Most employers picture overseas hiring as a permit-first process: find a worker abroad, run the paperwork, wait months for a visa. There is a route that skips almost all of that, and the candidate is already in Ireland.
A non-EU graduate holding a Stamp 1G can start work for you now — no employment permit, no Labour Market Needs Test, no salary floor. You get 12 to 24 months to see whether they are worth keeping. If they are, you move them onto a work permit before the Stamp 1G expires, without them ever leaving the country. It is the closest thing to a no-friction entry point into non-EU hiring, and most Irish employers do not know it exists.
What Stamp 1G actually is
Stamp 1G is the immigration permission granted under the Third Level Graduate Programme. It lets a non-EEA graduate who studied in Ireland stay on after their course to look for graduate-level work.
To qualify, the graduate must hold a Level 8 or higher award from a recognised Irish awarding body, have been on a Stamp 2 student permission, and apply within six months of being told they passed. The programme's stated purpose is specific: to give them time to find a graduate job and apply for a General Employment Permit, a Critical Skills Employment Permit, or a research hosting agreement.
That last line is the part employers should read twice. The Irish state built this permission as an on-ramp to the work permit system. The graduate arrives at your door already legally resident, already entitled to work, and already pointed toward a permit. Your job is to give them a reason to convert.
Why it matters to employers
Think about what you normally deal with when you hire from outside the EEA. A Labour Market Needs Test that ties up a vacancy for a month. A permit application that has to land twelve weeks before the start date. An entry visa. Flights. A first day that might be six months away.
With a graduate on Stamp 1G, none of that stands between you and a start date. They can begin next week. You are hiring a known quantity — someone educated in an Irish institution, fluent in how Irish workplaces run, and already settled here.
The pipeline works like this. Hire on the Stamp 1G with no permit. Use the 12 to 24 months as a working trial. Convert the strong ones onto a permit before the clock runs out. You carry no permit cost or risk until you have decided the person is worth it.
How long a graduate can stay: 12 or 24 months
The length of the Stamp 1G depends on the level of the qualification.
A graduate with a Level 8 award — an honours bachelor's degree — is granted 12 months.
A graduate with a Level 9 or higher award — a master's or a doctorate — is granted 12 months, renewable for a further 12, giving up to 24 months in total. The second year is not automatic: the graduate has to show the immigration authorities they have genuinely been chasing graduate-level work, through interviews, agency sign-ups and the like.
One limit to keep in mind. Time on a Stamp 2 student permission and time on Stamp 1G together cannot exceed seven years — eight for those who reach Level 9. In practice this rarely bites a graduate you are hiring straight out of college, but it is the reason to move on the permit conversion in good time rather than leaving it to the last week.
What a Stamp 1G holder can do at work
This is where Stamp 1G differs sharply from a student permission, and where its value to an employer sits.
A Stamp 1G holder can work up to 40 hours a week. The work is not restricted to any particular occupation, sector or salary level — unlike an employment permit, which locks the person to a named job at a set minimum wage. You can hire a Stamp 1G graduate into any role you like, at whatever the market rate is.
For the duration of the permission, they are simply an employee with the right to work. You run payroll, you meet your normal employment obligations, and there is nothing to file with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. No permit exists yet, so none of the permit rules apply.
The transition: 1G to a work permit
The Stamp 1G is a window, not a destination. To keep the person beyond it, you convert them to an employment permit before it expires. There are two main routes.
Critical Skills Employment Permit. If the role sits on the Critical Skills Occupations List — many engineering, IT, healthcare and finance roles do — this is the route to aim for. It never requires a Labour Market Needs Test, it carries a fast track to long-term residence, and it is the strongest position you can put a graduate hire in. Our Critical Skills Employment Permit employer guide walks through who qualifies.
General Employment Permit. For roles outside the Critical Skills list — provided they are not on the ineligible list — this is the standard route. It covers the widest range of occupations. Crucially for a graduate, the salary threshold is reduced: where the applicant holds a relevant degree from an Irish third-level college issued in the previous 12 months, the minimum annual remuneration is €34,009 rather than the usual €36,605. Our General Employment Permit guide covers the detail.
Both routes share one big advantage over hiring from abroad: the graduate is already in the State. A permit can be issued to someone already lawfully resident here, and they register the change of status with immigration once it is granted. No entry visa. No flights. No waiting for them to arrive.
The Labour Market Needs Test, told straight
You will see this pipeline sold as "hire a graduate with no Labour Market Needs Test." That is true, but only if you are precise about when.
During the Stamp 1G, there is no test — because there is no permit. Nothing to advertise, nothing to prove. That part is genuinely friction-free.
At conversion, it depends on the route. A Critical Skills Employment Permit never needs a Labour Market Needs Test. A General Employment Permit usually does — the graduate's Stamp 1G history does not, on its own, exempt you. The recognised exemptions from the test are narrow: roles on the Critical Skills list, job offers of €68,911 or more, an Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland recommendation, certain carer roles, and a recently redundant former permit holder returning to the same job title.
So the honest version is this. The 1G period is test-free. The Critical Skills route stays test-free. The General Employment Permit route generally means running the 28-day advertisement first. We tell you which of these applies to your specific role before you hire, so there are no surprises at conversion. Getting this wrong — assuming a waiver that does not exist — is exactly the kind of mistake that stalls a permit for weeks.
How to hire a graduate on Stamp 1G
The practical steps are short.
Check the candidate's immigration card and confirm it reads Stamp 1G, along with the expiry date. That date is your planning horizon.
Hire them into the role now, on normal terms. Nothing needs filing to employ them during the 1G.
Decide early — well before the last few months — whether you want to keep them, and identify the permit route their role qualifies for. If it is on the Critical Skills list, plan for a Critical Skills Employment Permit; if not, plan for a General Employment Permit and factor in the advertising step. Remember any permit application must be received at least twelve weeks before the employment start date, so the conversion has to begin while the 1G still has real time left on it.
This is the part where employers most often trip: they treat the Stamp 1G as an end state, let it run down, and lose a good hire because the conversion was left too late. Planned properly, it is one of the cleanest routes into a long-term non-EU hire that Irish immigration offers.
At CA Recruitment we manage the full transition — confirming the route, running the Labour Market Needs Test where it applies, preparing the application, and getting the permit issued before the 1G lapses — so the graduate you invested a year in stays on your team. If you want the broader picture of non-EU hiring, start with our full guide to hiring non-EU workers in Ireland.
Frequently asked questions
Can an employer hire someone on Stamp 1G without a work permit? Yes. A Stamp 1G is a graduate immigration permission that already carries the right to work up to 40 hours a week. You do not need an employment permit, a Labour Market Needs Test, or a minimum salary threshold to employ them during the Stamp 1G period. The permit only becomes relevant when you want to keep them past the date the 1G expires.
How long does a Stamp 1G last in Ireland? It depends on the qualification. A graduate with a Level 8 award gets 12 months. A graduate with a Level 9 or higher award gets 12 months, renewable for a further 12, so up to 24 months in total. The renewal requires evidence that they have been genuinely looking for graduate-level work.
What happens when the Stamp 1G runs out? To keep the person, you move them onto an employment permit before the 1G expires — usually a Critical Skills Employment Permit if the role is on the Critical Skills list, or a General Employment Permit otherwise. Because they are already living in Ireland, there is no entry visa and no travel to arrange; they simply register their change of status.
Does hiring a graduate on Stamp 1G skip the Labour Market Needs Test? During the Stamp 1G itself, yes — no permit means no test. When you convert them to a permit, it depends on the route. A Critical Skills Employment Permit never requires a Labour Market Needs Test. A General Employment Permit usually does, unless the role or salary qualifies for an exemption. We check which route applies before you commit.
Is the salary threshold lower for an Irish graduate? For a General Employment Permit, yes. Where the applicant holds a relevant degree issued by an Irish third-level college in the previous 12 months, the minimum annual remuneration is €34,009 rather than the standard €36,605. Critical Skills Employment Permits have their own thresholds.