On the 24th April 2018, the Supreme Court in the case of Luximon and Balchand -V- The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, confirmed that the when considering whether or not to renew or vary the position of a students who had overstayed their student visa to remain in the State, the Minister should have considered Article 8 rights to private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Now the Government has decided to set up a new scheme which will be specifically for people who came to Ireland between 2005 and 2011 to study.

THE GOVERNMENT HAS approved the scheme which could allow up to 5,000 people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), who originally came to Ireland to study, to remain in Ireland to work.

The scheme would apply to people who came to Ireland to study between January 2005 and December 2010 and stayed on to work. This move follows the Supreme Court judgements mentioned above which held that former holders of student permission were entitled to have their family and privacy rights under the European Convention on Human Rights considered as part of their application to remain.

Court challenges were taken after the introduction of new study policy in 2011 which meant non-EEA students could only live in Ireland for a maximum of seven years.  That meant that they became “timed out”.

In both the Luximon and Balchand cases, two former students sought permission to change their status allowing them to work and receive social welfare payments. In one case, a woman’s two children had joined her in Ireland and in the second case a man married another non-national in Ireland and they had a child here together.

The court found that in both cases the State had allowed the applicants to stay in Ireland without objection until the law changed and that their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights should have been considered.

The Irish National Immigration Service (INIS) estimates that around 3,500 to 5,500 non-EEA nationals may be eligible to apply for the new scheme which will allow those who came to Ireland to study between January 2005 and December 2010 to apply for permission to remain in the State.

It will be similar to the former scheme which operated in 2011 for students who were already in the State prior to 2005.

Details of the scheme are expected to be published by INIS in the coming weeks and SINNOTT SOLICITORS have already made a very considerable number of applications for those who have been here between 2005 and 2011. We have applied to have their status regularised and for a Stamp 4 to be issued to those applicants.

We look forward to hearing of the details of the new scheme that has just been announced.