The date on your card is not the day you apply.
It is the day your permission ends. You are meant to apply well before it. This page shows you the date that actually matters.
Your Real Date
Not the one on the card.
In Order
What comes first, and why.
A Reminder
So you do not forget it.
You have two documents, not one
If you work in Ireland on a permit, you hold two documents. They come from two different government offices. They have two different expiry dates. And you renew them at two different times.
Most problems start here, because people think they only have one thing to renew.
Your employment permit
This lets you do your job. It is the PDF that came with your approval email. Save that file. The PDF is the permit.
This is the earliest you can apply. The last day is 8 weeks before it expires.
Your residence permission
This lets you live in Ireland. Your IRP card is the proof of it. The card is the plastic one with your photo.
This is the earliest you can apply. Try any sooner and they refuse it.
One is locked behind the other
If your residence permission comes from your employment permit, you have to renew the employment permit first.
The Immigration Service will refuse your IRP card renewal if you do not already hold a valid employment permit. It does not matter how early you apply, or how organised you are. Without the permit, the answer is no.
Sometimes you only renew the card
Employment permits are often given for two years. IRP cards are often given for one. So the two do not line up.
That means when your card expires, your employment permit can still have a year left on it. Nothing to renew there. It is already valid, and it already covers the new period.
If that is you, this is a one step renewal. You renew the card only. If your permit runs out at the same time as your card, it is a two step renewal, and the permit goes first.
The tool below asks you this, so it knows which one you are.
Work out your dates
A few questions, one at a time. No email, no sign up, nothing saved.
Renewal date calculator
Employment permit and IRP card
Applying early does not cost you time
A lot of people wait. They think that if they apply three months early, they lose three months. That is not how it works.
Your new permission starts on the day your old one ends. Not on the day you sent the application. You lose nothing by applying early.
And you gain something. If you apply before your card expires, you can keep living and working here under your current conditions while you wait for the answer. If you let the card expire first, you do not get that.
Same person. Same documents. The only difference is one date.
Read nextWhat usually goes wrong with IRP renewalsThe mistakes that cost people their permission, and how to avoid them. →