Work Permits in Ireland: Critical Skills and General Employment Permits (2026)

Ireland's employment permit system is the main legal route for a non-EEA national to take up work in the State. It is run by the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, and since 2 September 2024 it has operated under a single consolidated statute, the Employment Permits Act 2024.

Two permits carry almost all of the demand. The Critical Skills Employment Permit is for occupations the State has decided it is short of. The General Employment Permit covers most other jobs that are not on the Ineligible List. This page sets out how each one works, the salary you must be paid from 1 March 2026, what an employer has to do before applying, the fees, and how long the Department is currently taking.

Information last verified on 20 July 2026. This page is general legal information for the Republic of Ireland, not legal advice.

What law governs employment permits in Ireland?

The Employment Permits Act 2024 (No. 17 of 2024) is the governing Act. Its long title repeals the Employment Permits Act 2003 and the Employment Permits Act 2006 and consolidates the framework into one statute.

The Act commences on days appointed by the Minister. The main commencement was 2 September 2024 under the Employment Permits Act 2024 (Commencement) Order 2024, S.I. No. 443 of 2024, which brought in Part 1, most of Part 2, Parts 3 to 7 and Schedules 1 and 2. A second order, S.I. No. 32 of 2025, brought further provisions into operation on 19 February 2025.

The day to day detail sits in the Employment Permits Regulations 2024, S.I. No. 444 of 2024. Those regulations set the quotas, the critical skills provisions in Part 5, and the rule in Regulation 18 on a first employment permit in the State.

An employment permit is not an immigration permission. A permit holder must still register separately with Immigration Service Delivery, or at a Garda registration office outside Dublin, and renew that permission before it expires.

The nine types of employment permit

The Department states that the 2024 Act, as amended, allows for nine different types of employment permit:

• Critical Skills Employment Permit, for occupations on the Critical Skills Occupations List.
• Dependant, Partner or Spouse Employment Permit, for family members of Critical Skills permit holders and of researchers on hosting agreements. No fee.
• Intra-Company Transfer Employment Permit, for senior management, key personnel or trainees moved from an overseas branch, who stay on the foreign payroll.
• General Employment Permit, the broad category covering any occupation that is not on the Ineligible List.
• Contract for Services Employment Permit, where a foreign contractor has won a contract to provide services to an Irish relevant person.
• Reactivation Employment Permit, for a person who entered on a valid permit but fell out of the system through no fault of their own, or who was exploited.
• Internship Employment Permit, for full time students enrolled at a third level institution outside the State in a discipline relevant to the Critical Skills list.
• Sport and Cultural Employment Permit, for sports professionals and the entertainment sector.
• Exchange Agreement Employment Permit, under prescribed reciprocal agreements. No fee.

The 2024 Act also created a Seasonal Employment Permit. Its provisions were held back from the 2 September 2024 commencement order and were commenced separately on 19 February 2025 by S.I. No. 32 of 2025, alongside the Employment Permits (Amendment) (Seasonal Employment) Regulations 2025, S.I. No. 33 of 2025. It is being run as a phased scheme, and the Department still lists nine permit types, which do not include it.

Critical Skills or General Employment Permit: which applies?

The choice is not the applicant's. It is decided by the occupation, the salary and the length of the job offer.

Because the Critical Skills route carries the family and Stamp 4 advantages, getting the occupation classification right at the outset matters more than any other decision in the process.

Salary thresholds from 1 March 2026

The thresholds are called Minimum Annual Remuneration, or MAR. They rose on 1 March 2026 under a Government roadmap that phases further adjustments through to 2030.

The March 2026 increases were smaller than originally planned: the General Employment Permit rate rose 7.66% from €34,000, and the Critical Skills rate rose 7.66% from €38,000, rather than the 14.7% and 15.8% first proposed. The lower agriculture and care rates rose 9% from €30,000 and are now to be phased out by 2030 rather than 2026.

Two points catch employers out. First, the thresholds are indexed to average earnings, so the salary needed at renewal can be higher than the salary that was enough when the permit first issued. Second, only two things count towards remuneration: basic salary at or above the National Minimum Wage or a rate fixed under an enactment, and health insurance payments to an insurer on the Health Insurance Authority's register. Bonuses do not count.

The Department works the General Employment Permit rate out as €36,605 divided by 39 hours over 52 weeks, giving €18.05 an hour. If the contract is for fewer than 39 hours the hourly rate has to rise so the annual figure is still met, and hours above 39 must also be paid at least €18.05.

Separately, every application must show basic pay at or above the National Minimum Wage, which is €14.15 an hour from 1 January 2026. Our page on the Irish national minimum wage sets out how that rate applies generally.

The two occupation lists

Eligibility is gated by two lists, and they work in opposite directions.

The Critical Skills Occupations List is the whitelist. An occupation on it qualifies for a Critical Skills permit, is automatically eligible for a General Employment Permit as well, and is exempt from the Labour Market Needs Test. It is largely set in line with analyses by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs.

The Ineligible List of Occupations is the blacklist. For General Employment Permits every occupation is eligible unless it appears on that list. The Department is explicit that no permit can issue for an employment on the Ineligible List irrespective of remuneration, so the €68,911 high salary route does not override it.

Several General Employment Permit occupations are also subject to numeric quotas set by regulation. Once a quota fills, pending applications for that occupation are rejected. Quotas that filled recently include 292 permits for hospitality managers, announced as filled on 28 April 2026, and 200 permits for car mechanics, auto electricians and vehicle technicians, announced as filled on 19 March 2026. New quotas of 1,000 meat processing operatives and 850 dairy farm assistants were announced on 18 December 2025.

The 2025 review of the lists, announced on 29 May 2026, made 32 changes: six roles became eligible for Critical Skills permits, nine became eligible for General Employment Permits without a quota, two became eligible subject to new quotas, and 15 existing quotas were renewed.

How the Labour Market Needs Test works

A Labour Market Needs Test must be completed before a General Employment Permit or a Contract for Services Employment Permit can issue. The point of it is to show the vacancy was genuinely offered to the EEA labour market first.

The employer must:

1. Advertise with the Department of Social Protection employment services and the EURES network, through jobsireland.ie, for a minimum of 28 continuous days.
2. Advertise on at least one additional online platform, also for 28 continuous days. The 2024 Act removed the old print media requirement and replaced it with one or more online platforms.
3. Include in both notices a description of the employment, the employer's name, the minimum annual remuneration, the locations of employment and the hours of work.
4. Leave the vacancy unamended and unextended for the whole 28 days on both platforms.
5. Submit the permit application within 90 days of first publication, or within 120 days where the employer is a third level institution.

No test is needed where the occupation is on the Critical Skills Occupations List, where the job carries remuneration of €68,911 or more, where Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland has made a recommendation for a client company, in certain exceptional carer cases, or where the applicant held a General Employment Permit and was made redundant in the previous six months and the Department was notified within four weeks. A Critical Skills permit never requires the test.

Fees, and who is not allowed to pay them

If an application is refused, 90% of the fee is refunded, and the refund goes to the applicant even where somebody else paid. Fee waivers apply where the employer has Revenue confirmed charitable status, where the non-EEA national is married to or in a civil partnership with an EEA national, and for General Employment Permit renewals in respect of unlimited permits.

The rule that matters most to workers is section 55 of the Employment Permits Act 2024, and it applies whoever the applicant is. Section 55(1) bars an employer from making any deduction from the permit holder's pay, or seeking to recover from the holder, any charge, fee or expense arising from the permit application or renewal, from the holder's recruitment, or from travel expenses already paid to them.

Section 55(2) also bars the employer, or anyone acting on their behalf, from keeping the permit holder's passport or other personal documents. Section 55(3) extends the recovery ban to a connected person. Contravening any of those subsections is a criminal offence under section 55(4). An unlawful deduction can also be pursued through the WRC, and our guide to making a WRC complaint explains the procedure.

How long is an employment permit taking?

Applications are processed strictly in date order of receipt within each permit type. The separate Trusted Partner queue no longer operates: since the move to Employment Permits Online every employer verifies its Revenue and CRO details through its portal account, and the Department has confirmed there is no longer a requirement for a separate Trusted Partner Initiative. Some older pages on the Department's own site still refer to a Trusted Partner queue, but the current processing table shows one queue per permit type. As of 20 July 2026 the Department was working on applications received on the following dates.

The Department's rule is mandatory rather than advisory: an application for any employment permit must be received at least 12 weeks before the proposed employment start date. A decision maker may request further information, which must be returned within 28 days. A refusal can be sent for review within 28 days on the prescribed form, and the review is carried out by a separate and more senior official. A confirmed refusal does not stop a fresh application.

The 50:50 rule

A permit will not issue unless, at the time of application, at least 50% of the employees in the firm are EEA nationals. There are two waivers.

A start-up waiver applies where the employer registered with Revenue as an employer in the last two years and holds a letter of support from Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland as a client company. At renewal the 50:50 rule normally has to be met, but a one year permit may issue where the employer shows significant progress towards 50% and produces a fresh support letter, with the ratio to be reached by the end of that year.

A sole employee waiver applies where the employer has no employees on the application date and the foreign national will be the employer's only employee. It continues at renewal for as long as that remains true.

Changing employer and the nine month rule

Under Regulation 18 of the Employment Permits Regulations 2024, a permit for a different employer cannot be considered if fewer than nine months have passed since the holder first started work in the State under an employment permit. After nine months the holder can move on a fresh application meeting the usual criteria.

The Department may allow an earlier move for medical doctors on six month rotations, where the holder is made redundant, or where circumstances unforeseen at application fundamentally change the employment relationship. General Employment Permit renewals can be lodged in the four months before expiry.

There is also a lifetime cap that is easy to miss. Regulation 18(6) provides that a foreign national may make a maximum of three change of employer applications.

What happens if a permit holder is made redundant?

Critical Skills and General Employment Permit holders must notify the Employment Permits Section on the prescribed Redundancy Notification Form within four weeks of the redundancy, and then have up to six months from the redundancy date to find another job. The statutory basis is Chapter 9 of the 2024 Act, at sections 44 to 46.

Filing that form within the four weeks is what unlocks the concession: the next application is exempt from the Labour Market Needs Test and from certain job eligibility criteria. Even if the occupation has since been added to the Ineligible List or removed from the Critical Skills list, an application for the same permit type with a different employer will still be considered.

Dependant, Reactivation and Sport and Cultural permit holders also get six months, but their next application is subject to the normal conditions with no exemption. If no job is found within six months, the person should contact Immigration Service Delivery about their immigration status.

A permit holder made redundant has the same statutory redundancy entitlements as any other employee with the required service. See our guide to redundancy pay in Ireland and the Irish redundancy calculator, and our page on notice periods for the notice the employer must give.

From a Critical Skills permit to Stamp 4

A Critical Skills permit holder whose permit and immigration registration card are expiring does not apply to the Department for a renewal permit. They apply directly to the Department of Justice for a Stamp 4, and since 30 November 2023 a Stamp 4 support letter from the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment is no longer required.

Where the holder has complied with previous immigration and permit conditions and is of good character, the Stamp 4 permission allows them to live and work without an employment permit. It is granted for two years and is renewable. After 60 months of residency permission, Critical Skills and former Green Card holders may apply for long term residence. If the criteria are not met, a Stamp 1 issues and an employment permit is still needed.

Frequently asked questions

This page is general information about employment permits in the Republic of Ireland and is not legal advice. Permit policy, occupation lists and quotas change frequently, so check the current position with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment before applying, contact Immigration Service Delivery about immigration permission, and take advice from a solicitor if your permit or your employment is in dispute. Pay and deduction disputes are dealt with by the Workplace Relations Commission. More Irish guides are collected on our Ireland law hub.