The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has announced the draft proposals for the scheme to regularise the thousands of undocumented migrants living in Ireland. It is anticipated that the scheme will be applicable to the many thousands of people who are living in Ireland without a lawful immigration status.

The scheme will be open by the end of the year in line with the terms of the Justice Plan 2021.

Whilst the final terms of the scheme are yet to be decided, the Minister has indicated the following:

  • Persons eligible for the scheme will need to have a period of 4 years of residence in the State without an immigration permission, or 3 years in the case of those with children.
  • Permission granted pursuant to the scheme will allow unrestricted access to the labour market.
  • Residence granted will be reckonable for the purposes of pursuing citizenship by way of naturalisation.

Further consultation will take place with NGOs, civil society, employer organisations, trade unions and other key stakeholders by way of an information webinar on Monday the 26th of April 2021. Written submissions from stakeholders will also be accepted after this event. The Immigration team at Sinnott Solicitors will be attending this event and will be submitting written submissions to the Minister in the aftermath on behalf of our clients.

It is expected that the scheme when opened, will run for approximately six months for applications.The full press release of the Minister for Justice is available to read here.

The scheme for undocumented migrants will provide an opportunity for thousands of non-EEA nationals to regularise their status in Ireland and is hugely welcomed. Sinnott Solicitors are aware of many unregulated immigration consultants operating in Ireland who are already providing false information and promises to potential applicants with respect to the terms of the scheme and charging large amounts of money for this. Apart from the proposed terms of the scheme announced this week, no further information is available at this time and we encourage all potential applicants to take advice from qualified and regulated experts such as solicitors specialising in immigration law as well as NGOs and other reputable organisations only.

Sinnott Solicitors have a specialist team of Immigration Solicitors and Immigration Consultants located in our Dublin and Cork offices who are experts on all Irish immigration matters. Should you have any queries with respect to any of the information contained in this article or any other immigration matters, do not hesitate to contact our immigration department in Cork or Dublin today on 014062862 or info@sinnott.ie.