Approved: your citizenship ceremony and certificate

The short answer

• Approval: ISD tells you the Minister intends to grant your application and asks for the certification fee: €950 for most adults, €200 for a child or a widow, widower or surviving civil partner of an Irish citizen, nothing for refugees and stateless people.
• Invitation: by email or post. Don’t chase it: ISD can’t confirm invitations.
• The ceremony: bring photo ID, and your IRP card if you have one. You become a citizen when you make the declaration.
• Afterwards: your certificate comes by registered post. Keep it safe and never laminate it. Then apply for your Irish passport.

Get your checklist

Your invitation

Ceremonies are held a few times a year, each with several sessions; recent ones were at the Convention Centre Dublin and the INEC in Killarney. Your invitation comes by email or post before the ceremony. ISD asks people not to contact it about invitations, because it isn’t in a position to confirm them.

Ceremonies can be cancelled: those planned for April 2026 in Killarney didn’t go ahead because of national fuel protests, and invitees were contacted.

On the day

• Check in at the registration desk with your passport as photo ID. A driving licence may be accepted if you can’t bring a valid passport.
• IRP card holders should bring their card, in date. EU, EEA, Swiss and UK citizens don’t have one.
• Bring one adult guest if you like. ISD asks you not to bring children.
• You’ll get a booklet, with information on getting a passport, registering to vote and when citizenship can be revoked, and the words of the national anthem.
• A judge presides, usually with a government minister. Press may be there. It can take a couple of hours.

The declaration

You’re given the words on the day, so you don’t need to learn them:

I (name) having applied to the Minister for Justice for a certificate of naturalisation, hereby solemnly declare my fidelity to the Irish nation and my loyalty to the State. I undertake to faithfully observe the laws of the State and to respect its democratic values.

You become an Irish citizen when you make it.

Children

Children granted citizenship don’t attend a ceremony. Their certificate of naturalisation comes by post. The certification fee for a child is €200.

Your certificate of naturalisation

Your certificate arrives by registered post in the weeks after the ceremony. It’s the document that proves you’re a citizen, so:

• keep it somewhere safe;
• never laminate it or change it in any way: that makes it invalid, and it may not be accepted for a passport;
• if it’s lost or stolen, it won’t be replaced. ISD issues a free statement confirming your citizenship instead: fill in its questionnaire and send it with the documents it asks for.

Iris Oifigiúil

By law, your name, address, the type of application (adult or minor) and the certificate date are published in Iris Oifigiúil, the State’s official gazette. There are no exceptions.

Your first Irish passport, and travel

Once you’re a citizen, apply for an Irish passport through the Department of Foreign Affairs, with your certificate. If you need to travel before it arrives, ISD says to check with the immigration officer at the airport that you’ll be able to leave and come back as a naturalised Irish citizen.

Common mix-ups

Common questions

Sources