Long term residence ... again...

[SPDAY]

Co Cavan CIS (Cavan CIC) 14/10/2005
A Russian client seeking long term residence in Ireland disputes the period of time spent in Ireland according to Department record. Records state that he lived and worked in Ireland 52.5 months while he has actually resided here for 61 months. The difference in computation was due to delays at Garda stations in processing and stamping his passport. The nearest immigration officer is located in the part time Garda Station in Ballieboro. This gentleman lives in Virginia where there is no immigration officer. It is not his fault that the process takes an average of 3/ 4 weeks to process, but he is the one who suffers as a result of the under resourcing of this departmental activity.

Meath CIS (Navan CIC) 01/11/2005
Ongoing case with client (non EU National) who has worked in Ireland for the last five years on five consecutive Work Permits, and has worked with the same employer for all of that time. His last work permit was "unlimited" as long as he remains with his current employer. He has no plans to change.
He applied for citizenship some time ago and came to us when he experienced difficulties with his application. His application was rejected by Citizenship Division on the basis that he had only 49 months (instead of 60 ) reckonable residency. However, client had 60 months of work permits, no time spent abroad, and proof of his time here - he was able to produce payslips for the missing months. The end result was that as there were slight gaps in stamps in his passport, he was refused and told to apply again.
Secondly, he applied for his green card in the meantime and would have expected to receive this by return with a Stamp 4 (permission to work without necessity of further work permits). However, although a Garda stamped him forward for one year (and put necessary stamp on Passport) when he applied for Green Card to Department of Justice (as instructed) he was refused on the grounds of only having 49 months reckonable residency. This is despite the fact that all was in order. He was also advised to obtain/renew his work permit for the following year (from October 2005 to October 2006) by the Department of Justice - despite the fact that this cannot be done as he is on his final work permit and the last one clearly states "unlimited". I confirmed with the Work Permits Section at Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment that this indeed was a valid and final work permit (on the understanding that the client did not change employment) and that they could not issue a further one. They offered to speak to Department of Justice if necessary.
I then followed this up in writing to Department of Justice and am currently awaiting a response. However, surely when issuing directives to clients each department should be aware of the basic rules of other departments, as client is now "caught between two stools" so to speak. He needs to keep his residency up to date as per Department of Justice's rules but he cannot follow their instructions about obtaining renewal work permit as this is not possible. Surely they should be aware of this, especially as client will be re-applying for citizenship next year?