they are born after your registration. Unfortunately, children born before you have had your Irish citizenship confirmed aren’t eligible.
But all in all… It’s easy to see why an Irish passport could be considered the best second passport to get—if you’re eligible.
And even if you don’t think you’re eligible for a passport through your ancestry—there are many other pathways into beautiful, cultured Ireland.
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