IRP in Ireland: booking your registration, the day at Burgh Quay and renewing

How to get your IRP in Ireland: the free appointment on the ISD portal, the 90-day deadline, registration at Burgh Quay, the €300 fee, the card by post, and online renewal with 85% attendance and exam results.

Published on 16 Oct 2026

Summary

You book your first immigration registration for free, and only after you arrive, on the portal of the ISD (Immigration Service Delivery, the Irish immigration service). If you book within 90 days of arriving, you can stay in Ireland until the appointment, even if it falls after those 90 days. If your landing stamp gives you less than 90 days, book before its date.
Every first registration in the country takes place at the Burgh Quay office in Dublin. You pay €300 by card only and bring six original documents, or five if you need a visa. The IRP (Irish Residence Permit, the residence card) then arrives by post within 15 working days.
The permission lasts up to 8 months. You renew it online, and the application can only go in once your new course has started and before your card expires. This means your next course has to start before the date printed on your IRP.
To renew, you need 85% attendance, your exam results and private medical insurance, because the ISD does not accept travel insurance at renewal. Two years of English courses is the maximum, and that is three registrations: €900 in fees alone.
With a passport from the EU, the EEA (European Economic Area), Switzerland or the UK, you do not register and you do not get an IRP. If you need a visa to enter Ireland, you do not show proof of money at registration, and the travel rules are different. The details for both groups are at the end of this guide.
To start today, create your account on the ISD customer portal(opens in new tab) with your own email address. You can do this before you travel.

Booking within 90 days lets you stay until your appointment

You book for free on the customer portal(opens in new tab), and only after you arrive in Ireland. If there is no free slot within 90 days of your arrival, a booking made within those 90 days lets you stay until your appointment¹, according to the ISD's frequently asked questions(opens in new tab)².

The ISD page on permission stamps(opens in new tab)³ adds that you must be able to show you sought an appointment within the 90 days. If you try to register beyond a reasonable time, you may be refused and sent a notice of intention to deport. Keep your booking confirmation email.

The immigration officer at the airport writes on your landing stamp the date you can stay until. The ISD says the officer decides how long, up to a maximum of three months⁴. Read the date as soon as you are through passport control. If it falls before the 90 days are up, book on the customer portal(opens in new tab) before that date.

You can create the portal account before you travel, according to Citizens Information(opens in new tab)⁵. From age 16, each person creates their own account, with their own email address, and books their own appointment. If the name on the confirmation does not match the person who turns up at the desk, the appointment does not go ahead.

The ISD shows appointments up to 90 days ahead and says they fill up quickly. You can move your appointment to any other free date at any time, and the ISD releases extra slots when it can. Citizens Information says appointments are normally available within 2 to 3 weeks. The ISD, which runs the system, does not publish a waiting time.

On its Burgh Quay appointments page(opens in new tab)⁶, the ISD warns that anyone charging a fee to book does not act for the ISD and has no appointment to offer you. In its FAQs, it calls the sale of "expedited" appointment slots a scam.

Burgh Quay does not see anyone without an appointment. For a proven urgent case, you can request an emergency appointment, with evidence of the urgency. The request is under "Submit Query", in the registration category and the first-time registration sub-category, as the ISD queries page(opens in new tab)⁷ explains.

First registration is at Burgh Quay, Dublin, and costs €300 by card

Since 13 January 2025, the GNIB, the immigration bureau of the Garda (the Irish police), no longer registers anyone, according to the ISD first registration page(opens in new tab)⁸. Every first registration in the country takes place at the ISD office at 13-14 Burgh Quay, Dublin 2, D02 XK70. Any advice to go to a Garda station dates from before then. If you live in Cork, Galway or Limerick, you travel to Dublin.

You check in at a kiosk, take a ticket and wait to be called. The officer reviews your documents, takes your photo and fingerprints, charges the fee and stamps the granted permission in your passport. After the payment, the officer takes your passport for processing and gives it back at the end. The ISD says the visit takes up to 30 minutes on one page and up to 60 in its FAQs.

You pay the fee by credit or debit card, and contactless is accepted. The office does not take cash.

You can bring a friend to help you with English. If you need an interpreter or special assistance, ask in advance through the customer portal(opens in new tab). The office is wheelchair accessible.

At first registration, bring six originals, or five with a visa

For an English language student, the list of required documents(opens in new tab)⁹ is:

A valid passport with your landing stamp, and your visa if you need one.
A letter from your school, dated on or after the day your course started. It confirms you are enrolled on a full-time English language course of at least 25 weeks. The course must be on one of the two lists of courses accepted by immigration¹⁰: the ILEP (Interim List of Eligible Programmes) or the TrustEd Ireland list. How to check both lists is covered in our guide to choosing an English school in Ireland(opens in new tab).
Proof that you paid the course fees.
An original insurance policy in your name, covering accidents, medical incidents and hospital stays in Ireland for 12 months, or for your whole stay if it is shorter. At first registration, the ISD accepts travel insurance with this cover. It does not accept cash-back policies, which pay you back later.
If you do not need a visa, proof of access to money on the date you arrived: €10,000 for a course of more than 8 months, or €833 per month up to €6,665 for a course of up to 8 months.
Proof of address. The ISD does not say which documents it accepts, so ask your school what its students brought in recent months.

The bank statement format, who can sponsor you and the minimum course payment are explained in our guide to documents and entry to Ireland(opens in new tab). If your money is in a digital account, the bank account guide(opens in new tab) sets out what is known about whether the ISD accepts that statement.

Until the card arrives, your passport stamp proves your permission

Until your IRP arrives, the stamp in your passport is your proof of permission. The card comes by post to the address you gave at the appointment, within 15 working days, and you cannot collect it from the office. The ISD's first registration page, from January 2025, says 10 working days, and this guide follows the more recent pages, which say 15. If it has not arrived after 15 working days, open a query on the customer portal(opens in new tab). The ISD may ask for recent proof of address, such as a utility bill from the last 3 months.

With your IRP, you return without a visa and tell the ISD if you move

With a valid card, you can leave Ireland and come back without a visa. Carry it with you at all times and show it if the authorities ask. The IRP is not an identity card. It does not let you travel to or live in other EU countries¹¹, and Citizens Information warns that a digital copy of the card is not accepted for travel. The ISD says your time outside Ireland, counting holidays and personal or work trips, should not exceed 90 days in any 12-month period.

Immigration law requires you to tell the ISD when you change address. You do this through the customer portal(opens in new tab), with proof of your new address dated in the last 3 months, such as a utility bill or a tenancy agreement. You report a new passport through the portal too.

If your card is lost or stolen, report it to the Garda(opens in new tab). They give you a reference called a Garda PULSE number. Send that number to the ISD in a query on the customer portal(opens in new tab). The replacement card goes to your home address, and the ISD does not reissue an IRP to anyone outside Ireland.

Renew after the new course starts and before your card expires

An English language student permission lasts up to 8 months. The expiry date is printed on your card, and the ISD does not send reminders.

You renew online only, on the online renewals portal(opens in new tab), which is a different site from the customer portal. On Stamp 2, the study permission, the ISD only accepts the application when three conditions are true at the same time:

You are in Ireland.
Your permission expires in 12 weeks or less. The ISD refuses applications that arrive earlier.
Your new course has started.

If your IRP expires on 30 June, the window opens on 7 April, and your application can only go in after the first day of your new course. The renewed permission runs from your current expiry date, so applying early does not cost you any days.

If your card expires while your application is in the queue, you can stay and keep working on the conditions of your current card for up to 12 weeks after the expiry date. The condition is that you applied before the expiry date, with all the required documents, according to the ISD notice to employers(opens in new tab)¹². If you apply after the expiry date, you are out of permission and cannot stay or work in the country.

On the ISD renewal page(opens in new tab)¹³, on 12 October 2026, the ISD was processing Stamp 2 applications submitted on 20 August, almost eight weeks earlier. The ISD updates that table every week. After approval, the card takes up to another 15 working days to arrive, and the approval email is your proof of permission in the meantime.

For an English language student, a renewal needs¹⁴:

Enrolment on a new English language course at a higher level than the last one, lasting at least 25 weeks and listed on the ILEP or the TrustEd Ireland list¹⁰.
A letter from your school showing you attended at least 85% of the classes on your previous course, and evidence that you attended at least 15 hours of class a week on it.
Your exam results from the end of your previous course.
Proof that you paid for the new course.
Private medical insurance covering accidents, medical incidents and hospital stays for your whole permission. The ISD does not accept travel insurance at renewal.
The photo page of your passport, the front and back of your current IRP, and proof of address, scanned or photographed so they are easy to read.
€300, paid by card when you submit the application.

After you submit, you get an email with a receipt and your OREG number, which identifies your application. If the ISD asks for more documents, you have 14 days to upload them on the renewals portal(opens in new tab), under "My Forms", in the "Additional Information Required" tab. If you do not respond in time, the ISD refuses and closes the application, and you have to submit a new one. If your application is refused, the ISD refunds the fee.

If you do not need a visa, you can travel while your renewal is pending and come back without an IRP or a visa. Carry proof of your application to show at the border. If you need a visa, you apply for a "D" visa(opens in new tab), the visa for coming to Ireland for more than 90 days¹⁵, once you reach your destination. You apply through the Irish embassy or consulate nearest to where you are. The ISD asks people not to request faster processing in order to travel.

The ISD registers English language students for a maximum of three permissions of 8 months each, two years in total¹⁶. After that, to stay on as a student, you move to a higher education course on the ILEP or the TrustEd Ireland list¹⁰. How this limit affects your choice of school is covered in our guide to choosing an English school in Ireland(opens in new tab).

At renewal, the place, the insurance and the attendance rule change

	First registration	Renewal
Where	At Burgh Quay, Dublin, by appointment	Online, on the renewals portal, while in Ireland
When	Booked within 90 days of arrival. By the appointment, your course has started.	From 12 weeks before expiry, once the new course has started
Fee	€300, by card at the desk	€300, by card in the application
Insurance	Private medical or travel	Private medical only
Attendance and exam	Not asked for	85% attendance and exam results
Proof of permission until the card arrives	Passport stamp	Approval email
Card	By post, within 15 working days	By post, within 15 working days of approval

With an EU, EEA, Swiss or UK passport, you do not register

If you are a citizen of a European Union member state, or of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, you do not register with immigration and you do not get an IRP. The ISD publishes the exact list of countries in this group(opens in new tab)¹⁷. Several European countries are not on it, including Serbia, Ukraine and Albania. If your citizenship by descent is still being processed, you register on the passport you hold now, and everything in this guide applies to you.

UK citizens can live and work in Ireland without restriction under the Common Travel Area, as the Citizens Information page on UK citizens(opens in new tab)¹⁸ explains. The ISD's registration rules apply to people from outside the EU, the UK and Switzerland¹⁹, so UK citizens do not register either.

With a visa, you skip the money check and travel under other rules

Check your nationality against the list of visa-exempt nationalities(opens in new tab)²⁰ published by Citizens Information. If you need a visa, the steps in this table change, and the rest of the process is the same for everyone. The ISD's frequently asked questions(opens in new tab)² cover these cases.

	No visa needed	Visa needed
Money at registration	You show access to €10,000, or €833 per month of course up to €6,665 for courses of up to 8 months	You do not show it, because it was checked in your visa application
Proof of entry at registration	Your landing stamp	Your landing stamp and the matching entry visa
Leaving Ireland before you register	The ISD's pages do not cover this case	You cannot come back without a new entry visa
Travelling while your renewal is pending	You can return without an IRP or a visa, carrying proof of your application	To return, you apply for a "D" visa(opens in new tab) at the Irish embassy or consulate nearest to where you are
Emergency travel once your permission is granted, if the card has not arrived or was lost or stolen	You can present yourself at the border	Before you travel, you write to the ISD through the customer portal(opens in new tab) with your flight booking and the reason, and the ISD decides case by case

What we could not source

The ISD asks for proof of address at first registration but does not say which documents it accepts, or whether a hostel address is accepted. The only example it gives is for a change of address: a utility bill or tenancy agreement from the last 3 months. Ask your school what its students brought in recent months.

The Stamp 2 section of the list of required documents(opens in new tab)⁹ talks about proving funds on the date of arrival, and the renewal list for English language students does not include a bank statement. The page does not say whether a renewal requires a new statement.

Still deciding

A two-year budget includes €900 in fees, private medical insurance from your first renewal and, if you will live outside Dublin, the trip to Burgh Quay for your first registration.

Already decided

Before you travel, create your account on the ISD customer portal(opens in new tab) with your own email address.
When you leave passport control, read the date on your landing stamp. That same day, book your first registration on the customer portal(opens in new tab), and never pay anyone for a slot.
Keep the confirmation email. If an earlier date comes up, reschedule through the customer portal(opens in new tab).
Once classes start, ask your school for the letter dated from that day, and ask what proof of address its students brought. Then gather the originals on the list of required documents(opens in new tab).
Bring a credit or debit card to the appointment for the €300 fee.
If your IRP has not arrived within 15 working days, or if you change address, tell the ISD through the customer portal(opens in new tab).
Note your IRP expiry date and choose your next course so it starts before that date. Before you renew, replace travel insurance with private medical insurance.
Once the new course starts, and from 12 weeks before expiry, apply on the online renewals portal(opens in new tab) with your attendance letter, exam results and insurance policy.
Follow the queue on the ISD renewal page(opens in new tab) and answer any request for documents within 14 days.

Verified on 16 October 2026.

Immigration rules, fees and processing times change without notice. If you are reading this months after the verification date, check the original sources before you pay.

Sources