The Intra-Company Transfer Employment Permit: An Irish Employer's Guide

The Intra-Company Transfer Employment Permit is one of the most misunderstood permits Ireland offers. Employers hear "transfer a worker into the business" and assume it's a flexible way to bring in overseas staff. It isn't. It's a narrow permit with a specific job: moving an existing employee from an overseas arm of a company into its Irish branch, on strict conditions.

If you're an Irish branch of a multinational and you want to move someone from headquarters or an overseas subsidiary to Ireland, this is your permit. If you're hiring a new worker who doesn't already work for a connected company abroad, it isn't — and reading this should save you from applying for the wrong thing. We'll cover both.

What the ICT permit actually is

The Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) Employment Permit lets a multinational move a non-EEA worker from an overseas branch into its Irish branch. In DETE's language, the overseas company is the "foreign employer" and the Irish business is the "connected person". The two have to be genuinely linked — more on that below.

The defining feature, and the reason companies use it, is that the worker stays on the foreign payroll. They remain employed by the overseas company throughout. That's deliberate: it lets the employee keep certain home-country benefits, foreign pension contributions being the usual example, that an Irish contract would interrupt.

DETE is open about the trade-off it's making. It would rather every permit holder be on an Irish contract, salaried and paid here, because that's a real job in the Irish labour market. The ICT permit is the exception it allows for genuine corporate transfers — and because it's an exception, the criteria are strict. The permit cannot be used to permanently fill a vacancy that should have gone to the open market.

Who qualifies — the three positions

ICT permits are limited to three categories of worker. If the person doesn't clearly fit one, the application won't get off the ground.

Senior management. Someone who runs the organisation or a part of it — a department, a function, a division. The test is real managerial authority: directing other professional or managerial staff, the power to hire and fire or recommend it, genuine discretion over day-to-day operations. A job title with "manager" in it isn't enough; DETE looks at what the person actually controls.

Key personnel. Someone with specialist knowledge that's essential to the Irish operation — the company's service, its research, its equipment, its techniques. This is usually backed by a high level of qualification or experience, sometimes membership of an accredited profession. The application has to show exactly how the person's expertise fits the category. "We need them" isn't the standard; "they hold knowledge the Irish branch can't function without" is.

Trainees. Someone transferring to Ireland to undergo a defined training programme, for a maximum of 12 months. You have to show a detailed programme, not a vague intention to "gain experience". This is the one ICT category aimed at junior staff, and it's time-limited by design.

The salary floor and what counts

The remuneration thresholds, current 2026 DETE figures, are:

A few things matter about how that figure is built. The basic salary has to be at least the National Minimum Wage, or whatever rate is fixed by law for the role, and the foreign employer alone is responsible for paying that part. On top of the basic salary, you're allowed to count the monetary value of board and accommodation, and health insurance payments to a registered Irish insurer, to reach the threshold. Either the foreign employer or the Irish branch can cover those add-on components.

If the position doesn't clear the relevant figure, DETE won't consider the application at all. There's no discretion here — it's a hard floor. And the payslips have to show the basic salary clearly, because they're checked again at renewal. Payslips that don't set the basic pay out properly will hold up the renewal.

The minimum-service rule

You can't route a brand-new hire through the group to dodge a standard permit. DETE guards against that with a minimum period of service with the overseas company before the transfer:

• Senior management and key personnel: at least 6 months with the foreign employer.
• Trainees: at least 1 month with the foreign employer.

The point of the rule is to prove the person is genuinely integral to the organisation, not someone hired last week and relabelled as a transfer. If they haven't been on the overseas company's books for the qualifying period, ICT is off the table and you're looking at a General Employment Permit instead.

The company link DETE checks

This is where a lot of would-be ICT applications fall down. The Irish business and the overseas business have to be genuinely connected, and you have to prove it with documents. DETE accepts three forms of link:

1. One company is a subsidiary of the other.
2. Both are subsidiaries of the same holding company.
3. The two have a formal agreement to carry on business or provide services with each other across more than one country.

On top of the link, both sides have to be real, trading operations. The Irish branch must be registered with the Companies Registration Office and with Revenue as an employer, and — start-ups aside — actually trading and doing substantive business in Ireland. A "representative presence", an address and a nameplate, won't pass. The overseas company has to be a substantive operation in its own country too.

If there's no genuine corporate link, there's no ICT permit. It's that simple, and it's the first thing to check before you spend time on an application.

Why it isn't a general hiring permit

Here's the part that catches employers out, so it's worth being blunt about it.

The ICT permit is not a way to hire a worker from overseas. It only moves someone who already works for a connected company abroad. If you're a Tipperary engineering firm, a Galway hotel, or a Limerick care home looking to bring in a Filipino worker who has no existing tie to your company, ICT does not apply to you. There's no overseas branch, no foreign employer, no corporate link — so the permit can't be used.

For that situation, the right route is almost always the General Employment Permit, or the Critical Skills Employment Permit if the role and salary qualify. Those are the permits built for ordinary hiring, where you offer the job, the worker comes onto an Irish contract, and they can build towards staying long term.

So the honest filter is short: do you already employ this person, in a connected company, outside Ireland? If yes, ICT is worth looking at. If no, you need a different permit — and applying for ICT will only cost you time.

How the application works

For a genuine transfer, the process runs like this.

1. The Irish branch applies. The connected person — your Irish company — makes the application, not the worker and not the overseas employer. It's submitted through Employment Permits Online.
2. Apply in good time. The application has to be in at least 12 weeks before the proposed start date. Build that into the transfer timeline from the start.
3. DETE processes it. The application goes into the processing queue by employer type (Trusted Partner or standard) and is decided in date order. A decision-maker may request more information, which you return within 28 days. Check our live processing-times tracker for where the queue stands now.
4. Visa and travel. If the worker is from a visa-required country such as the Philippines, they apply for an entry visa once the permit is granted, then travel.
5. Register immigration permission. After arriving, the worker registers with Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) and is issued an Irish Residence Permit (IRP). An employment permit on its own is not permission to reside — registration is the step that makes the stay lawful.

The fee is paid by the Irish branch: €500 for a permit of six months or less, or €1,000 for a permit from six up to 24 months. If the application is refused, 90% of the fee is refunded. And the cost can't be passed on — the company is not allowed to recover the fee or related expenses from the worker.

One useful exception for short postings: if the transfer is for three months or less, DETE points you towards the Department of Justice's Atypical Working Scheme instead, which is built for short-term arrangements and avoids the full permit process.

The limits employers miss

Three conditions surprise people, and all three are worth knowing before you commit.

Family can't automatically work. A spouse, partner or dependant of an ICT permit holder is not eligible for a dependant employment permit. If they want to work in Ireland, they have to qualify for a permit in their own right — a General Employment Permit or Critical Skills permit under the normal rules. This is a real gap compared with the Critical Skills route, where the partner is usually granted permission to work straight away.

No path to long-term residency. Time on an ICT permit does not count towards long-term residency, because the permit treats the posting as temporary. A permit runs up to 24 months at first and can be extended to a maximum stay of five years — then the worker is expected to return home. If the goal is a permanent member of the Irish team, this isn't the permit for it.

The worker has to leave if the job ends. If the person stops being employed by the foreign employer, or finishes the training programme, or the permit expires, they're expected to return to their country of origin. The permit is tied to that specific transfer, with one carve-out: a trainee on an ICT permit is allowed to apply for a Critical Skills or General Employment Permit during the nine-month period that would otherwise lock a permit holder to their employer.

What CA Recruitment does

Most of what we do is the General Employment Permit and Critical Skills route — placing Filipino workers with Irish employers and running the application end to end. Monette is Filipino, based in Tipperary, and has been through this system herself, so the permit rules aren't theory to us.

Where the Intra-Company Transfer permit is concerned, the most valuable thing we do is tell you honestly whether it's the right permit before you apply. Plenty of employers come to us thinking ICT is their route when it isn't — there's no connected overseas company, or the worker doesn't meet the minimum-service rule — and the real answer is a General Employment Permit. Getting that call right at the start saves a refused application and weeks of lost time.

If you do have a genuine transfer and a different permit fits better for the rest of your hiring, we handle the lot: confirming the route, preparing and submitting the DETE application so it isn't returned for corrections, and managing the visa and travel. For the workers we place ourselves, that comes with a 90-day guarantee — if the worker leaves or is dismissed for gross misconduct within the first 90 days, we cover our recruitment fee for the replacement. That applies to our fee only, not the DETE, visa or travel costs.

The first thing we do on a free consultation is confirm the permit. There's no point preparing an Intra-Company Transfer application for a role that needs a General Employment Permit, or the other way round.