Non-EEA family reunification: joining an Irish national

Conditions you must meet

• Each family category is a separate application with different conditionsSpouse, civil partner, de facto partner, minor child, dependent parent and dependent adult child are six routes, not one. ISD's per-category pages are rendered client-side and cannot be read by VisaAI, so their conditions are not in this registry — use ISD's own pages for them.
• Outside the nuclear family, a dependent parent or a dependent adult child, you are generally not eligibleStated flatly by ISD. The exception is exceptional circumstances under section 13 of the policy document — a discretion, not a route.
• A dependent adult child qualifies only on a serious medical or psychological conditionNot financial dependency: ISD requires a condition that makes independent life unsustainable. A financially supported adult child does not qualify on that basis.
• The sponsor takes full financial responsibility; the State will not subsidise the familyThe principle every figure below follows from, in ISD's own words.
• The sponsor must not have relied mainly on State supports for two years or more before applyingA bar in its own right, independent of the income tables, and it looks back two continuous years.
• Only ONE sponsor's income counts — incomes cannot be combinedTHE RULE MOST LIKELY TO SINK AN OTHERWISE-COMFORTABLE HOUSEHOLD. A couple earning EUR 40,000 each does not meet a EUR 50,200 threshold; one of them must meet it alone.
• Category A sponsor (e.g. Irish citizen): EUR 75,000 gross cumulative over the three years before applyingEUR 3 over years · EUR 75,000 cumulative grossCumulative, not annual — ISD's own example is EUR 25,000 a year for three years — and above any State benefits, with the expectation it will be maintained. The same test covers unmarried minor children.
• Category C sponsor (e.g. general employment permit holder): over EUR 30,000 gross in the previous yearEUR 30,000 minimum gross previous yearA single-year test rather than a three-year cumulative one — a different shape of requirement for the same family relationship, decided entirely by the sponsor's permission type.
• Category C sponsoring minor children: EUR 39,780 net (≈EUR 50,200 gross) for one child, rising to EUR 79,664 net for eight or moreEUR 39,780 net 1 child · EUR 45,032 net 2 children · EUR 50,284 net 3 children · EUR 55,016 net 4 children · EUR 61,568 net 5 children · EUR 67,600 net 6 children · EUR 74,672 net 7 children · EUR 79,664 net 8 plus childrenThe binding figure is NET, and ISD gives the gross equivalents only as indicative — a job offer quoting gross is not directly comparable. Based on the Department of Social Protection's 2026 Working Family Payment limits.
• Any sponsor bringing dependent adult relatives: EUR 96,929 gross for one, EUR 130,985 for two, EUR 165,042 for threeEUR 96,929 gross 1 adult · EUR 130,985 gross 2 adults · EUR 165,042 gross 3 adultsTHE HIGHEST THRESHOLD IN THIS REGISTRY, and it applies to Category A, B and C alike — earned IN IRELAND, in each of the three years. Based on CSO average earnings for Q2 2025.
• Which category you are in is decided by your immigration permission, not your family relationshipA: Irish nationals. B: critical-skills permit holders, intra-company transferees, non-locum doctors, researchers on hosting agreements, IIP investors, STEP entrepreneurs, certain students and ministers of religion. C: general and reactivation employment permit holders and independent Stamp 4 holders.

Also stated by the authority

Not requirements in themselves. These are alternatives, exemptions, rights and warnings the authority publishes alongside the requirements — quoted here because they can change what applies to you.

• Category B sponsors: no figure is published — the status is taken to assume the incomeRecorded because its ABSENCE is the fact. ISD publishes no number for critical-skills permit holders, researchers, investors and the rest of Category B, and none is invented here.