Graduates / Work Permits

Graduate Scheme

Upon completion of a Masters or Phd programme all non-eea students are now allowed to stay in Ireland for six months. This gives students time to seek out employment.

At the end of this six month period students are then eligible to apply for a green card or work permit.

For further details on the scheme please refer to the pdf attachment below.

Green Card Scheme

This scheme will be available for an extensive list of occupations with annual salaries of €60,000 and above, and for a specified list of occupations with salaries between €30,000 and €60,000 (see attachment below relating to the scheme).

The list includes professional and associate professional occupations where skill shortages exist, such as in the Information and Communications Technology, Health Care, Construction, Engineeering, Financial Services and Research sectors.

Work Permits

The second type of employment permit scheme being launched is a revised Work Permit scheme.

This new Work Permit is mainly for non-Green Card occupations in the €30,000 to €60,000 annual salary range. It will only be granted in exceptional circumstances for occupations with salaries below €30,000.

There are also a number of categories of employment for which Work Permits will not to be considered, because it is clear that they can be filled from within the EEA. These occupations are detailed in the Appendix of the attachment relating to Work Pemits (see below).

Work permits will be granted initially for a period of 2 years, and then for a further period of up to 3 years.

file: Graduate Scheme Guide, PDF, 116KB Graduate Scheme Guide
(PDF, 116KB)

file: Green Card Scheme, PDF, 286KB Green Card Scheme
(PDF, 286KB)

file: Work Permit Scheme, PDF, 275KB Work Permit Scheme
(PDF, 275KB)