Employment Permit Renewal in Ireland: The Employer's Guide for 2026

Renewal at a glance

If you employ a non-EU worker on an employment permit, the renewal is your responsibility as much as theirs. Miss the window and your worker comes off the payroll until a new permit issues. Here is what matters:

• The window: renewals must be submitted no earlier than 16 weeks and no later than 8 weeks before the permit expires.
• The cost: €750 (renewal up to 6 months) or €1,500 (up to 36 months). No fee after 5 years of continuous employment.
• No Labour Market Needs Test. You do not need to re-advertise the role.
• The catch: the salary must meet the threshold in force now, not the one that applied when you hired. Thresholds increased on 1 March 2026.
• The protection: file the renewal before the permit expires and your worker keeps the legal right to work while DETE processes it. Miss the window and that protection is gone. A permit that lapses with no application in is a worker who cannot legally work for you.

If your worker's permit expires within the next 4 months, the window to act is open now. WhatsApp Monette and she will tell you exactly what your renewal needs.

When to apply: the renewal window

DETE accepts renewal applications in a fixed window: no earlier than 16 weeks (4 months) before expiry, and no later than 8 weeks before expiry.

Both ends of that window matter:

• Apply too early and the application is not accepted.
• Apply too late and you are gambling on processing speed. Straightforward renewals can be processed quickly, but anything that needs additional information, a salary correction, or a document that was not included first time will run past the expiry date.

The practical rule for employers: put a reminder in your calendar for 5 months before every permit expiry date you are responsible for. That gives you a month to gather documents and check salary compliance, then you file on the first day the window opens.

How to apply

Renewals are submitted through the Employment Permits Online system, the same portal you'd use for a new permit. Either the employer or the employee can make the application, and either can pay the fee. In practice, the employer usually handles it, because most of the documents DETE wants are employer documents: payslips, the employment contract, and company details.

The system generates a renewal checklist for the application. Work through it line by line. Renewal refusals are rarely about eligibility; they are about missing documents and salary figures that do not match the payslips.

What renewal costs

If a renewal application is refused, 90% of the fee is refunded. Most employers renew for the full 36 months, because the per-year cost is lower and it pushes the next renewal three years out.

Salary thresholds at renewal: the 2026 trap

This is what's catching employers out in 2026. Renewal applications are assessed against the minimum salary thresholds in force on the date the renewal is submitted, not the thresholds that applied when the worker was first hired.

Salary thresholds increased on 1 March 2026:

• General Employment Permit (standard roles): €36,605 per year
• General Employment Permit (care assistants and home carers): €16.12 per hour — €32,691 per year on a 39-hour week, or €33,529.60 on a 40-hour week
• Critical Skills Employment Permit (degree roles): €40,904 per year

If you hired a worker two years ago at the threshold that applied then, their current salary may now be below the figure DETE requires for renewal. The fix is simple but it has to happen before you apply: increase the salary, issue an updated contract, and make sure at least one payslip at the new rate exists before the renewal goes in.

Always confirm the current thresholds against the live DETE employment permits pages before submitting. These figures change, and the figure on the day you submit is the one that counts.

Documents you need

The renewal pack is mostly evidence that the first permit period happened the way the original application said it would:

• Payslips covering the period of the current permit. DETE checks that the worker was actually paid the salary stated on the original application. Gaps or underpayment are the fastest route to a refusal.
• Current employment contract showing a salary that meets the threshold in force at renewal.
• The renewal checklist generated by the Employment Permits Online system for your application.
• Workforce details confirming the 50/50 rule is still met: at least 50% of your employees must be EEA nationals at the date of the renewal application. See our 50/50 rule guide.

What you do not need: a Labour Market Needs Test. The 28-day advertising requirement applies to new General Employment Permit applications, not renewals. You will not need to re-advertise the role.

What goes wrong with renewals

Four failure patterns account for nearly every renewal problem we see:

1. The window is missed. Nobody owns the expiry date, the 8-week deadline passes, and the application becomes a race against the clock.
2. The salary is below the current threshold. The worker was hired at an older, lower threshold and nobody adjusted pay before the thresholds rose.
3. The payslips do not match. The original application promised one salary and the payslips show another, lower figure. DETE treats this seriously; it can affect the employer's ability to get any future permits.
4. The 50/50 ratio has slipped. The business has hired more non-EEA staff since the original application and now fails the workforce ratio test.

Every one of these is avoidable if the renewal is started at the 5-month mark instead of the 5-week mark.

After 5 years: the unlimited duration permit

Once a worker has been in continuous employment with the same employer for 5 years or more, they can apply for an unlimited duration employment permit. There is no fee, and it ends the renewal cycle permanently.

For employers, this is the retention milestone worth planning around. A worker on an unlimited permit has no more renewal deadlines, no more fees, and no more risk of a paperwork gap taking them off your roster. If you have staff approaching the 5-year mark, the unlimited permit application is the renewal to get right.

If the permit has already expired

If the permit expired with no renewal application filed, a standard renewal is no longer available. The route back is the Reactivation Employment Permit, a separate scheme for workers who held a valid permit but fell out of the system through no fault of their own.

It works, but it is slower, more involved, and the worker cannot work while it is being sorted. Treat it as the recovery option, not the plan. If you are reading this and the permit in question expires in the next 8 weeks, contact us today rather than next week.

What CA Recruitment does

CA Recruitment manages employment permit renewals for Irish employers, whether or not we made the original placement. The renewal service covers:

• Permit expiry tracking, with the renewal started at the 5-month mark
• Salary threshold check against the current DETE figures, before submission
• 50/50 workforce ratio check
• Document pack preparation: payslips, contract, checklist
• Submission and follow-up through the Employment Permits Online system
• The worker's immigration registration renewal alongside the permit

Most of our renewal work comes from employers who handled the original permit themselves and do not want to carry the renewal risk a second time. If that is you, WhatsApp Monette with the permit expiry date and she will tell you exactly where you stand.

Frequently asked questions