Talk Quesada forum

since the announcement of Brexit, people have been more than concerned about the outcome especially those ex pats living here in Spain. Friends have moved out here from Northern Ireland and decided to buy 2 Irish passports with the intention of being Irish rather than British. That seemed like a good way of dealing with problems should they arise. Some years ago, they owned a holiday home here but sold it a few years later. Now they have purchased a permanent home and when they told the solicitor that they wanted to call themselves Irish and technically have been Irish citizens, their solicitor told them that they could not as they already held an NIE and were British citizens. What a disappointment. Let us hope they do not hit any major problems after Brexit.
Has anyone else ever encountered a situation like this.
What was the point in thousands of people spending money buying Irish passports?

Are the duel passports so they can fight each other over them?

It is not really a question of "buying Irish passports", (you can't just "buy them"!!!) but of your friends choosing to assert their legal rights under the Good Friday Agreement of being both British and Irish and being free to choose to be one, the other or both at the same time. The problem you mention presumably arises because they registered their original NIE against their British identity and British passport and the NIE is a lifetime number. The idea of people switching nationality may just never have been put to that solicitor before. I suspect the solicitor is wrong. There are bound to be previous examples of people in Spain changing nationality and needing to amend their paperwork accordingly, although it may not be that common. Also as the Good Friday Agreement is enshrined in international law and supported by the EU, people in your friends' position would undoubtedly have EU law behind them if they wished to pursue the matter to change the NIE to be amended to their Irish identity and nationality. However, that said, it would probably cost some money and time and require a lot of patience to follow this through and likely to be best kept as a potential option just to pursue as a last resort if indeed it transpires that British citizens face more difficulties or differential regulations in Spain post Brexit. ( Which of course most of us hope will not be the case! An uncertain world. ) At the moment they don't really need to do anything ( unless they feel very strongly about it. ) And of course holding Irish passports as well as British means they will continue to enjoy the right of free movement to work, live, or retire to any other ( non Spain )EU country post Brexit while British passport holders sadly look set to lose that automatic right. And they have ensured their children and grandchildren ( if they have any ) will also keep that right though them .

If they do feel strongly of course their first port of call to take this further is likely to be the Irish consulate in Alicante who may know what needs to be done and are likely to want to know about this kind of issue.... https://www.dfa.ie/irish-embassy/spain/ ... -alicante/

Mac3blade wrote:since the announcement of Brexit, people have been more than concerned about the outcome especially those ex pats living here in Spain. Friends have moved out here from Northern Ireland and decided to buy 2 Irish passports with the intention of being Irish rather than British. That seemed like a good way of dealing with problems should they arise. Some years ago, they owned a holiday home here but sold it a few years later. Now they have purchased a permanent home and when they told the solicitor that they wanted to call themselves Irish and technically have been Irish citizens, their solicitor told them that they could not as they already held an NIE and were British citizens. What a disappointment. Let us hope they do not hit any major problems after Brexit.
Has anyone else ever encountered a situation like this.
What was the point in thousands of people spending money buying Irish passports?

Hi my Wife is Northern Irish she has got a British passport and yes she can get a duel passport she has lived in theWales for 45 years but can get it if she wants. That’s a fact.

Dual. She can get a dual passport.

Yes of course we are talking about holding dual citizenship, not duel citizenship...

And Pete31 is correct. Basically anyone who was born in Northern Ireland is entitled to dual citizenship. They can have a British Passport or an Irish Passport or BOTH. They are permitted to hold both at the same time ( though obviously every time you travel you need to pick which one you'll use that time...) Not all countries permit dual citizenship to be held, in some cases you have to renounce one before claiming the other but in this case it is perfectly legitimate to hold both at the same time. Indeed it is one one of those lovely ambiguities enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement that has enabled peace in Northern Ireland for 20 years. Also once you have an Irish passport, your children and their children can also claim Irish citizenship even if they have never lived in Ireland ( North or South ) . Which is perhaps a useful point for people to know if they are entitled to Irish citizenship and would like to preserve free movement rights post-Brexit for their children and grandchildren, even if it is not an issue for them personally.

Shiva, children cannot hold Irish citizenship unless they were born after their parents claimed Irish citizenship. Or the children were born on the island of Ireland. I like the idea of holding “duel” citizenship, one half of me fighting the other half with pistols at dawn!

Gladys Street wrote:Shiva, children cannot hold Irish citizenship unless they were born after their parents claimed Irish citizenship. Or the children were born on the island of Ireland. I like the idea of holding “duel” citizenship, one half of me fighting the other half with pistols at dawn!

I think you must be referring to the need on some occasions to register births in the Register of Foreign Births. There can be slightly different procedures for different circumstances but even the grandchildren of someone born on the Island of Ireland can claim citizenship by descent ( even if their parents did not claim it...) There may need to be an extra step of registering births in the Register of Foreign Births first but basically if you have an Irish grandparent, you're in. See details here for anyone interested in exploring this... http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/mo ... tizenship/

But the claim is not allowable beyond grandchildren so if your children and grandchildren were all born outside Ireland you would be preserving the link for another generation by actively claiming citizenship. You claim it first, then get your children to claim it, then their children can claim it... Of course this could change in the future. But anyone interested can start by consulting the information site above...


Extracted from the 'FAQ section'.
"My parents were both born in Great Britain and so was I. Am I entitled to Irish citizenship based on my Irish grandparents?
Yes, you are entitled to Irish citizenship by descent if any of your grandparents was born in Ireland, but you must first register your birth in the Foreign Births Register. "

I have thought about applying for Irish citizenship and then an Irish Passport. As my mother was from Eire, I asked the Irish Passport office and was told even though I was born in England as, my mother was Irish I am automatically an Irish citizen and therefore can apply for an Irish Passport, so dual nationality, Not sure now if I should pursue this if Spain won’t accept it?