How to Sponsor a Work Permit in Ireland: An Employer's Guide

Most of what's written about Irish work permits is aimed at the person hoping to get one. If you're the one hiring, the picture looks different. You're not applying for permission to move somewhere. You're taking on a legal role in someone else's immigration status, with obligations that start before the application is even submitted and don't end the day it's approved.

Here's what that actually looks like, in the order it actually happens.

Step 1: Confirm your company can sponsor at all

Before any permit type or paperwork, this is the real starting point. Your business needs to be registered and trading in Ireland, tax compliant, and able to show it's a genuine, operating employer, not just a company on paper. A newly established business can still sponsor, but may be asked for extra evidence that the role and the business are real.

If this isn't in place, nothing past this point matters yet. Get this settled first.

Step 2: Work out which permit type actually fits

Only once you know you can sponsor does it make sense to look at permit types. This is where a lot of confusion starts, because the two most common routes, the General Employment Permit (GEP) and the Critical Skills Employment Permit (CSEP), have different rules for almost everything that follows: whether you need to advertise the role first, what the salary threshold is, and how the fee works.

Which one applies depends on the occupation, the salary being offered, and whether the role sits on the Critical Skills List or the Ineligible List. This decision shapes every step after it, so it's worth getting right before you go further. See Stamp 4 Through the General Employment Permit and Stamp 4 Through the Critical Skills Employment Permit for how each looks from the employee's side.

Step 3: Check if you need to advertise the role first

For most General Employment Permits, yes. This is the Labour Market Needs Test, and it has to happen before you apply, not alongside it. You need to advertise the vacancy for 28 continuous days on DSP Employment Services/EURES, plus one additional platform, showing the role was genuinely open to Irish and EEA candidates first.

Critical Skills Employment Permits don't require this step. This is one of the clearest practical differences between the two routes, and it directly affects your timeline, so it's worth weighing alongside Step 2's permit choice rather than treating it as a separate, later decision.

Step 4: Check your company's EEA workforce ratio

For a General Employment Permit, more than 50% of your existing workforce needs to already be EEA nationals. This is checked at the time you apply, and it gets checked again at renewal. It's not a one-time box to tick and forget.

Step 5: Build your timeline backwards from the start date

This is the step most employers skip, and it's usually where things go wrong. Work backwards from when you actually need the person to start:

• ☐DETE advises that the application reach them at least 12 weeks before the proposed start date. This is a strong recommendation rather than an automatic cutoff, but it exists for a real reason: it gives room for the Labour Market Needs Test, document gathering, and DETE's own processing queue, all of which take time.
• ☐If Step 3 applies to you, the 28-day advertising window has to be fully completed and closed before you submit, which means it needs to start well before your target application date, not inside it.
• ☐Once you begin the online application, you have 28 days to submit it. If you don't, it's automatically deleted for data protection reasons, with no way to recover it. You'd start over completely.

Step 6: Submit the application and pay the fee

Fees are tiered by the length of the employment contract, not by permit type: shorter contracts (6 months or less) carry a lower fee than longer ones (up to 24 months). The current figures for each tier are published directly on DETE's own fees page. The fee can be paid by the employer, the employee, or a connected party. If the application is refused, 90% of the fee is refunded. Recruitment costs can't be deducted from the employee's pay under the Employment Permits Act, regardless of who pays the fee itself.

Step 7: Wait, and check the right place for timing

DETE processes applications strictly in the order they're received, once the form and fee are complete. There's no fixed number of weeks that holds true across the board. DETE publishes a page called "Current Processing Dates for Employment Permits" directly on its own website, and that's the only reliable way to check where things stand, rather than any timeframe quoted elsewhere.

Step 8: Know what you're responsible for after the permit is granted

Sponsoring doesn't end at approval. As the employer, you need to:

• ☐Keep a copy of the employee's valid employment permit and Irish Residence Permit (IRP) on file
• ☐Re-verify both before they expire
• ☐Notify DETE if the employee is placed on short-time working, or if there's a change to any of the terms and conditions that were part of the original permit application. When in doubt, flag it to DETE directly rather than assuming it's minor.
• ☐If the employee is made redundant, they (not you) are the one required to notify DETE, using the prescribed Redundancy Notification Form, within 28 days of the dismissal date. Your role is to support that process and be accurate about the redundancy itself.

What Employers Get Wrong

Picking a permit type before checking if the role needs to be advertised. These two decisions are linked. Get the permit type wrong and you may find out about the advertising requirement too late to hit your start date.

Treating the 12-week guidance as the whole timeline, instead of working backwards from it to fit in advertising, document collection, and internal sign-off. It's a recommendation, not a fixed cutoff, but skipping it removes the buffer that actually protects your start date.

Assuming the employer notifies DETE of a redundancy. That responsibility sits with the employee. The employer's role is to be accurate and supportive in that process, not to file the notification themselves.

Not tracking the 50:50 rule on an ongoing basis. It gets checked again at renewal, not just at the original application.

Quick Answers

Does Ireland have a "certificate of sponsorship" like some other countries?
No. Ireland works through the employment permit itself rather than a separate sponsorship certificate. If you've come across that phrase, it's usually describing the same underlying process under different terminology.

Do I need to advertise the role for every permit type?
No. It applies to most General Employment Permits and some Contract for Services Employment Permits. Critical Skills Employment Permits don't require it.

Who actually pays the fee?
It can be the employer, the employee, or a connected party, but recruitment-related costs generally can't be passed on to or deducted from the employee's pay.

What happens if the application is refused?
You'll be given the specific reasons and can request a review within a set period. Most of the fee is refunded automatically.

Who notifies DETE if the employee is made redundant?
The employee does, not the employer, within 28 days of the dismissal date, using the official Redundancy Notification Form.

Read Next

• Stamp 4 Through the General Employment Permit
• Stamp 4 Through the Critical Skills Employment Permit
• Change of Employer on a CSEP or GEP: What's Actually Allowed
• The Critical Skills List and the Ineligible List: How They Actually Fit Together

Official source: Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (enterprise.gov.ie), employment permits section, accessed July 2026.