Current DETE processing dates
These are the dates DETE reached in each queue as of 25 August 2026. Read them as: "if you submitted a completed application on this date, yours is the one being decided now."
| Application type | Now deciding applications received on | Wait at that date | Movement since 8 May 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical Skills Employment Permit (new) | 17 August 2026 | ~1 week | Moved forward — 2 weeks faster |
| New General Employment Permit | 19 July 2026 | ~5 weeks | Moved forward slightly (see note) |
| All other new applications (excl. CSEP, GEP, ICT) | 21 July 2026 | ~5 weeks | Moved forward — 4 weeks faster |
| Intra-company transfer (new) | 20 July 2026 | ~5 weeks | Stalled — same wait as May |
| Intra-company transfer (renewal) | 21 May 2026 | ~14 weeks | Slipped — 3 weeks slower |
| All renewal applications | 21 May 2026 | ~14 weeks | Slipped — 3 weeks slower |
| Reviews / appeals | 6 January 2026 | ~33 weeks | Slipped — 11 weeks slower |
Source: DETE, Current processing dates for employment permits — DETE's figures as of 25 August 2026, checked by us on 25 August 2026. "Wait at that date" is the calendar gap between the published date and the day we checked. Movement compares against DETE's own published position as of 8 May 2026, from the Internet Archive capture of 10 May 2026 — the last capture of that page before our August read. Verify the live figures on DETE's own page.
What moved, what stalled, what slipped
DETE publishes the dates. It does not tell you which direction they are heading. That is the part that decides whether you can promise a candidate a start date, so we track it.
The headline: new applications are speeding up, renewals and appeals are falling behind. Every queue for a first-time permit has moved forward or held since May. Every queue for something already in the system has gone backwards.
- Critical Skills — moving forward. A three-week wait in May, about one week now — the strongest argument there is for checking whether your role qualifies for the Critical Skills route before defaulting to a GEP.
- New General Employment Permits — moving forward, slowly. DETE did not publish a separate GEP line in May; it sat inside a combined "all new applications except Critical Skills" row with a nine-week wait. Our own reading on 5 August had the queue at 26 June; it now stands at 19 July, so it has advanced 23 days. We did not record DETE's own "as of" stamp that day, so read that as the direction of travel rather than a precise rate. The wait now sits at about five weeks.
- All other new applications — moving forward. Now around five weeks. The category was split out from the combined May row, so the comparison is not exact, but both successor queues sit well ahead of May's nine weeks.
- Intra-company transfers (new) — stalled. A five-week wait in May, a five-week wait now. Flat for three months while the queues either side of it moved.
- Renewals — slipped. Ten and a half weeks in May, about fourteen now. Both the general renewal queue and the ICT renewal queue sit on 21 May 2026. This is the line that catches employers out, and it is covered below.
- Reviews and appeals — slipped badly. Twenty-two weeks in May, about thirty-three now — roughly seven and a half months. A refused application is no longer something you appeal and expect back inside the year. Getting the application right first time has never mattered more.
What this means for your hire
The processing date is one stage of five. Here is what today's dates translate into if you start the process now, in August 2026.
If your role needs a General Employment Permit
Care assistants, chefs, construction trades, farm and meat-processing operatives, HGV drivers.
- Role definition, salary check and the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test — you cannot apply until the 28 days are complete. Realistic submission: late September 2026.
- DETE decision queue at today's pace, about five weeks — decision around late October to early November 2026.
- Employment D-visa for a worker from a visa-required country such as the Philippines, four to eight weeks — November to December 2026.
- Travel, arrival, IRP registration and onboarding — a further one to two weeks.
Add those up and the arithmetic lands on a start date around January 2027 — roughly five months. We tell employers to plan for six to eight months, which puts a realistic first day between February and April 2027. The gap between the two is not padding, and the section below explains exactly where it goes.
If your role qualifies for a Critical Skills Permit
Nurses, doctors, engineers, certain IT roles — anything on the Critical Skills Occupations List.
No Labour Market Needs Test, and a decision queue currently running at about a week. Submit in early September, expect a decision inside a fortnight, then four to eight weeks for the visa. Plan for three to five months — a first day between November 2026 and January 2027. Same worker, same country, three months earlier, purely because of the permit type.
If you have a permit coming up for renewal
This is the one that quietly bites. The renewal queue is sitting on 21 May 2026 — about fourteen weeks, and it has gone backwards since May.
If a worker's permit expires before mid-December 2026 — today's queue is 14 weeks and lengthening, so we build in a margin — and you have not applied yet, you are already inside the queue's own wait. You can apply to renew a General Employment Permit up to four months before it expires. At the current pace, use every week of that.
Why we say six to eight months when the arithmetic says five
You will see shorter numbers quoted elsewhere — four to six months is common. Those figures are not wrong; they are the sum of the published stages with nothing going sideways. We quote six to eight months because in practice something usually does.
The time that is missing from the arithmetic:
- Embassy appointment availability. The four-to-eight-week visa window starts when the application is lodged, not when the permit lands. Appointment slots in Manila are not available on demand.
- Document gathering. Qualifications, references, police clearance and medicals sit with the candidate, in another country, on another timezone.
- Candidate notice periods. Good candidates are usually employed. Four to eight weeks of notice is normal.
- Returned applications. A missing document or a salary below the legal floor sends the file back, and you lose your place in the queue. With appeals now running at thirty-three weeks, a refusal is close to a lost year.
So: six to eight months for a General Employment Permit hire, three to five for Critical Skills. That is the figure we plan against and the figure we quote in a proposal. If today's dates hold and nothing slips, you may well beat it. We would rather you were early than disappointed.
There is no fast-track queue — and no Trusted Partner stream
DETE publishes one queue per application type and works through it in date order of receipt of the fully completed form and fee. There is no second, faster column on that table for any category of employer, and no registration you can now apply for that would put you in a different queue.
The Trusted Partner Initiative no longer exists as a separate registration. Every employer now holds a portal account with current Revenue and CRO details, and DETE states that because all employers must submit Revenue documentation and a CRO number to maintain that account, there is no longer a requirement for a separate Trusted Partner Initiative. What the scheme used to give you comes as standard. DETE's own General Employment Permit and Critical Skills pages still describe an application being placed in a queue "depending on the Employer type, that is, Trusted Partner or Standard". We can't reconcile that with the Trusted Partner update above, and DETE publishes only one date per application type — so if employer type still affects your position, DETE does not publish it. Either way, there is no registration open to you that would change it.
The lever you do control is the date on your application. Your place in the queue runs from the day DETE holds a fully completed form and the fee — so anything sent in short of a document is not holding the date you think it is.
How CA Recruitment keeps your hire on track
We track these dates against your live application and tell you when they move. We run candidate sourcing in parallel with the Labour Market Needs Test so the 28 days are not dead time. We prepare the application to go in complete, because a returned file costs you your queue position and, at current appeal times, a refusal costs you the better part of a year. And we give you a start date you can repeat to your candidate without having to walk it back.
Monette is Filipino, based in Ireland, and has run this process from both ends. No recruitment fee is payable until your worker starts.
For the full stage-by-stage explanation of how these dates fit into the wider hiring journey, read our detailed employer guide to permit processing times.
Want a realistic start date for your role?
Send Monette the job title and county. We'll tell you which permit applies, what today's dates mean for it, and when your worker could realistically start.
Frequently asked questions
As of 25 August 2026, DETE is deciding New General Employment Permit applications received on 19 July 2026 — a wait of about five weeks — and Critical Skills Employment Permit applications received on 17 August 2026, about one week. Those are decision-queue waits only. The full hire, including the Labour Market Needs Test beforehand and the visa and travel afterwards, runs six to eight months for a GEP and three to five for a Critical Skills permit.
It depends on the queue. Since May 2026, new-application queues have moved forward — Critical Skills from about three weeks to one — while renewals have slipped from about ten and a half weeks to fourteen, and reviews and appeals from twenty-two weeks to about thirty-three. In short, first-time permits are speeding up and anything already in the system is slowing down.
As of 25 August 2026, DETE is processing renewal applications received on 21 May 2026 — about fourteen weeks, and the queue has gone backwards since May. You can apply to renew a General Employment Permit up to four months before it expires. If a worker's permit runs out before mid-December 2026 and you have not applied, start now.
No. DETE publishes one queue per application type and processes it in date order of receipt of the fully completed form and fee — there is no separate Standard and Trusted Partner stream on the published dates. The Trusted Partner Initiative no longer exists as a separate registration — DETE states that because all employers must submit Revenue documentation and a CRO number to maintain a portal account, there is no longer a requirement for a separate Trusted Partner Initiative.
Starting in August 2026 on a General Employment Permit, a realistic first day is February to April 2027 — the 28-day Labour Market Needs Test, roughly five weeks in the DETE queue, four to eight weeks for the D-visa, then travel and registration. For a Critical Skills role there is no Labour Market Needs Test and the queue is about a week, so November 2026 to January 2027 is realistic.
No one can. What we do is stop you losing time everywhere else: a complete application that isn't returned for corrections, a Labour Market Needs Test run correctly the first time, sourcing that happens during the 28 days rather than after them, and the visa lined up to follow the permit. With appeals now running around thirty-three weeks, getting it right first time is the whole game.