Ireland: Certain Non-Ukrainian Refugees Now Require Visa for Short-Term Entry

Impacted travelers will need to apply for a visa at an Irish consulate prior to travel, which requires additional time, unlike visa-free travel.

Visa-free travel is still available for Ukrainian nationals.

Permission to work will still be governed by the same rules as for other non-European Economic Area nationals and employers should ensure they have applied for the appropriate work authorisation and visa prior to travel.

• Purpose of Agreement. The Agreement allows refugees issued with Convention Travel Documents (also known as a ‘Convention Travel Document’ or ‘refugee travel document’) in 20 European countries to travel to and stay in Ireland without a visa for visit purposes for up to three months.
• Purpose of suspension. This temporary change is due to Ireland suspending the Council of Europe Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees for 12 months due to what the government claims is evidence of abuse of the system and amid the ongoing accommodation shortage for refugees.
• Previous suspensions. Article 7 of the Agreement allows countries to suspend its application for reasons of public order, security or public health. Two previous suspensions for similar reasons were by France (in 1986) and the United Kingdom (in 2003).

It is unclear if Ireland will issue more changes that will restrict entry rules or if this is a one-off rule, as this modification is contrary to previous changes that were implemented to make the immigration process more user-friendly, such as recently expanding the eligibility for multiple-entry visas.