The Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, has today announced that a temporary system is in place that will enable citizenship applicants to complete their naturalisation process by signing a statutory declaration of loyalty to the state. This signed statutory declaration replaces the requirement for citizenship applicants to attend citizenship ceremonies, which have been temporarily suspended during COVID-19.
The new system will be in place from Monday, 18 January 2021. There is no requirement for applicants for citizenship to contact the unit. Under the temporary new system, qualifying applicants will be contacted by the Citizenship division on a phase basis over the next few months. Qualifying applicants will be asked to complete a statutory declaration that will be sent to them by email from the Citizenship Division.
Qualifying applicants will be required to complete the statutory declaration in the presence of a witness who is either a notary public, commissioner for oaths, solicitor, or a peace commissioner, and authorised to take and receive statutory declarations. The Witness must be resident in the State and the Declaration must be administered / witnessed in the State.
Once completed the applicant must then send the signed statutory declaration, the appropriate fee and any other requested documentation to the dedicated postal address as instructed in the e-mail on or before the 30 May 2021.
It will take up to 6 weeks from receipt of the above documents to issue a Certificate of Naturalisation if all of the above is in order. Therefore it would greatly assist us if you only contact us, after the 6 week period has elapsed and then only if it is absolutely necessary, as this will allow us to devote the maximum time to the processing of applications.
Note:
Applicants: This amended Citizenship granting process is only open to applicants who have received an email from the Department inviting them partake. All such invitations will issue on a phase basis over the coming weeks and months. We kindly request all other applicants to continue to be patient, Citizenship staff continue to be process applications during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Designated officials (notary public, commissioner for oaths, solicitor, or a peace commissioner, and authorised to take and receive statutory declarations). If you are requested to complete the statutory declaration by an applicant, you are kindly asked to request that the applicant provides you with correspondence (email) from Citizenship Division advising that the said applicant has been selected for inclusion the amended granting process. There is no advantage to be gained by submitting a statutory declaration if it has not been requested. In fact, this is likely to delay matters for all applicants.