Stamp 4 explained

The short answer

• Stamp 4 lets you work in any job without an employment permit, work in a profession, and run a business.
• You can use State services as each government department or agency decides.
• It’s for a specified period, and you renew it before it expires. It isn’t permanent.
• It counts towards citizenship, and after 8 years of legal residence on stamps that count you can apply for Stamp 5.

See your route

Pick how you have, or are getting, Stamp 4. Add when your first permission that counts started to see your Stamp 5 date.

The routes to Stamp 4

After an employment permit

The most common route. After 21 months of employment on a Critical Skills permit, hosting agreement or multi-site NCHD permit, or 57 months on a General Employment or Intra-Company Transfer permit, you renew online on Stamp 4 conditions. ISD only processes it if you’ve reached the months by the date your current card expires.

Family of an Irish citizen

Spouses, civil partners, de facto partners, parents of Irish citizen children and other dependants of Irish citizens get Stamp 4. ISD’s documents include:

• Spouse or civil partner: your marriage or civil partnership certificate, proof of your joint address, and your spouse’s Irish passport.
• De facto partner or dependant: their passport and proof of your joint address; to renew, proof your relationship continues.
• Parent of an Irish child: your child’s Irish passport and birth certificate, proof of your address, and proof of your child’s address, such as a letter from their school or doctor.
• All of them: your passport, your permission letter if you have one, and medical or travel insurance for your first registration.

After 5 years on Stamp 1G

Partners and children of permit holders on Stamp 1G can apply for Stamp 4 at their next online renewal after 5 years as a dependant, or sooner if the sponsor becomes an Irish citizen. When your sponsor moves to Stamp 4, you don’t move with them.

Refugees and their families

Refugees, people with subsidiary protection or permission to remain, and family members joining them through family reunification, get Stamp 4. To renew, ISD asks for your IRP card, your passport or travel document if you have one, and the decision letter or declaration of your status. Family members also send the letter approving the reunification and their sponsor’s IRP card or Irish passport.

Investors and entrepreneurs

The Immigrant Investor Programme closed to new applications on 15 February 2023; people already approved aren’t affected. The Start-up Entrepreneur Programme is still open: ISD’s guidelines say residence is granted for 2 years, renewable for 3 more, and your spouse or partner and children under 18 can get the same status.

Temporary protection

People with a Temporary Protection Certificate (the yellow paper) are registered on Stamp 4. First registrations are handled by the Ukraine Response team on arrival; to renew, ISD asks for your passport, your current or extended certificate and proof of address.

The Temporary Protection Transition Scheme

A new Stamp 4 permission for people on temporary protection who want to stay on. Applications opened on 30 September 2026 and close on 30 March 2027, through ISD’s online portal. You need:

• at least 1 year living here on temporary protection by 30 September 2026;
• 6 months of employment or self-employment by then, at €29,432 a year or more;
• to not be living in State-supported accommodation when you apply, such as State-contracted, rapid build or hosted accommodation supported by the Accommodation Recognition Payment.

It lasts up to 2 years, then renews for 2 years at a time, and the Department of Justice says the time counts towards naturalisation. Your partner and children living here on temporary protection can be included, but each person applies. Once you’re approved, your temporary protection ends, and you register the new permission within 90 days. If you don’t apply or don’t qualify, you keep temporary protection: Ireland has extended it to 4 March 2027, and the EU Directive runs to 4 March 2028. Check if you qualify in our temporary protection guide.

Afghan Admission Programme

People who came under the closed Afghan Admission Programme can now renew online on independent Stamp 4 conditions, renewable every 2 years, if they’ve lived here continuously under the programme, haven’t been away more than 90 days in any rolling year, and meet ISD’s other conditions.

What Stamp 4 doesn’t do

• It isn’t permanent: renew before it expires.
• It doesn’t let you live in or travel freely to other EU countries.
• It doesn’t move your family: their permission type stays as it was.

What comes next

• Stamp 5: after 8 years (96 months) of legal residence on Stamps 1, 1H, 1G, 3, 4, 4D and 4S, keeping to your conditions, you can apply for permission without condition as to time.
• Citizenship: Stamp 4 is reckonable residence.

Compare Stamp 4 with every other stamp in the stamp cheat-sheet.

Common mix-ups

Common questions

Sources