If You Have a Grandparent From This European Country, You Might Be Eligible for One of the World’s Strongest Passports

• You can get Irish citizenship if you have a grandparent born in Ireland, even if you’ve never lived there.
• With Irish citizenship, you can live and work in both the EU and the U.K., making the passport especially powerful.
• Current processing times are around nine months.

It doesn’t matter if they were born in Dublin, Donegal, or Dingle. As long as you have certain close relatives who were born in Ireland, you may qualify for an Irish passport. Ireland is one of many countries in the world that recognizes citizenship by descent going back to two generations, which means you may be eligible if your grandparent is from the Emerald Isle.

With Irish citizenship, you can apply for an Irish passport that allows you to go through the European Union lines at immigration, which are often faster. It enables you to travel, work, and live anywhere in the EU, too. But wait—it gets even better. Unlike other EU passports, the Irish passport also allows you to live and work in the United Kingdom, a fact that makes it one of the strongest passports in the world.

Here’s what you need to know to apply for Irish citizenship by descent.

Exterior of Temple Bar in Dublin, Ireland.

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What do I need to prove my Irish ancestry?

“Irish citizenship by descent is most commonly acquired through Foreign Birth Registration (FBR),” explains Ángel Bello Cortés, a Dublin-based partner at Frangomen, a firm specializing in immigration law. The FBR is basically a database of people who were born outside of Ireland but are still considered Irish because of their blood ties to the country. “In very rare circumstances, an applicant can also apply through a great-grandparent, but the vast majority of FBR applications are based on a grandparent born in Ireland,” Bello Cortés tells Travel + Leisure.

While you don’t need to have lived in Ireland for any time period to get citizenship by descent, you do have to prove that your grandparent did. To do this, you’ll have to gather several supporting documents for both you and your grandparent, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, state-issued identification cards, proof of address, and photographs. Some of the documents have to be originals, while others can be certified copies.

A pub in Galway, Ireland.

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Where can I apply for Irish citizenship by descent?

No need to visit your nearest consulate to apply for Irish citizenship by descent. The only way to apply is online at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website. After you do that, you’ll have to make a trip to the post office to mail your documents to Ireland or another processing center, possibly a consulate in your home country. While you’ll eventually get the documents returned to you, it could take months, so make sure you have copies.

Applying for a passport is similar. Once you have Irish citizenship, you’ll apply for a passport via Passport Online. If you get approved, you’ll be required to mail in your supporting documents, which will eventually be returned to you.

How much does it cost to apply?

Considering that you don’t have to travel to your nearest consulate for an in-person interview like you would to get Italian citizenship by descent, applying for Irish citizenship by descent is relatively cheap. Count on paying a €278 (approximately $325) fee for an adult application. In addition, you may have to pay for postage to gather your supporting documents, especially if they are in other states or countries. Remember, for many of the documents, you’ll need the originals, not copies. Finally, you may have to pay a small notary fee for the certified copies.

How long does it take?

How long it takes to get Irish citizenship by descent depends on a few factors. First, you’ll have to gather all of the necessary documents before you can even take into account the processing times. “It probably took a month or two to gather everything that we needed and ship it off to Ireland,” says Jessica Martin-Biggins, a Montana-based nurse whose husband, Michael Biggins, recently applied for Irish citizenship via his grandfather, who was born in County Mayo. “It was difficult because a lot of the records we needed were in Cleveland, where my husband’s family emigrated to.”

Once you have your documents and submit your application, you’ll have to wait around nine months, the current expected processing time. If you’re missing a document or it was submitted incorrectly, tack on a few more months. The good news is that once you have your citizenship, you can instantly apply for a passport. If you apply online, expect it to take an average of 20 days. If you mail your documents in, it can take up to eight weeks.