A recruiter messages: Ireland is hiring. You search the requirements and get a wall of agencies and forums, all confident, none explaining.
There is no single document called an Ireland work visa. There is an employment permit, decided on a real offer from a named employer, and only then a visa. Immigration Service Delivery is clear: the permit comes first.
The permit and the visa are two different things
Working in the country needs a permit from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment; only once you hold it are you eligible to apply for the employment visa.
Two separate processes. The permit process asks about the role — employer, occupation, salary requirement — and will allow you to work for that employer only. Nine months in, the department allows a change of employer within the same occupation classification — a route the Employment Permits Act 2024 opened. The visa process asks about you: passport, documentation, history.
The service's own words: a visa will allow you to travel, but does not give permission to enter. You can be refused at border control while holding one — a warning the Embassy of Ireland in Manila repeats. Nobody can sell you entry.
A third permission follows: non-EEA nationals staying beyond 90 days must register with the immigration service after arrival; the Irish Residence Permit card is what registration produces.
Which employment permit fits your job
The Critical Skills route is built for skilled occupations the country is short of. Two thresholds matter most to a Philippine applicant:
- €40,904 minimum annual remuneration for a restricted set of strategically important occupations on the Critical Skills Occupations List, where a relevant degree or higher is required;
- €36,848 where the qualification was received within the 12 months before applying.
Those were the department's figures in August 2026; with a Government roadmap of gradual increases announced in December 2025, confirm the current requirement on its own page.
The offer must also run at least two years, ruling out shorter contracts. Nurses and midwives are named directly — a third-level degree or diploma the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland accepts as sufficient for registration to practise. Registration with that professional regulator is separate, so getting your qualification recognised starts early. The list is revised, most recently in May 2026.
The General Employment Permit covers wider eligible roles, at a minimum of €36,605. A narrower figure sits under it: €32,691, with a minimum hourly rate of €16.12, applies to four named occupations — horticulture worker, meat processor operative, health care assistant and home support worker (SOC 6145) — and nothing else. Its initial term is two years, renewable for up to three more.
Family is where the routes diverge. A Critical Skills holder can apply for family reunification immediately; on the wider route, after a year of legal work in Ireland. Once reunification is granted, the immigration service registers that spouse or partner on Stamp 1G, which it says permits employment without a separate employment permit.
What the employer has to do, and what nobody may charge you
No permit issues unless at least half a firm's staff are EEA nationals at the time of application — the 50:50 rule, waived only in narrow cases the department names. Fees are published: €1,000 for either permit up to 24 months, with €500 for six months or less on the General route only. An unsuccessful application is refunded at 90%, to the applicant.
Where the employer applies, section 55 of the Employment Permits Act 2024 provides that the employer, or an agent acting for them, may not make deductions from the holder's pay, or seek to recover from them, any charge, fee or expense related to the application. If anyone says the fee comes out of your salary, ask in writing before you sign their terms.
How the visa application actually works
Everything starts online, in the Automated Visa Application and Tracking System (AVATS), up to three months before travel and from your home country or where you legally reside. AVATS generates a Summary Application Form naming the application office that takes your documents; print, sign and date it, then send it with your documentation as the form directs. Hardcopy only.
Applying from the Philippines has one published channel: since 5 September 2022, Irish visa queries and applications here go through VFS Philippines. Because the Embassy publishes that route, any claim of private access can be tested against it.
The immigration service lists the required documentation:
- your passport, and passport photographs
- the permit itself, listed as the Employment Permit from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
- your contract of employment, and a letter from the employer in Ireland
- evidence of qualifications and of finances, and medical or travel insurance — not required with the application, but ready at the port of entry
- an application letter, and details of any previous refusals
Employer letters must be original, on headed paper, with a fixed-line number and a written signature. Electronic signatures are refused.
Fees are €60 single entry, €100 multi entry and €25 transit, none refunded on refusal or withdrawal. Approximately eight weeks from the file reaching the visa office is what the service publishes — approximately being its own word — and do not buy tickets first. Never let anyone "fix" your paperwork: false or misleading information can end in refusal, no appeal in some circumstances, and a five-year block.
What the Philippine side asks of you
The Department of Migrant Workers sets this half; read its requirements on the DMW's own site, not an agency's summary. Two checks there are free: a directory that shows whether an agency is licensed, and an approved job orders inquiry carrying the DMW's caution that a listed order may already be filled. One rule to check before anything else: the DMW defines direct hiring as employment arranged without a licensed agency, and allows it only in the cases the Labor Code names.
The part of the rules that is really a career ladder
The fact that shapes a career most is buried in the registration rules. You may be eligible to apply for a Stamp 4 permission after 21 months on a Critical Skills permit — or after 57 months on the wider route, counted from starting work in the State. Stamp 4 is permission no longer tied to one permit or one term. Note the wording: eligibility to apply, never automatic.
Nearly three years separate those numbers, and much of what stands between them is an occupation list and a qualification. We have watched this everywhere we cover: the work that shortens the road is almost never done after arrival. So study the department's lists early and build what a check can survive — a passport with real validity left, qualification evidence an Irish employer and an Irish regulator can read, and, if a professional body asks, English test evidence prepared rather than scrambled for. Your degree or skilled trade certificate is the foundation; this is the layer on top. Nurses should also read where Ireland sits among the countries hiring Filipino nurses.
Before you send anything: a checklist
- Confirm which permit your occupation fits, and its current salary requirement
- Get the offer and the employer's details in writing first
- Ask in writing who pays the permit fee, and read section 55 first
- Verify any Philippine agency on the DMW's directory
- Prepare every document the immigration service lists
The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most
Can I get a work visa for Ireland from the Philippines? In two stages: the employment permit first, against a real offer from an employer, then the long stay employment visa once it is granted.
Is it easy to get a work visa for Ireland? The travel permission is the second gate, not the hard one. The permit is the real test: an eligible occupation, a qualifying salary, a genuine employer trading in the State.
How do I get a job in Ireland from the Philippines? Start with eligibility, not vacancies. The department publishes the Critical Skills Occupations List and the Ineligible List of Occupations, which tell you whether your occupation can carry a permit.
How much money is required for an Ireland work visa? Each official fee is published separately: €1,000 for a permit term of up to 24 months, €60 or €100 for the travel permission, and €300 to register per person after arrival, where applicable.
Sources
Employment visa — Immigration Service Delivery: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/coming-to-work-in-ireland/what-are-my-work-visa-options/applying-for-a-long-stay-employment-visa/employment-visa/ Critical Skills Employment Permit — DETE: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/permit-types/critical-skills-employment-permit/ General Employment Permit — DETE: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/permit-types/general-employment-permit/ Changing employer — DETE: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/changing-employer/ Permit fees — DETE: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/workplace-and-skills/employment-permits/fees/ Visa fees — Immigration Service Delivery: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/preclearance-and-entry-visas-fees/ Registration — Immigration Service Delivery: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/registering-your-immigration-permission/how-to-register-your-immigration-permission-for-the-first-time/required-documents/ Family reunification categories — Immigration Service Delivery: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/coming-to-join-family-in-ireland/joining-a-non-eea-non-swiss-national/join-non-eea-family-member/ Stamp 1G for spouses and partners — Immigration Service Delivery: https://www.irishimmigration.ie/attention-eligible-spouses-and-partners-of-general-employment-permit-and-intra-corporate-transferee-irish-employment-permit-holders/ Visas — Embassy of Ireland, Philippines: https://www.ireland.ie/en/philippines/manila/services/visas/visas-for-ireland/ Licensed recruitment agencies — DMW: https://dmw.gov.ph/inquiry/licensed-recruitment-agencies Approved job orders — DMW: https://dmw.gov.ph/inquiry/approved-job-orders Direct hiring FAQ — DMW: https://dmw.gov.ph/faqs