APPLICATION FOR IRISH CITIZENSHIP (FBR)

If your grandparent was born in the Republic of Ireland, or in Northern Ireland, you are eligible to apply for Irish citizenship by descent.  This is the same as registering your birth on Ireland's Foreign Birth Registry.   We can help obtain the required vital records for your application package, and we also handle the entire application process.  (Note:  If your parent was born in Ireland, please see our Irish Passport services page.

Our starting point depends on the information/records you have for/regarding your family’s Irish lineage.   If you contact us, we will send you a questionnaire to complete.  This will allow us to confirm your eligibility and determine the best starting point in your Irish citizenship journey.

Your application package must generally contain the certified long form copies of the birth, marriage, divorce, name change, and death records (where applicable) of your grandparent, your parent in that lineage, and yourself.  Depending on the events that took place in your lineage, additional records may also be required.  

Unless you know that an Irish birth or baptismal record exists for your grandparent, we suggest that we begin with the Irish birth search before moving on to obtaining the other records.  This is because the Irish birth record serves as the basis for your citizenship claim.  Our fee for the Irish birth search is typically $225.00.  (If you already have a copy of the record but require a certified copy, then the fee is $105.00.)   In some cases where the mother's maiden name cannot be found or determined, the fee for the Irish birth record is $300.00.

To initiate the Irish birth record search, we need your grandparent’s name, approximate date and location of birth, father's name, and mother's maiden name.  If you do not have this information, we would begin by obtaining that grandparent’s marriage or death record.  Depending on the location of those events, one of those records would give us the information we need to perform the Irish birth record search.

(Please note that although we find most births were registered in Ireland, that is not always the case. Some were not registered at the civil level prior to about 1909.  If the birth record is not found, we can initiate a search for the baptismal record.  A certified copy of the baptismal record can then be used to apply for late civil registration of the Irish birth record of the grandparent.  Additional charges apply for the baptismal record search and for the application for late registration of the grandparent's birth record. 

Our fees for obtaining the other records are itemized per record and depend on the location (and sometimes, the year) of each event.  We can provide you an itemized quote to obtain your family's records.  We use our genealogy databases in an effort to fill in gaps of missing information, but the more information you can provide, the better chance of success.   

If you already have all or most of the required records for your application (or if you will obtain them on your own), we can begin with a case analysis/vital records review.  

For the reasons noted above, the total fees for the entire process will vary based on each individual's Irish lineage and the relevant events.  In most cases, the entire process can be completed for about $2,000.    Please see the price menu below for information regarding our application processing fees.  

Do you believe you already have the records required for your application?  Wonderful!  We can take a look at your records and confirm that for you.  We will then advise you in detail regarding any missing or deficient records, and also help you determine how to address any discrepancies or other issues that might appear in the records.  The FBR office has become much more strict over the last few years in terms of discrepancies or other issues in the content of vital records.  This means that your application can be delayed or rejected.  Our thorough review and analysis of the records allows us to determine the best way to address these issues before your application is submitted to the FBR office. 

By the way, siblings and/or cousins can join your application and you can split the cost of obtaining the certified records as long as you are all living in the same country as each other!

Once you receive your Irish citizenship, you will be eligible to apply for an Irish passport!