# Does time lived in UK count towards Ireland 5-year citizenship requirement?



## neekolas86 (Oct 10, 2016)

I'm American. My company might be moving me from UK to Dublin, Ireland because of Brexit. I would like to acquire EU citizenship. Would the 2 years I have lived in the UK on a Tier 2 General transfer towards Ireland's 5-year citizenship requirement?

Thanks


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## EuroBob (Feb 23, 2015)

neekolas86 said:


> I'm American. My company might be moving me from UK to Dublin, Ireland because of Brexit. I would like to acquire EU citizenship. Would the 2 years I have lived in the UK on a Tier 2 General transfer towards Ireland's 5-year citizenship requirement?
> 
> Thanks


The quick answer is, I do NOT really know.

Longer Answer:
Just to clarify, I believe you want citizenship in a country which is a member of the EU. So in your case, you are wondering about requirements to obtain Irsih citizenship.

You are a U.S. citizen, and thus would typically be treated as a non-EU citizen by Ireland, and thus processed as described in section-2 of the following link.

My interpretation from the link...
When you apply to Ireland for citizenship, after having lived in Ireland for at least 1 year, you could submit three documents for each year, in the last nine, which you are claiming to have resided in the EU. It is then up to Ireland to decide.
Naturally, it would be better to talk to Ireland, and hopefully their thoughts will not have changed when you finally do apply to them for citizenship.

Citizenship by naturalisation


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

After reading the naturalization requirements, I believe when they speak of "residence" they are talking about residence in the Republic of Ireland, not in the UK. Although Ireland and the UK share some immigration documents and procedures, when you're talking about taking nationality, they want a minimum period of residence in Ireland, not anywhere in the "British Isles."
Cheers,
Bev


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