The Department of Justice’s Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) has quietly overhauled the way refugees and other beneficiaries of international protection obtain Irish travel documents. A fresh version of the “Applying for a Travel Document” guidance, posted on 10 July 2026, confirms that applicants are now expected to submit requests through ISD’s customer-service portal rather than by paper unless there are exceptional circumstances. Under Section 207 of the International Protection Act 2026, recognised refugees, programme refugees and people granted subsidiary protection are entitled to an Irish travel document when they cannot secure a national passport. The revised page walks users through a step-by-step online workflow, including fee payment (still €55) and an embedded checklist of supporting evidence. ISD stresses that incomplete files will be returned automatically, a change designed to cut re-work and reduce the current 20-week processing queue. For multinationals with relocated staff in Ireland, the move is significant. Dependents who arrive later under family-reunification provisions can now complete the entire application online and collect their booklet at an Irish embassy abroad. HR teams will find it easier to monitor case progress through the same portal they already use for employment-permit correspondence. Emergency processing—available for urgent medical travel or bereavement—remains possible, but applicants must first lodge the standard online form before flagging urgency via the service desk. ISD’s digitalisation push aligns with the government’s broader commitment to end-to-end e-immigration services before the end of the EU Council Presidency in December. Earlier pilots, such as the 2025 e-visa payment system, cut average turnaround times by 18 per cent. If the new platform performs similarly, mobility managers could see travel-document issuance fall to around 16 weeks by early 2027, easing assignment planning for staff who hold non-Irish nationalities but are unable to renew home-country passports. Practical tip: companies should update internal relocation checklists to reference the online portal, budget for the €55 fee, and remind travelling employees that they must still verify visa requirements for their destination country even after receiving an Irish travel document.
Source: Immigration Service Delivery
