Critical skills work permits how they work: The Basics of the process

Critical Skills Employment Permit

The Critical Skills Employment Permit is for highly skilled roles that are important to Ireland’s economy and in short supply. It is designed to support long term settlement in Ireland.

Key points

Eligible careers are based on the Critical Skills Occupations List.
Minimum salary is €38000 (from March 2026 €40,904) for applicants with a University degree and over €64,000 for all other eligible high skill roles.
A degree is normally required, unless the salary is over €64,000 and the role is not on the ineligible list.
You must have a two year job offer and meet the qualifications and experience needed for the role.
No Labour Market Needs Test is required.
You can apply immediately for your spouse, partner and children to join you.
After completing your permit period, you can apply for Stamp 4 permission and no longer need an employment permit.

The Critical Skills route gives skilled workers and their families a strong pathway to long term residence in Ireland.

CSEP Holder
You must apply for a long stay D visa after your permit is approved. You cannot travel to Ireland until the visa is issued.

Immediate Family Reunification

You can apply straight away for your spouse, partner and minor children to join you. However, the processing time of visas may vary and might mean in practice you are not on the plane together at the same time. There might be anything from 2 months to 12 months separation. This needs to be reviewed at the time, see more on the Family Reunification section of SA2Eire. Also in this section is more on your spouse/ partner / chilren and adult dependants. Once in Ireland, your spouse or partner can apply for their own work permission. The Dependant or Spouse Permit is issued free of charge.

Entry visas
Your spouse, partner and children must also apply for their own long stay D visas before travelling. Each application must match your permit details and meet the new family reunification rules.

No family member can enter Ireland without a visa, even if they plan to join you later.

SA2Eire guides members through the full visa process to help avoid delays or refusals.

Work permit holders and travel to the EU and UK (including Northern Ireland)

Once a South African passport holder is in possession of the IRP card, they can apply for visas for the UK (Standard UK visitor visa) or the EU/EEA to the country they want to visit.

Holding an IRP for Ireland does not automatically give rights to travel to the EU/EEA or UK. The IRP is permission live and work in Ireland alone.

If the country is in the Schengen zone that you wish to visit, you apply for a Schengen visa for that country.

If any other country, apply direct for that country.

I’m a South African passport holder, do I need a visa to go to the EU and/or UK? – A question that gets asked regularly on visas to the EU and Uk from Ireland once people are resident in Ireland

SA2Eire are going to go through this process step-by-step with you:

What you don’t know that you don’t know

That’s the truth about moving country. You can plan, prep, research and Google for months, and you’ll still find yourself in Tesco wondering why eggs are in the unrefrigerated aisle. Or staring at a blue bin and a green bin and a brown bin with absolutely no idea which one the pizza box goes in. Or trying to work out why your SA bank card is being rejected at the petrol pump.

There are hundreds of small things about life in Ireland that nobody warns you about, and a fair number of big things too. Things like the PPS number, the proof of address you suddenly need for everything, the school enrolment process that does not work the way SA schools work,

or the Letter of Entitlement you should have organised in SA but didn’t because nobody told you… well we did… you just didnt read the section on licences… because you didn’t know it was a thing to do… you didnt know what you didnt know. Not your fault. You didnt know.

That’s exactly why we built the Relocation Toolkit. It is the everything-else companion to this immigration members area, split into two sections:

BEFORE Ireland, your full pre-departure checklist, document gathering, Home Affairs paperwork, employment prep, budgeting, shipping, the lot
IN Ireland, everything from your first week (PPS, bank, GP, schools) through to long-term life (driving licences, housing, child benefit, naturalisation, wills)