Entry 1: Lodging the application (Part 1)

Here is some really great first hand advice/tips from Carl who came all the way from Australia to Ireland on a working holiday. Thanks Carl for the write up

An Australian's guide to a Working Holiday Authorisation/Visa in Ireland

Subject to someone correcting me, and based on advice from the Irish Embassy in Canberra, I understand that Australians can only apply for a WHA in two ways:

• from within Australia; or
• in London, by physically lodging the application at the Visa Office of the Embassy of Ireland in the UK.

Unlike the majority of Australians I spoke to, I lodged my WHA application in London. This is entirely because my decision to move to Ireland (as described above) was made when I was volunteering on a husky farm in rural northern Germany (what a disgusting travel brag), and returning home to lodge it wasn’t financially/logistically possible.

I asked my friend to send me a summary of how she applied for her WHA from within Australia, because my experiences with the application process unfortunately mightn’t help the majority of applicants. She told me it was simply a matter of sending…

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Entry 2: Lodging the Application (Part 2)

Here is some really great first hand advice/tips from Carl who came all the way from Australia to Ireland on a working holiday. Thanks Carl for the write up

An Australian's guide to a Working Holiday Authorisation/Visa in Ireland

Now that your application is perfectly manicured and prepared, you can proceed with…

Step 4: Rock up to the Embassy

For some unknown bureaucratic reason, the Embassy in London only accepts Visa applications (which includes WHA applications), from 9:30am – midday on Monday to Friday. My advice would be to get there as early as you can.

I arrived at 9am and took a ticket that was about 30 people behind the most recently called ticket number. Eventually, my number was called at 12:45pm – so I am tentatively advising that in my experience, the midday deadline for lodging Visa applications is fluid, but I would absolutely not rely on this advice.

A representative at the Embassy took the documents that I had prepared and my passport. He filled out a few details for his own records (presumably), and then returned the passport only (which meant that I was able…

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Entry 3: General overview of set-up – steps required

Here is some really great first hand advice/tips from Carl who came all the way from Australia to Ireland on a working holiday. Thanks Carl for the write up

An Australian's guide to a Working Holiday Authorisation/Visa in Ireland

This entry isn’t so much of a detailed post, but basically a list of the steps required – at least in my case – to set oneself up in Ireland. Don’t worry if none of these steps makes sense right now, the next few entries will expand on each one of them and explain them in far more detail. But for now, to prepare your brain for an onslaught of detail, below is a list of what steps are required – and the order in which you need to do them – to set yourself up in Ireland on a WHA…

1. Register with Irish immigration (Entry 4);
2. Get a job (Entry 5);
3. Get a Personal Public Service (PPS) number (Entry 6);
4. Once you have a job, registering yourself and your job with ‘Revenue’ (the Irish tax department) (Entry 7)
5. Get a bank account* (Entry 9).

I’ve also included posts that…

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Entry 4: Immigration Registration – ‘GNIB’, ‘INIS’ and what to do

Here is some really great first hand advice/tips from Carl who came all the way from Australia to Ireland on a working holiday. Thanks Carl for the write up

An Australian's guide to a Working Holiday Authorisation/Visa in Ireland

Introduction

Assuming (hoping) that you’ve managed to choose a destination and secure a bed to sleep in upon arrival, the first step in setting yourself up on the Emerald Isle is to register your arrival – in person – with Ireland’s immigration department. Weirdly, there are two branches of the immigration ‘department’ that you can register with – firstly, the ‘Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service’ (INIS), and secondly, the ‘Garda National Immigration Bureau’ (GNIB)‘.The one that’ll be relevant to you – as a WHA-holder wanting to register with ‘immigration’ – depends on where you want to live.

(INIS is a sub-department of the Department of Justice and Equality, and oversees general asylum, immigration and citizenship matters, whereas GNIB is basically the immigration enforcement arm of the police force (the Irish police force is called ‘An Garda Síochána’, or ‘the Gards’)).

If you want to live in the…

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Entry 5: Getting a job (and getting paid/changing jobs)

Here is some really great first hand advice/tips from Carl who came all the way from Australia to Ireland on a working holiday. Thanks Carl for the write up

An Australian's guide to a Working Holiday Authorisation/Visa in Ireland

There’s no secret to getting a job in Ireland, so I won’t bother writing a long blog post about it. I spent my time working in hospitality, so it was simply a matter of printing a bunch of resumes and walking into pubs/cafes/restaurants/hotels and asking for a job. As is the case with most/all hospitality jobs, you’ll probably have to do a trial shift, which sucks, but it’s all part of it. Work hard, have a good attitude and it’ll all work out.

One thing I will say is that AS SOON AS YOU GET A JOB OFFER, you’ll want to sort out getting a PPS Number (see next post), so you minimise the rate at which you get taxed on the income you earn in your new job. I’ll explain more in the next couple of posts, but basically if you start work without having a PPS…

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