As a South African work permit applicant, you need to see if your career is eligible for a work permit:
Work permits are only required if you and all your immediate family members hold only South African passports.
If you or your spouse or De Facto spouse holds a European Union, Irish or British Passport you can use other methods of immigration to allow you to live and work in the Republic of Ireland, but you may choose a work permit to make certain moves easier.
Work Permits are issued by DBEI (Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation) not INIS/ISD (Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service are now known as Immigration Service Delivery).
To see if you can get a work permit to live and work in Ireland you need to do the following steps to start with:
- Look up your career SOC code- this code and job description means you can now look at the next steps
- Look at the Ineligible list (these careers can NOT get a work permit)
- Look at the Critical skills list (these are highly sought-after careers, and within certain parameters will enable you to apply for a Critical Skills Employment Permit, CSEP)
- If your career is on neither list, you may be eligible for a General work permit (GWP is subject to certain criteria and testing.)
Eligible occupations under Critical skills work permits are deemed to be critically important to growing Ireland’s economy, are highly demanded and highly skilled, and in significant shortage of supply in our labour market.
Unlike Critical Skills Employment Permits where the State specifies eligible occupations, General Employment Permits assume all occupations to be eligible unless otherwise specified.
Therefore, all occupations are eligible unless excluded under the Ineligible List of Occupations for Employment Permits.
The main attraction of the General Employment Permit for prospective candidates is that it permits a broader range of occupations than the other classes of employment permit and may be obtained in respect of a 12 month contract of employment.
All occupations under the Critical Skills Occupations List are deemed eligible.
We are going to go through this process step-by-step with you:
“Standard Occupational Classification codes are the codes which categorise careers into a structure. SOC2010 is structured in nine major groups and 25 sub-major groups; it has 90 minor groups and 369-unit groups.
Occupations fall broadly into four skill levels:
- The second skill level covers a large group of occupations, that require a general education as for occupations at the first skill level, but which normally have a longer period of work-related training or work experience. These occupations mainly fall into the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth groups.
- The third skill level applies to occupations that normally require a body of knowledge associated with a period of post-secondary education e.g. diploma, ordinary level degrees. A variety of technical occupations fall into this category, as do trades occupations. These occupations fall into the third and fifth groups, but also include occupations prefixed 12--.
- The fourth level applies to what are termed ‘professional’ occupations and high-level management positions in corporate enterprises. Occupations at this level normally require a degree and/or substantial work experience. These occupations fall into the first and second major groups.
HUH? In plain English please...
Ok, in brief, SOC codes or the Standard Occupation Classification codes are used pretty much world wide as a tool to put careers into a category or rather a coding system.
There is an overall category this is a 3 digit code and is NOT the correct code to use.
The sub categories show nuances of each career.
Lets say the category is teacher, sub categories will be primary teacher, high school teacher, university teacher.
Each sub-category will have it’s own level of qualification requirements and what you actually do day-to-day in that career.
It is the sub-category 4-digit SOC CODE that you need to apply for jobs and apply for the work permit.
Theres a few tools available to look up your career and find your SOC code. There is a huge excel spreadsheet, there’s a Uk site and an American site, the codes are the same, but may be the 2010 version or 2020 version of listings.
Right now, Ireland still uses the SOC 2010 codes in the ineligible and eligible list- with a new Minister of Justice shaking immigration up right now, expect these to change at some time, so keep watching the official sites.
The most useful tool for looking up the SOC code is this: HERE
This tool is from the Office of National Statistics in the Uk, but as these are worldwide codes, it applies to us in Ireland too.
And a list on an excel sheet can be found HERE with the 2020 and 2010 SOC codes side by side. Follow the link and download where indicated here
This is an American site with the codes and here is a UK one.
Once you know your SOC code you look up your career on BOTH of these lists to see if you are eligible for a work permit:
Are you SURE you checked your codes correctly?
If you are SURE scroll on in this article to see the next steps.
If you want some more guidance read on HERE: SOC codes still confused? Going into more detail on SOC codes
The eligible and ineligible employments for employment permits are laid out in regulations and are arrived at following a formalised and evidence-based process which is carried out bi-annually. The process involves obtaining and considering advice from the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) and Skills and Labour Market Research Unit (SMLRU) in SOLAS. It also involves input from relevant Government Departments, Agencies, and industry as necessary.” DBEI.gov.ie
By this point you should know your chances of getting a work permit for Ireland, and have checked the skills lists.
So now follow the links to:
- The SOC codes and skills lists (Done above)
- Employment - A few articles on CV writing, how to find work, getting employed and all things related to employment like, tax, pensions, USC, labour laws etc
Important links:
#MapMyMove- Our coaching Services - Confused or lost and need some direction, book a session with us to help untangle the confusion and work out your route of immigration
DETE- Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment - This dept issues work permits
Updates on the Skills lists usually occurs bi-annually
Work permits - Irish Immigration
