S.I. No. 58/2024 - Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) (Amendment) Order 2024

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 27th February, 2024.

I, HELEN MCENTEE, Minister for Justice, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 17 of the Immigration Act 2004 (No. 1 of 2004) (as adapted by the Justice and Equality (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2020 ( S.I. No. 452 of 2020 )), hereby order as follows:

1. (1) This Order may be cited as the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) (Amendment) Order 2024.

(2) This Order comes into operation on 7 March 2024.

2. The Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order ( S.I. No. 473 of 2014 ) is amended -

(a) in Article 2 -

(i) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “service passport”:

“ ‘service passport’ means a passport so described on its face that is issued by the competent authorities of a state or territorial entity;”,

and

(ii) by the insertion of the following definitions:

“ ‘official passport’ means a passport so described on its face that is issued by the competent authorities of a state or territorial entity;

‘special passport’ means a passport so described on its face that is issued by the competent authorities of a state or territorial entity;”,

(b) in Article 3, by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (f):

“(f) non-nationals who -

(i) are holders of -

(I) a public affairs passport, or

(II) an official passport, a service passport or a special passport issued by a state or territorial entity specified in Schedule 2, and

(ii) arrive in the State in the company of a Minister of the Government of the state or territorial entity the competent authorities of which issued the passport concerned where that Minister is on an official visit;”,

(c) in Schedule 1, by the deletion of “Dominica”, “Honduras” and “Vanuatu”,

(d) by the substitution of the following Schedule for Schedule 2:

“SCHEDULE 2

Article 3(b)(v) and Article 3(f)

”,

(e) in Schedule 3, by the substitution of “Türkiye” for “Turkey”,

and

(f) in Schedule 5, by the insertion of -

(i) “Dominica” after “Democratic Republic of Congo”,

(ii) “Honduras” after “Ghana”, and

(iii) “Vanuatu” after “Sri Lanka”.

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

23 February, 2024.

HELEN MCENTEE,

Minister for Justice.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

This Order amends the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014. The Order imposes a requirement for nationals of Dominica, Honduras and Vanuatu both to obtain a visa in order to be granted authorisation to land in the State, as well as to obtain a transit visa in order to be granted authorisation to arrive at a port in the State for purposes of passing through the port in order to travel to another state.

This Order also removes the requirement for holders of diplomatic passports issued by the competent authorities of Colombia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Moldova, Montenegro, Peru, Qatar and Türkiye to obtain a visa in order to land in the State. Additionally, this Order removes the requirement for holders of official, service and special passports issued by the competent authorities of the same states to obtain a visa in order to land in the State where the holder of such a passport arrives in the State in the company of a Minister of the Government of the state or territorial entity the competent authorities of which issued the passport concerned where that Minister is on an official visit.