Employment Permits

Hiring a Worker Who Already Holds an Irish Employment Permit: Change of Employer Rules (2026)

Updated Tue Jul 14 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)  ·  10 min read  ·  By Monette, Founder of CA Recruitment

Somebody good has landed in your inbox. They're already in Ireland, already working, already holding a valid employment permit with another employer. No visa, no flights, no six-month wait. The question every Irish employer asks at this point is the same one: can I just hire them?

Sometimes yes, and faster than you'd think. The Employment Permits Act 2024 created a proper change of employer route, and since April 2025 it's been processed through Employment Permits Online. But it's fenced in — by a nine-month clock, by the occupation code on the worker's existing permit, and by conditions you have to meet as the incoming employer. Get it wrong and you've either broken the law or wasted three months. Here's the whole picture.

The nine-month rule

A foreign national who is granted their first employment permit in the State is expected to stay with that first employer for nine months from the date they commenced that employment.

This isn't guidance. Under section 18 of the Employment Permits Regulations 2024, a new employment permit for a different employer cannot be considered if fewer than nine months have elapsed since the permit holder first commenced employment in the State on a permit. DETE's own explanation of why is blunt and worth understanding, because it tells you how they think: it balances the first employer's reasonable expectation of a return on their recruitment costs against not binding a worker to one employer indefinitely.

So the first question in any conversation about hiring a permit holder is a date question. When did they start their first permitted job in Ireland? Not when they got their current job, and not when the permit was issued — when they commenced employment on their first permit in the State. Nine months from that date is the gate.

Change of employer vs a new permit

Once the nine months are up, there are two different routes, and employers regularly confuse them.

The change of employer route. This is the new provision the 2024 Act introduced. It eliminates the need for the permit holder to apply for a new permit. The existing permit is reissued naming you as the employer, the duration of the permit is unaffected, and no Labour Market Needs Test is required. It's restricted to movement within the occupation, or occupation classification, on the original permit.

A fresh permit application. If the job you're offering falls outside the scope of the change of employer process, none of that applies. You make a normal employment permit application, with the normal criteria — Labour Market Needs Test if required, the fee, the queue, the lot.

The whole game, then, is working out which of the two you're in. That comes down to a code.

Which permits and which roles qualify

The change of employer provision applies to two permit types only: the General Employment Permit and the Critical Skills Employment Permit. If the worker holds an Intra-Company Transfer permit, a Contract for Services permit or an Internship permit, this route isn't open to them.

How far they can move depends on which of the two they hold:

The practical consequence for a General Employment Permit holder is tight. A care assistant can move to another care assistant role. A care assistant cannot use this route to become a kitchen manager. If you're offering a genuinely different job, you're making a fresh application, and you should plan for it as such.

One more thing worth saying plainly, because it's where employers trip: the pay floor doesn't disappear because the worker is already here. The General Employment Permit minimum annual remuneration is generally €36,605, with €32,691 (and a minimum hourly rate of €16.12) applying to Health Care Assistants and Home Support Workers, horticulture workers and meat processing operatives, and €34,009 where the applicant holds a relevant degree from an Irish third-level college awarded in the previous 12 months. If you're in construction, the binding floor isn't the permit threshold at all — it's the Construction Sector Sectoral Employment Order, a legally binding minimum of €23.00 an hour for craftspersons from 1 August 2025, roughly €46,600 a year on a 39-hour week. Offer below the applicable floor and the application fails, permit holder or not.

The conditions DETE attaches

Assume you're in scope. DETE still attaches conditions, and each of them has bitten someone:

What you have to produce as the new employer

The documentation for a change of employer is short, but it's exactly the documentation a shell company couldn't produce, which is the point of it. You'll need:

If you run a restaurant, DETE wants three extra items: a letter from the relevant Local Health Authority confirming you have permission to operate a restaurant at the premises, a statement from you that the employee will be employed in an establishment other than a fast-food outlet, and copies of utility bills for the premises dated within two months prior to the application.

Behind all of it sits the standard employer test. An employment permit will not issue unless at least 50% of the employees in the firm are EEA nationals — the 50/50 rule — with narrow waivers for certain start-ups and for the case where the permit holder would be your sole employee. A change of employer ends with a permit being issued in your name, so this is not a rule you get to skip because the worker is already in the country. If you're close to the line, work it out before you make an offer.

How the application actually works

It runs through Employment Permits Online, the employment permits system DETE launched on 28 April 2025. Every change of employer application has been processed there since that date.

It is a joint application. The employee completes their personal details, you complete the fields relevant to you and upload the documentation, and every party signs with an e-signature. The application sits in draft status until all parties have completed and signed their parts. DETE's own practical-steps note says the most efficient way to do it is for the employer to initiate: in an employer account, a Transfer Permit button sits above the permits grid on the home page. An employee initiating it themselves uses the Transfer action on an eligible permit.

On timing, be realistic. DETE's processing-dates page doesn't list change of employer as a separate category, so there's no published turnaround to quote you. What it does show, as of 13 July 2026, is that new General Employment Permit applications received on 2 June 2026 were the ones being processed — roughly a six-week queue. Plan in weeks, not days, and hold the start date until the permit lands. It is still dramatically faster than hiring the same person from overseas, which realistically runs to about six months from first conversation to first shift once the Labour Market Needs Test, the DETE queue, the visa and travel are all counted.

Redundancy and the first nine months

The nine-month rule isn't absolute. DETE may permit a General Employment Permit holder to change employer inside those nine months where:

The redundancy case is the one most likely to reach you, and it comes with an advantage most employers never hear about. A permit holder made redundant must notify DETE on the prescribed Notification of Redundancy form within four weeks of the date of dismissal, and they then have up to six months to find alternative employment. If they did notify inside those four weeks, no Labour Market Needs Test is required where you offer a job to a former General Employment Permit holder made redundant within the previous six months. DETE goes further again: if the job title they were made redundant from has since come off the eligible list, a General Employment Permit application for that same job title will still be considered. That's a fresh permit application rather than a transfer, but the advertising cycle falls away.

There's also transfer of undertakings. If you acquire a business and its permit holders come with it under the 2003 Regulations, that isn't a change of employer application at all. The original employer completes the prescribed Transfer of Undertaking form, and where DETE confirms the terms, conditions, description and locations of employment are unchanged, a new permit is issued to the holder with a certified copy to the new employer. Failing to notify DETE can damage the renewal down the line.

When your own permit holder leaves

The change of employer provision cuts both ways, and it's worth knowing what your obligations are on the losing end.

Under section 43(1) of the Employment Permits Act 2024, when a permit holder ceases to be employed by you during the permit's validity — for any reason — DETE must be notified and a soft copy of the permit submitted within four weeks of the termination. An employer or permit holder who fails to comply is guilty of an offence. Separately, if the terms and conditions attaching to a permit in force change, or a permit holder goes on short-time working, DETE must be told, and not telling them will come back on you at renewal.

And one rule that catches employers who try to protect their investment the wrong way: under section 55 of the Employment Permits Act 2024, where the employer is the applicant, you may not deduct from the permit holder's pay, or seek to recover from them, any charge, fee or expense related to the permit application. Clawback clauses aimed at recovering permit costs from the worker are not a defence against being poached. They're a breach.

The honest answer to "how do I stop a worker I paid to bring in from walking after nine months" is that you keep them by being the better employer. DETE designed the provision to give permit holders freedom of movement to employment with more attractive terms and conditions. That's not a bug in the system — it's the stated purpose of it.

What CA Recruitment does

We manage employment permit applications end to end for Irish employers, and the first thing we do on any candidate who is already in Ireland is establish which route they're on. That means checking the date they commenced their first permit employment in the State, the permit type, and the SOC code on the permit — before anybody makes an offer or agrees a start date.

Then we run it. The transfer application, the Revenue statement, the contract, the signatures, the portal, the follow-up with DETE. You get told what to sign and when they can start, and nothing else lands on your desk.

If the answer is that a change of employer won't work — wrong permit, wrong occupation code, or the nine months aren't up — we'll tell you that on the first call rather than after the fee is paid. And if the right move is to hire from overseas instead, that's the thing we do every week: Filipino workers, permit-eligible roles, the full application managed for you.

Monette is Filipino, based in Ireland, and has done this from both sides. If you've a permit holder in front of you and you're not sure what you're allowed to do, message her on WhatsApp and you'll get a straight answer.

Frequently asked questions

Can a worker change employer on an Irish work permit?

Yes. Since the Employment Permits Act 2024, a General Employment Permit or Critical Skills Employment Permit holder can change employer once nine months have passed since they started their first employment permit in the State. It's called a change of employer, and it does not require a new permit application. The existing permit is reissued in the new employer's name and its expiry date stays the same. The move is restricted to the same occupation on a General Employment Permit, or the same broader occupation category on a Critical Skills Employment Permit.

How long must a worker stay with their first employer in Ireland?

Nine months from the date they commenced employment on their first employment permit in the State. Before those nine months are up, DETE will not consider a permit for a different employer, except in exceptional circumstances — redundancy, medical doctors on six-month rotations, or circumstances unforeseen at the time of application that fundamentally change the employment relationship, such as the business relocating a long distance.

Do I need a Labour Market Needs Test to hire a permit holder from another employer?

No. A change of employer does not require a Labour Market Needs Test, because the occupation has already been tested in the Irish and EEA labour market or is in critical short supply. That's one of the real advantages of hiring someone already on a permit — you skip the advertising cycle. If the role you're offering falls outside the scope of the change of employer process, you're into a fresh permit application, and the Labour Market Needs Test rules apply again in the normal way.

Can I hire a permit holder into a different job than the one on their permit?

Not through the change of employer route. A General Employment Permit holder can only move within the same type of employment, identified by the four-digit SOC code on their permit — a meat processing operative can move to another meat processing role. A Critical Skills Employment Permit holder gets more latitude and can move across the broader three-digit SOC category, so different engineering roles, for example. If the new job sits outside that, a new employment permit application has to be made for it in the normal way.

When can the worker start with me?

Only after the permit has been reissued. DETE is explicit that the new employment cannot commence until the employment permit has been reissued, and the employee is then required to start within one month of the new permit being issued. Letting someone start on the strength of a submitted application is illegal employment, and the exposure is yours — right to work checks are the employer's legal obligation.

How many times can a worker change employer on the same permit?

Three. DETE has set the maximum number of change of employer applications that may be granted to a permit holder at three. The permit must also be in force and remain in force for at least two months at the point the application is made, so a permit close to expiry has to be renewed rather than transferred.

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