The recent announcement made by the Irish government in introducing two new immigration services in a bid to facilitate migrant entrepreneurs and possible investors who for a chance to reside in the country will invest in Ireland with the aim of creating jobs and saving. These two initiatives are referred to as the Ireland Immigrant Investor Program and the Ireland Start-up Entrepreneur Program. Under the Irish immigrant investor program, the approved participants together with their immediate families will be granted the rights of residence in Ireland. Through this, they will be able to enter Ireland through multi-entry visas and remain in the country for a definite period including a possibility of renewal. Those who will be successful will get primary residence granted to them for five years. This will, however, take place in two stages. The first permission will cover a period of two years accompanied by a review to determine if the investor continues to satisfy the conditions of the scheme. If everything is in order, a further extension of three years will be granted. Once the Five years have elapsed, the investor will be free to apply for the continuous residence in five-year tranches. If successful, the investors can qualify for naturalization similar to other foreign nationals living in Ireland.

The Ireland Start-up Entrepreneur program aims at individuals of good character who have entrepreneurial abilities as well as finances and wish to start a business in the area of innovation. For an applicant to qualify, he/she must have access to more than 75000 Euros funding so as to be given residency in the state for the development of the business. Nonetheless, there is no job creation targets set since it is understood that such companies might take some time to get going. The Start-up Entrepreneur Program aims at supporting high potential start-ups and is not intended for retail, catering, personal services, or businesses of the same nature. Given this, the government defines a high potential start-up as one who is introducing new products or services to international markets and is led by an experienced management team. Also, these types of businesses must have their headquarters in Ireland from where they are controlled on top of being less than six years old. Besides, successful applicants together with their families will be given residence permission for two years as a start for purposes of developing their business which will then undergo renewal for a further three years.

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