IRP Card Delays in 2026: Your Rights While Waiting, and the Temporary Measures

If you are waiting on an IRP renewal right now, you are not alone — and you are probably anxious about two things: whether you can keep working, and whether you can travel.

Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) has been processing a very large volume of Irish Residence Permit renewal applications, and processing times have risen sharply since late 2025 across every stamp category. Reports through 2026 put averages at roughly 17 weeks for Stamp 4 and anywhere from 7 to 15 weeks for Stamp 1, depending on category.

The State's response has been a series of temporary measures. Understanding them — and their end dates — is what keeps a delay from becoming a crisis.

First: renewals are online-only

Since 4 November 2024, all IRP renewals across Ireland are made exclusively online through the ISD portal. There is no in-person renewal route. You apply, upload your documents, pay the fee, and wait for the new card to arrive by post.

This is also where problems start. An incomplete upload — a missing passport page, an expired employment permit, a blurry document — does not just slow your application; it stalls it. Getting the submission right first time is most of the battle, and it is exactly what our IRP card service exists to do.

Working on an expired IRP card

The long-standing concession allowing people to continue working while a renewal is processed was originally 8 weeks. Because of the backlog, at the end of 2025 ISD extended the concession to 12 weeks — and temporary measures have since been extended further, currently running to 31 August 2026.

Under the current arrangements, a person who has submitted a renewal application — with all required documents uploaded, including a valid employment permit where applicable — can continue working while awaiting the outcome, even where the card has expired. This includes Stamp 1 holders awaiting a Stamp 4 decision.

Two warnings:

1. The protection depends on having applied properly before expiry. An expired card with no renewal application behind it is a different and far more serious situation. If that is where you are, act immediately — our Stamp 1G overstay assistance deals with precisely these cases.
2. The measures have an end date. When they lapse, the standard 12-week Notice to Employers policy resumes. Do not build plans on a concession outlasting its published date.

Travelling on an expired IRP

Temporary travel measures allow re-entry to Ireland on a recently expired IRP card where a renewal application has been submitted. In practice you must carry a printed Travel Confirmation Notice, the expired card, and proof of the renewal application. Airlines are not always familiar with the measures, so carry physical copies rather than screenshots and allow extra time.

If your travel is not essential and your card situation is marginal, the boring advice is the right advice: wait for the new card if you can.

Protecting yourself during the backlog

The pattern in every case we see is that people who applied early and completely sail through the delay, while people who applied late or incompletely accumulate problems. Practical steps:

• Apply well before expiry. With processing at 10–17 weeks, "a month before" is no longer early.
• Upload everything, correctly, first time. A returned application goes to the back of a very long queue.
• Keep proof of your application — the confirmation email and payment receipt are your evidence for employers and airlines.
• Tell your employer what the concession actually says. HR departments sometimes panic at an expired card; the interim Notice to Employers exists precisely so they don't have to. Point them to the current ISD notice.
• Check your stamp conditions haven't changed. A renewal is also the moment ISD looks at whether you still meet the conditions of your permission — if your circumstances have shifted, get advice before applying, not after a refusal. Our Stamp 1G extension service and Stamp 1 reactivation assistance both start with that assessment.

If your situation is already complicated

Delays interact badly with complicated cases — a job change mid-renewal, a permission that expired before you applied, a stamp category that no longer matches your circumstances. These are solvable, but they are solvable much more easily early. Book a free consultation and we will tell you honestly where you stand and what to do next.