- Ireland’s Department of Enterprise advanced most permit queues during the July twenty-fourth to twenty-eighth period.
- New Critical Skills permits reached July fourteenth, 2026, while general permits hit June twenty-second.
- Refusal reviews and appeals remain stalled at December thirtieth, twenty twenty-five, indicating a seven-month backlog.
Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment advanced most new employment permit queues between July 24 and July 28, but left reviews and appeals fixed at December 30, 2025.
The department was processing Critical Skills applications received on July 14, 2026. New General Employment Permit applications had reached June 22, while reviews and appeals remained at December 30, 2025.
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The queues are not combined. Separate dates apply to new permits, Intra-Company Transfer applications, renewals and refusal reviews.
A processing date is a queue marker, not a promised decision date.
The July 28 tracker showed other new permit applications at July 23 and new Intra-Company Transfer applications at July 2. Renewals for both Intra-Company Transfers and other employment permits had reached April 16.
The department says it processes applications in receipt-date order after receiving a fully completed application and the applicable fee. That order can shift unevenly when cases differ in volume or complexity.
| Application category | Receipt date being processed on July 28, 2026 | Approximate calendar-age of queue |
|---|---|---|
| Critical Skills Employment Permit | July 14, 2026 | 14 days |
| New General Employment Permit | June 22, 2026 | 36 days |
| Other new permit applications | July 23, 2026 | 5 days |
| New Intra-Company Transfer permit | July 2, 2026 | 26 days |
| Intra-Company Transfer renewal | April 16, 2026 | 103 days |
| Other renewable employment permits | April 16, 2026 | 103 days |
| Reviews and appeals | December 30, 2025 | 210 days |
The calendar ages compare the processing date with July 28. They are not official service standards and do not predict when a newly filed application will be decided.
New applications moved, but refusal reviews did not
The July 24 tracker had placed the specialist queue at July 10, new general permits at June 18, other new permits at July 20 and new transfers at June 27. By July 28, those dates had moved forward by four, four, three and five days respectively.
Renewal dates advanced two days, from April 14 to April 16. The review date did not move from December 30, 2025.
That lack of movement does not establish that no review decisions occurred. The published date generally identifies the oldest receipt date currently under processing, and cases may advance at different speeds.
A queue date does not end the examination
When an application reaches a decision-maker, the department may grant or refuse it, request more information, verify Revenue or company records, examine the occupation classification or check professional registration.
Officials may also review qualifications, salary calculations and whether the employment contract meets the applicable rules. A request for documents can add up to 28 days, because the decision cannot be completed until the response is received and examined.
The specialist route covers qualifying high-demand occupations and other eligible roles that meet remuneration and qualification requirements. It requires a bona fide job offer from an Irish employer and submission through Employment Permits Online.
Its queue is comparatively current, and many such cases avoid the Labour Market Needs Test required for general applications. That removes the normal 28-day advertising stage before filing, but it does not reduce the department’s examination of the employer, job duties, salary, contract duration, qualifications or eligibility criteria.
Employers still must submit an employment permit application at least 12 weeks before the proposed employment start date. That period allows for review, corrections, issuance and, where necessary, a separate visa application.
General applications carry a pre-filing advertising stage
The wider general route can cover occupations unless they are excluded, provided the employment, employer, remuneration and worker satisfy the applicable requirements.
Many applications require a Labour Market Needs Test before filing. The vacancy generally must run through the Department of Social Protection and EURES network for at least 28 continuous days, and on an additional qualifying online platform for at least 28 continuous days.
The permit application can be filed only after that advertising period, unless an exemption applies. The recruitment timetable may therefore include several days to prepare the advertisement and job description, at least 28 continuous days of advertising, several days or weeks to complete the contract and documents, the permit queue, and up to 28 days for any further-information response.
A five-week queue does not represent the full relocation timeline.
New transfers and renewals sit in separate queues
New Intra-Company Transfer applications had reached July 2, a gap of approximately 26 calendar days. Transfer renewals had reached April 16, leaving them approximately 103 days behind.
The route covers qualifying transfers between connected overseas and Irish businesses. A new transfer application and a renewal therefore do not share one queue.
Renewal applicants face the same April 16 date in the other renewable-permit category. General Employment Permit renewals can generally be filed within four months before the existing permit expires, so employers should not wait until the final weeks.
They need to monitor the employment permit expiry, Irish Residence Permit expiry, passport validity and earliest renewal date. Salary changes, occupation or work-location changes, employer restructuring and possible eligibility for Stamp 4 or another permission also require separate checks.
A permit renewal and immigration-registration renewal are different processes.
Refusal reviews remain roughly seven months behind
The review queue was still working on cases dated December 30, 2025, approximately 210 calendar days behind the July 28 tracker date.
A refusal can generally be reviewed if the request is filed within 28 days. A separate, more senior official considers the review. If the refusal is confirmed, the applicant may still submit a new application.
A review may fit a case where the evidence was misunderstood, the correct documents were already supplied, the occupation was wrongly classified, the legal rule was misapplied or the decision contains a factual error.
A new application may suit a correctable problem, such as missing documents, an unsuitable contract, an invalid Labour Market Needs Test, unclear duties, insufficient salary, employer-registration problems or inconsistent information.
The choice requires a case-specific assessment. A fresh filing does not cure a fundamental eligibility problem, while abandoning a legally strong review may give up a valid challenge.
Individual files require a separate status check
The published table shows the overall queue, not the status of a particular application. Applicants can use the official employment permit status enquiry service with the application ID, the employee’s date of birth and an email address.
The service normally sends an automated message describing the current stage and, where possible, the remaining time. Its official page says the response will normally issue within one hour.
A status enquiry is useful after the published date passes an application’s receipt date, when no further-information request has arrived, when the portal status has not changed or when the proposed start date is approaching.
Applicants should first check the current category date and the rules applying to the permit. The department’s online system requires a signed employment contract, and an application left incomplete for more than 28 days is deleted and must be started again.
Approval still leaves visa and registration steps
Permit approval authorises the employment arrangement. It does not automatically allow a visa-required national to travel to Ireland.
After approval, the worker must separately apply for an employment visa. Ireland allows that visa application up to three months before the proposed travel date and advises applicants to apply as soon as possible after the permit is granted.
The full sequence can include the Labour Market Needs Test, permit preparation, the permit queue, substantive examination, further documents, issuance, a long-stay employment visa, travel and immigration registration for stays exceeding 90 days.
Visa timing depends on the office handling the application and cannot be inferred from the employment permit tracker. A start date must also account for passport discrepancies, incorrect occupation codes, mismatched duties, salary below the applicable threshold, missing qualifications, unresolved registration, employer Revenue or company-registration issues, incomplete online sections, exhausted occupation quotas and slow responses.
The next tracker comparison should focus on movement as well as the dates themselves. The July 28 update showed four-day advances in the two largest new-application queues, while the review date remained unchanged at December 30, 2025.
