Employment Permits

Your New Overseas Hire Must Register With Immigration: The Employer's IRP Guide (2026)

Updated 13 August 2026  ·  9 min read  ·  By Monette, Founder of CA Recruitment

Your permit came through, the visa followed, and your new hire has landed. Most employers think the paperwork is finished. There is one more step — and because it happens on the worker's side, after arrival, it is the step nobody owns unless you put it in the onboarding plan: registering with immigration and getting the Irish Residence Permit card.

Correct as of 13 August 2026. The registration fee, the Burgh Quay booking process and ISD processing details change from time to time — the process itself moved from Garda stations to ISD as recently as January 2025. Get in touch and we will confirm the current position for your hire before their arrival date.

The short answer

Any worker from outside the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland who comes to Ireland for more than 90 days must register their immigration permission with Immigration Service Delivery (ISD). ISD's instruction is to register within 90 days of arriving. The worker books a free appointment through their own ISD account, attends the Registration Office at Burgh Quay in Dublin, pays a €300 fee, and receives an Irish Residence Permit (IRP) card by post within about 10 working days.

Your employee does the registering. But three things come from you: proof of employment for their document file, practical support to get the appointment booked and attended, and a diary entry for the renewal — because the registration expires before most permits do.

What the IRP card actually is

An overseas hire generates three separate documents, from two departments, in a fixed order:

  1. The employment permit — permission to work, issued by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment before travel. This is your side of the process.
  2. The entry visa — permission to travel to Ireland, applied for by the worker in their home country once the permit is granted.
  3. The IRP card — proof of registered residence, issued by ISD after arrival. A credit-card-sized plastic card carrying the worker's photo, personal details and immigration stamp.

The IRP is the one employers know least, because it is the only one that happens entirely inside Ireland and entirely in the worker's name. ISD describes registration as how the State records that a person has permission to stay and what they can legally do while here. The card is the physical proof your worker is legally resident — it is what they produce at permission renewals, at the bank, and when re-entering the country.

One boundary worth being clear on: the IRP does not grant the right to work. The employment permit does that. A worker with a valid permit who is waiting for their registration appointment is not working illegally — but an unregistered worker becomes a problem at renewal time, and a gap in the paper trail is the last thing you want in an inspection year. Registration is a recording obligation, and it is not optional.

The 90-day rule, precisely

Employers hear "90 days" attached to this step in two slightly different forms, and both come from ISD itself:

So for a permit hire the practical reading is simple: the clock starts when they land, and registration belongs in the first weeks of employment, not the last week of the window. Appointment availability varies through the year, and the card that arrives afterwards is needed sooner than most people expect — a bank may ask for it, and any renewal or travel certainly will.

ISD adds one reassurance worth passing on: if a worker genuinely cannot get an appointment within the 90 days, their permission is not cancelled and they are not expected to leave while waiting. That is a safety net for a booking backlog — not a reason to let the task drift.

How registration works in 2026

The process changed significantly in January 2025, and a lot of advice floating around — including from employers who hired overseas workers a few years ago — is now out of date.

Since 13 January 2025, ISD carries out all first-time registrations in the Republic of Ireland. The old system, where workers outside Dublin registered at their local Garda station through the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), is gone. There is now one route for everyone:

  1. The worker creates an ISD Customer Service account at portal.irishimmigration.ie — this can only be done after arrival in Ireland.
  2. They book a first-time registration appointment through that account. Booking is free.
  3. They attend the Registration Office at 13-14 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2 with their documents. At the appointment their documents are reviewed, their photograph and fingerprints are taken, and the €300 fee is paid by card. ISD says the visit should take no longer than 30 minutes.
  4. The IRP card arrives by post within about 10 working days.

Two rules trip people up, so brief your new hire on both:

The appointment must be booked by the worker, in their own name. ISD is explicit that for anyone over 16, the name on the appointment confirmation must match the person who presents at Burgh Quay, with no exceptions. You cannot book it for them — what you can do is make sure it gets booked in week one.

Third-party booking websites are not legitimate. ISD warns that any operator charging a fee to book an appointment is not acting for the Immigration Service and has no access to its booking system. A new arrival searching online is exactly who these sites target. Tell your worker the only valid route is their own ISD account, and the only fee is the €300 paid at the appointment itself.

And note what the single national route means for a hire based outside Dublin: your worker in Tralee, Letterkenny or Clonmel travels to Burgh Quay for this one appointment. That is a day trip to plan around — which brings us to your side of it.

Your role: documents, fee, time off

Registration is the worker's application, but it does not happen smoothly without the employer. Here is what comes from your side.

The documents you supply. For a first-time registration on an employment permit, ISD requires the biometric page of the worker's passport, the employment permit itself, and proof of the new employment — for example a letter from the employer. That letter is yours to write: on headed paper, confirming the role, start date and that the person is employed by you. Alongside those, all first-time registrants need proof of address in Ireland and, for visa-required nationals like Filipino workers, the entry visa and the landing stamp in their passport. If you are providing initial accommodation — common in farm and care placements — a short letter confirming the address helps a new arrival who has no utility bill yet.

The fee. €300 per person, card only, paid at the appointment. It is the worker's fee, not yours, and unlike the permit fee there is no rule preventing them paying it themselves. But plenty of employers reimburse it as part of the relocation package — for a worker who has just paid for flights and a deposit, it is a well-timed gesture that costs less than a day's agency mark-up.

The time off. One half-day for a Dublin-based worker; a full day plus travel for anyone else. Booking it as paid time in the first weeks signals that you treat the obligation seriously — and it removes the main reason registration drifts, which is a new employee reluctant to ask for a day off in their first month.

The follow-through. When the card arrives, ask for it. A copy of the IRP front and back belongs in your personnel file next to the permit copy — more on that below.

Stamp 1 and the renewal clock

Every registered permission carries a stamp category, and the stamp determines the conditions of residence. An employment permit holder registers on Stamp 1 — permission to live in Ireland and work under an employment permit.

The detail that catches employers out is the validity period. ISD states that registration granted on the basis of an employment permit is usually valid for 12 months, renewable after that. A standard General Employment Permit runs for 24 months. That mismatch means your worker renews their registration roughly half-way through their first permit — a renewal that is done online, but one that has its own fee and its own deadline.

So diary two dates, not one: the permit expiry and the IRP expiry printed on the card. An employee whose registration quietly lapses mid-permit is exactly the kind of loose end that surfaces at the worst moment — a re-entry after a holiday home, a bank check, or a Workplace Relations Commission inspection.

There is a longer-term upside in the stamp system worth knowing as the employer: time worked on permits builds towards Stamp 4, a permission to work without an employment permit. ISD's current guidance puts that at 21 months of employment for Critical Skills Employment Permit holders and 57 months for General Employment Permit holders. A worker who reaches Stamp 4 no longer needs permit renewals at all — which is worth factoring into how you think about retention and renewal costs in year two and beyond.

What goes in your right-to-work file

Your right-to-work checks do not stop at the job offer — the file has to stay current for the whole employment. Registration is where the file gets its third layer:

Keep the sequence in mind when timing the start date, too. The worker can lawfully start work on the permit before their registration appointment — registration confirms residence, it does not switch on the right to work. What you should not do is let the "we'll sort it later" phase stretch: a file that shows a permit, an arrival, and then nothing is a file with a hole in it, and holes get noticed precisely when you least want them to be.

Costs and timeline at a glance

For one employment-permit hire registering for the first time:

Set against the full cost of an overseas hire, registration is the cheapest line on the sheet. It is also the only one with no application to refuse — the permit and visa are decisions; this is an appointment. All it needs is someone making sure it happens.

The step that tells you whether your process has an owner

Registration is not difficult. It fails for exactly one reason: everyone assumes it is someone else's job. The permit was the employer's task, the visa was the worker's, and by the time the plane lands nobody is holding the checklist.

When CA Recruitment manages a placement, arrival week is part of the placement — we brief the worker on the ISD account and booking before they fly, make sure your employment letter is ready for their document file, and the placement is not done until they are at work with the paperwork on rails. If you are planning an overseas hire and want the whole chain handled — permit, visa, arrival, registration — message us on WhatsApp and we will map it for your specific role.

Frequently asked questions

What is an Irish Residence Permit (IRP)?

The IRP is the credit-card-sized card a non-EEA worker receives after registering their immigration permission with Immigration Service Delivery. It is proof they are legally resident in Ireland and shows the conditions of their stay. It is not the employment permit and not the visa — it is the third document, issued after arrival.

Does my new hire register at a Garda station?

Not any more. Since 13 January 2025, first-time registration for everyone living in the Republic of Ireland is carried out by Immigration Service Delivery at the Registration Office on Burgh Quay in Dublin — the Garda National Immigration Bureau no longer handles it. A worker based in Kerry or Donegal travels to Dublin for this one appointment.

Can I book the registration appointment for my employee?

No. Anyone over 16 must book through their own ISD Customer Service account, and the name on the appointment must match the person who attends — ISD states there are no exceptions. Your role is to make sure it gets booked promptly, supply the documents from your side, and give them the time off to attend.

How much does IRP registration cost and who pays?

The registration fee is €300 per person, paid by credit or debit card at the appointment. Booking the appointment itself is free. The fee is personal to the worker, though many employers reimburse it as part of the relocation package. Beware of third-party websites charging for appointments — ISD confirms they have no access to its booking system.

What immigration stamp does an employment permit holder get?

Stamp 1 — permission to live in Ireland and work under an employment permit. The registration is usually valid for 12 months and is then renewed online, so a worker on a two-year General Employment Permit renews their registration part-way through. Diary both expiry dates, not just the permit's.

What happens if my worker misses the 90-day registration window?

ISD's guidance is that a worker who cannot get an appointment within 90 days will not have their permission cancelled or be expected to leave while waiting — the instruction is to book promptly, not to panic about backlogs. But an unregistered worker has no IRP card, which complicates renewals, travel and your right-to-work file, so treat registration as a first-week onboarding task, not an option.