Moving to Ireland from Canada

Ireland has no digital nomad visa that we could find, so the routes are a job offer with an employment permit, independent means on Stamp 0, a working holiday if you are 18 to 35, or citizenship through an Irish-born grandparent. More than 51,000 euros a year: The immigration service says people of independent means should have an individual income at a set minimum (to be safe, have more than 51,000 euros a year) and access to a lump sum to cover sudden major expenses, equal to, for example, the price of a residential dwelling in the State. It states no figure for the lump sum, so that amount is unknown. Your finances go in a spreadsheet in euros, certified by an Irish accountancy firm; investment sums are not normally measured, so the money should be pension income or readily accessible funds. You also need private medical insurance with full cover in private hospitals and you cannot use State benefits. The page names no age minimum. As a Canadian citizen you do not need a D-Reside visa: you apply for Stamp 0 first and travel with the approval letter. The figure can change, so confirm it on the immigration service page when you apply.

For a role on the Critical Skills Occupations List the minimum salary runs about 36,800 to 40,900 euros a year, the lower figure being for a relevant degree gained in the past 12 months (to be safe, have a job offer paying more than 41,000 euros a year). For any other eligible role the minimum salary is much higher (to be safe, have a job offer paying more than 69,000 euros a year). The processing fee is 1,000 euros. Holders can apply to the Department of Justice for Stamp 4, and after 60 months of legal residence on a permit they can apply for Long Term Residency. A General Employment Permit needs a job with a minimum salary that runs about 34,000 to 36,600 euros a year, the lower figure being for a degree from an Irish college in the past 12 months (to be safe, have a job offer paying more than 37,000 euros a year). It usually needs a Labour Market Needs Test, unless the job pays a much higher salary (to be safe, have a job offer paying more than 69,000 euros a year), and at least half of the employer's staff must be EEA nationals. It is issued for up to 2 years, renewable for 3 more, with a fee of 500 euros for 6 months or less and 1,000 euros for up to 24 months, and a spouse cannot take a dependant permit. These minimums began on 1 March 2026 and rise again in stages to 2030. Your Irish employer applies, so a remote job with a foreign employer does not qualify. Canadians have routes the other launch passports do not. The Working Holiday Authorisation is open to Canadian citizens aged 18 to 35, living in or outside Canada, and is valid for up to two years from entry; it cannot be extended or renewed, you can use each category once, and it is issued to you alone, so a spouse or dependants cannot be accompanied or joined under it. The Embassy of Ireland in Ottawa asks for a bank letter or statement showing access to a set minimum balance (to be safe, have more than 2,600 Canadian dollars), twelve months of medical insurance and a passport valid for 30 months from entry; the fee is 150 Canadian dollars, processing takes four to six weeks, and within one month of arrival you register, with a current fee of 300 euros. A separate one-year International Co-op Internship Authorisation is for registered post-secondary students aged 18 to 35 (fee 100 Canadian dollars). International Experience Canada is the scheme for young people coming to Canada, so it is not the route for you. We do not ask your age, so check the age limit yourself. Under the Canada-EU trade agreement (CETA), the Canadian government's guide to temporary entry into Ireland lists contractual service suppliers (up to 12 months in any 24, with a Contract for Services Employment Permit) and intra-corporate transferees (an Intra-Company Transfer Employment Permit); it says the independent professional category does not yet exist under Irish law, and that Irish officers generally do not grant short-term business permission for longer than 14 days. That guide is current as of July 2023, so confirm it, and none of these is a route for remote work for a foreign employer. The Start-up Entrepreneur Programme needs funding available at a set minimum (to be safe, have more than 51,000 euros) and an innovative business proposal, with a 350 euro application fee. The Immigrant Investor Programme, which the work-routes page still lists, closed to new applications on 15 February 2023.

The Embassy of Ireland in Ottawa and the Vancouver consulate print no Stamp 0 checklist or income figure, so the immigration service page is the source for it. For an employment permit your Irish employer files the application, and you need the signed contract of employment. For the Foreign Births Register an adult needs a signed and witnessed application form, an original civil birth certificate showing parents, 2 proofs of address, 4 photographs, and for a grandparent route the original birth certificates and marriage or name-change certificates of both your Irish-born grandparent and your parent, with certified photo ID or a death certificate for each. The Working Holiday needs a Canadian passport valid 30 months after entry, two photographs, proof of twelve months of medical insurance with a signed declaration, and an original bank letter or statement, stamped or signed by the bank, showing the support funds described under the first route. Canadian citizens do not need a visa to land in Ireland and may stay up to 90 days for tourism or business. An immigration officer at the port decides your length of stay and can refuse entry, and the Government of Canada says customs officials may ask for a return or onward ticket and proof of funds and may deny entry if they suspect you intend to seek work as a visitor. A Schengen visa is not valid for Ireland, so Ireland runs its own entry rules, and we did not research how Irish days and Schengen days relate. The Common Travel Area covers Ireland and the UK, but it gives rights to Irish and British citizens, including to live, work and use services in either country, and none to Canadian citizens. Each country decides your permission at its own border. A Canadian citizen usually needs a UK Electronic Travel Authorisation, including for a journey from Ireland, unless you are lawfully resident in Ireland and can show proof. The Home Office says there are no routine checks on journeys from Ireland and that people who entered Ireland from outside the area get deemed leave to go on to the UK, 6 months or 2 months on a repeat. That UK permission does not extend your Irish stay, and we found no official rule that adds UK days to Irish days or the reverse, so how repeated back-and-forth visits are treated is unknown. The British Irish Visa Scheme, which lets one short-stay visa cover both countries, is only for visa-required Chinese and Indian nationals living in China or India, so it does not apply to you. To stay beyond 90 days you need permission first: a Stamp 0 approval letter, an employment permit or a Working Holiday Authorisation, then registration with immigration. Stamp 0 takes about four months to process and a Working Holiday Authorisation four to six weeks.

You are resident in Ireland for tax if you are present for 183 days or more in a tax year (1 January to 31 December), or for 280 days or more in the current and preceding tax year taken together. Any part of a day counts, and you are not resident if you are there 30 days or less in a year. You become ordinarily resident after three consecutive resident years and stay so for three years after you leave. Domicile is a general-law idea: you keep your domicile of origin unless you show clear evidence that you intend to live in Ireland permanently and not return. A resident who is not ordinarily resident and not domiciled is taxed on Irish-source income and on foreign income only to the extent it is remitted to Ireland. Whether you count as non-domiciled is a legal question for an Irish adviser. Canada does not end your tax residence at the airport: you are an emigrant only if you leave to live in another country and sever your residential ties, and keeping a home, a spouse or partner, or dependants in Canada usually leaves you a factual resident of Canada. If both countries treat you as resident, article 4 of the Canada-Ireland convention decides in this order: permanent home, centre of vital interests, habitual abode, nationality. The CRA offers Form NR73 (leaving Canada) for its opinion on your residency status.

The Universal Social Charge is 0.5% on the first 12,012 euros, 2% on the next 16,688, 3% on the next 41,344 and 8% on the rest. We did not price social insurance contributions (PRSI) or any other Irish tax, so those are unknown. Under the Canada-Ireland convention, independent professional income is taxable only in your country of residence unless a fixed base is regularly available to you in the other country; employment income is taxed where the work is done, unless you are there 183 days or less in any twelve-month period and your employer is not resident there and no Irish permanent establishment or fixed base bears the pay.

The convention says that where it relieves income in one country and the other country taxes by reference to the amount remitted, the relief applies only to the part remitted (article 28(2)); ask an adviser how that fits your case.

Form T1161 is needed if everything you owned was worth more than $25,000. You can defer the tax until you sell by electing on Form T1244, but the CRA asks for security if the federal tax deferred is over $16,500 ($13,777.50 for former Quebec residents); Quebec's own income tax rules on leaving are not covered here. You usually become a non-resident on the latest of the day you leave, the day your spouse or partner and dependants leave and the day you become resident of Ireland. Once you are a non-resident you pay Canadian tax only on Canadian-source income. The Canada-Ireland convention was signed at Ottawa on 8 October 2003 and entered into force on 12 April 2005, and Revenue shows its effect from 1 January 2006; Finance Canada lists it, and also still lists the 1966 convention, which the 2003 text says ceases to have effect, so we do not know why both appear. The convention has no clause letting either country tax its own citizens living in the other. Pensions arising in one country and paid to a resident of the other may be taxed in the recipient's country and also where they arise, where the tax on periodic pension payments is capped at the lesser of 15% of the amount over 12,000 Canadian dollars and a rate-based limit. Ask an adviser how this applies to you.

Article VI of the agreement says an employed person who works in one country is covered only there, a self-employed person who lives in one country and works on their own account in the other is covered in the country of residence, and an employee sent by the same employer from one country to the other stays covered in the first for 24 months, which the two authorities can extend. The CRA's table shows form CPT50 for a certificate of coverage, with a maximum initial detachment of 24 months. The pages we read do not say how this applies to someone on a foreign payroll or self-employed for foreign clients who moves to Ireland, and we found no official page saying whether Irish PRSI applies to a Stamp 0 holder, so ask the CRA and Ireland's Department of Social Protection. A CPP retirement pension can be paid abroad with one valid contribution; OAS only with 20 or more years' residence in Canada after age 18; the Guaranteed Income Supplement for 6 months. Retraite Quebec lists Ireland among the countries with a Quebec agreement but its page does not describe it, so Quebec contributors should check it separately. We found no health agreement between Canada and Ireland: the Irish page on emergency care names a reciprocal agreement with Australia only, and says other non-EU visitors may be charged the full cost, so private cover matters. Provincial rules for keeping health coverage while abroad differ: Ontario allows up to 2 years in some cases. This is a mechanism, not your bill.

The Ottawa embassy says Working Holiday Authorisation holders register within one month of arrival, with a current fee of 300 euros (subject to change); we did not find a fee stated for Stamp 0, so confirm it.

Revenue lists the TR1 form for registering for tax as a resident individual. We found no official page saying how long either takes, so that is unknown.

We found no health agreement between Canada and Ireland, and no dated price for such a policy, so that cost is unknown. Check how your province treats your health coverage while you are away before you leave.