Right to Work Checks in Ireland: What Employers Must Verify Before Hiring a Non-EEA Candidate

I once sat in an interview where the person across the table looked at my IRP card, turned it over twice, and told me she was not sure it meant I could work. I could. I had held that right for years. She had simply never been taught what she was looking at, and the cost of that landed on me rather than on her.

This is the guide I wish she had read. Not how to sponsor a work permit, which is a different job. This is how to work out whether the person in front of you needs one at all.

Why This Sits On You, Not On Them

DETE puts the duty plainly: the Employment Permits Acts 2024 establishes that an employer shall not employ a non-EEA national except in accordance with an employment permit, apart from the exempt cases. The Workplace Relations Commission adds the part employers tend to miss, that it is an offence for both an employer and an employee to have a non-EEA national in employment without an appropriate permit. Both sides. A candidate getting it wrong does not take the weight off you.

So "they told me it was fine" is not a position you want to be defending. Employment clearance for a non-EEA hire is something you verify once, properly, before the start date.

The good news is it is usually a two minute job, and a lot of the people you interview will need no permit at all.

What You Are Actually Looking At

For most candidates the document is the Irish Residence Permit, the IRP card. What matters on it is the stamp number and the expiry date.

The stamp number is the permission. It tells you what the person is allowed to do here, and the stamps are not interchangeable. A Stamp 3 and a Stamp 4 are the same piece of plastic and completely different answers.

Ask for the card, look at the stamp, check the expiry, take a copy for your file. Ask every candidate the same thing at the same point in your process, and never single someone out because of their name, their accent, or where they told you they were born.

Who Can Work Without Any Employment Permit

Stamp 4. Yes, without restriction. ISD's wording: you can take up employment and are not required to hold an Employment Permit, you can work in a profession subject to that profession's own bodies, and you can establish and operate a business.

Stamp 4 EUFAM. Yes. This is the one people get wrong, so read it twice. It is held by a non-EEA family member of an EEA or Swiss citizen exercising EU Treaty Rights, and it sits outside the ordinary stamps guidance entirely, under EU Treaty Rights. Citizens Information states the position directly: you do not need an employment permit or business permission. It comes from a different legal source than an ordinary Stamp 4, and that difference matters for some of the holder's own long term planning. For you as the employer it does not. The right to work is the right to work. Do not treat that card as a lesser document, and do not ask the holder to explain European law to you in an interview.

Stamp 5. Yes. ISD describes it as permission to live and work in Ireland without the need for an Employment Permit. I have covered who gets one in Stamp 5 Ireland: Who Actually Qualifies.

Stamp 1G, all versions. Yes to employment, no to business.

A graduate on the Third Level Graduate Programme "can work full time in accordance with employment law requirements, but is not permitted to operate a business or be self-employed".

A spouse or de facto partner of a permit holder is "permitted to work in the State without the requirement to obtain a work permit", and likewise cannot establish a business or be self-employed. That category is wider than most people realise, and wider than ISD's own general stamps page currently describes. It covers spouses and partners of Critical Skills permit holders and of researchers on a Hosting Agreement, and since a Ministerial announcement it also covers eligible spouses and partners of General Employment Permit holders and Intra-Corporate Transferee permit holders who have been granted family reunification. They are now registered on Stamp 1G rather than Stamp 3, specifically so they can take up employment without a permit of their own.

Either way, they can work for you directly.

Stamp 4D. Held by eligible non-EEA family members of UK citizens under the post-Brexit arrangements. Less common, and you may never see one, but it exists.

Stamp 6. An Irish citizen with dual citizenship. No restrictions at all.

Beyond the stamps, DETE exempts certain categories outright. Van der Elst workers, meaning non-EEA staff legally employed in another member state and temporarily sent here on contract. People with permission to remain as the spouse, civil partner or dependant of an Irish or EEA national. Parents of Irish citizens. People with temporary leave to remain on humanitarian grounds having been in the Asylum process. Swiss nationals. Certain diplomatic staff. And anyone holding explicit permission from the Department of Justice to remain resident and employed here.

Who Cannot Work For You, or Only Partly

Stamp 1. Only with a valid employment permit, or with a letter from ISD stating that no permit is required. That letter also states whether the person may set up a business or be self-employed, so read it rather than assuming. A sponsored permit is tied to the role, the employer and the location, which I have set out in Employing Someone on a Work Permit in Ireland.

Stamp 2. Casual employment only, capped at 20 hours a week during term and 40 hours during holidays. If the role is full time and permanent, this is not the right candidate for it.

Stamp 3. Generally no. ISD is blunt on the stamp itself: you cannot work or engage in any business, trade or profession.

But do not stop there, because there is now an exception and it catches employers out. Eligible spouses and partners of permit holders who still hold an in-date Stamp 3 IRP card have had their permission varied to Stamp 1G conditions, with effect from May 2024. They do not need a new IRP card to start working, and they do not need to go to the registration office first. ISD issues a letter explaining the arrangement, which the person presents to a prospective employer alongside their Stamp 3 card. A new IRP on Stamp 1G conditions issues when they next renew.

So a Stamp 3 card plus that letter is a person who can work for you. Ask whether they have the letter before you conclude anything from the stamp alone.

Stamp 2A. No work of any kind.

Stamp 0. No, unless a letter of permission from ISD specifically says otherwise.

Stamp 1A. Trainee accountant only, in full time paid accountancy training.

Stamp 1H. Associated with Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors on a Multi-Site General Employment Permit. ISD's general stamps page does not set out conditions for it, so if one lands on your desk, check the permission letter rather than assuming it behaves like a Stamp 1.

Two Things Worth Telling a Long-Serving Employee

In practice both of these are about General Employment Permit holders. Someone on a Critical Skills permit, a Researcher Hosting Agreement, or a Multi-Site General Employment Permit as an NCHD becomes eligible for Stamp 4 at 21 months and will be out of the permit system long before either point arises. It is the people on the slower route who sit renewing year after year, and nobody tells them.

Stamp 4. On a General Employment Permit, eligibility for a Stamp 4 upgrade comes at 57 months from commencement of employment in the State. DETE describes the same route as having held valid employment permits for five consecutive years while working lawfully, which is roughly when the permission is actually in hand once processing is added on top. If it is granted, they no longer need a permit at all, and your renewal cycle for that person ends.

An employment permit of unlimited duration. Separately, someone in continuous employment with you for five years or more may be eligible for an employment permit of unlimited duration, and there is no fee for it. This one matters where the Stamp 4 route is not open to them or not what they want.

Neither is automatic and neither is your decision to make, but plenty of employers keep renewing without ever mentioning either option to the person it would help most.

What People Get Wrong

"Every non-EEA worker needs a permit." No. Stamp 4, Stamp 4 EUFAM, Stamp 5 and Stamp 1G holders can all work for you without one, with no DETE application involved.

"A Stamp 4 EUFAM card is not a real Stamp 4." Different route to the same working right. Treating it as suspect is how you lose a good candidate and embarrass yourself.

"The check is done once and lasts forever." The right to work usually has an expiry date. Diary it, and understand renewal timing before it becomes urgent.

"If they handed me the card, I have done my bit." Look at the stamp number, not just the card. The card tells you the person is registered. The stamp tells you what they may do.

"Stamp 3 means no, end of conversation." Not since May 2024. An eligible spouse or partner of a permit holder can hold a Stamp 3 card and still have the right to work, carrying an ISD letter that says so. Ask for the letter before you rule someone out.

Quick Answers

Can I hire someone on a Stamp 4 without a permit?
Yes, with no restriction on the role.

Is Stamp 4 EUFAM different from Stamp 4 for hiring?
No. Neither needs an employment permit.

Can a Stamp 3 holder work part time?
As a rule Stamp 3 carries no right to work. The exception is an eligible spouse or partner of a permit holder, whose Stamp 3 permission was varied to Stamp 1G conditions in May 2024 and who can show you an ISD letter confirming it.

Can a student work for me full time?
Only during holiday periods, capped at 40 hours a week. Term time is capped at 20.

Can a Stamp 1G holder do contract work for me?
They can be employed, but they cannot be self-employed or operate a business, so an employed role yes, a contractor arrangement no.

Do I need to advertise the role first?
Only if you are sponsoring a permit. If your candidate already holds the right to work, the Labour Market Needs Test does not arise.

Can this person work for you?

Pick the stamp on their IRP card. This is a summary of the article above, not a substitute for checking the card and the permission letter.

No stamp selected

?Choose a stamp above

Each stamp sets out what the holder may do in Ireland. Two cards can look identical and mean completely different things.

Based on Immigration Service Delivery stamp conditions and DETE employment permit exemptions, checked September 2026. Conditions can be varied in an individual permission letter, so read the letter where one exists.

Read Next

• How to Sponsor a Work Permit in Ireland: An Employer's Guide
• Employing Someone on a Work Permit in Ireland: Your Ongoing Obligations
• Change of Employer on a CSEP or GEP: What's Actually Allowed

Official source: Immigration Service Delivery, "Immigration permission stamps", last updated June 2026. Immigration Service Delivery, "Attention eligible spouses and partners of General Employment Permit and Intra-Corporate Transferee Irish Employment Permit holders", arrangements effective May 2024. Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, "Who needs an employment permit?". Workplace Relations Commission, "Employment Permits". Citizens Information, "Types of residence permission for non-EEA nationals", last updated November 2025. All checked September 2026.