To qualify for the Critical Skills Employment Permit in Ireland, you need a two-year job offer from an Irish employer in an eligible occupation, with a base annual salary of at least €40,904 if the role sits on the Critical Skills Occupations List and you hold a relevant degree, or €68,911 for any other eligible role. The permit is governed by the Employment Permits Act 2024 and processed by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.1Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Employment Permits FAQs 2024 Eligibility turns on four things: the salary, the occupation, the candidate, and the employer.
Salary Thresholds That Apply From March 2026
The salary floor depends on which route your role takes into the permit. As of March 1, 2026, following a phased roadmap the government announced in December 2025, the thresholds are:2Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Government Unveils Roadmap for Gradual Increase in Employment Permit Salary Thresholds
- €40,904 per year for occupations on the Critical Skills Occupations List, where the applicant holds a relevant degree or higher qualification.
- €68,911 per year for any other occupation not on the Ineligible List, regardless of whether it appears on the Critical Skills list.
Recent graduates get a small concession. If your degree was awarded within the 12 months before you apply and the job is on the Critical Skills list, the minimum drops to €36,848.3Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Critical Skills Employment Permit
Only the basic gross annual pay stated in the contract counts toward the threshold. Bonuses, overtime, shift premiums, and other variable payments do not. The Department checks this against the salary breakdown you supply, so the contract has to show base pay at or above the relevant figure on its own.
Which Occupations Qualify
Two lists decide whether your role fits. The Critical Skills Occupations List names the fields the government treats as strategically important and in short supply: ICT professionals and managers, engineering disciplines (civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and electronics), health professionals such as doctors, nurses, midwives, radiographers, and pharmacists, therapy professionals including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists, and certain academic, scientific, and business roles.4Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Critical Skills Occupations List A role on this list at €40,904 or more with the matching degree is the standard qualifying path.
The Ineligible List of Occupations is the opposite. Any role on it is blocked from a permit, even at a salary above €68,911.5Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Ineligible List of Occupations for Employment Permits The list is organized by broad category, but not every job within a listed category is necessarily excluded, so the specific entries matter.
Both lists use the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC 2010) system, and each role is tied to a four-digit code. The right code is not a formality. An incorrect one can produce a refusal even when the underlying job would have qualified. Check your job title against the current published list before you apply. Both lists are updated periodically without individual notice, so verify against the latest version each time.
What the Employee Must Bring
The candidate side of eligibility rests on three requirements: the job offer, the qualifications, and, in some fields, a regulator’s sign-off.
The offer must be for at least two years. Shorter contracts do not qualify for this permit, though a General Employment Permit may cover them. The candidate must hold the qualifications and professional experience the role actually demands, which is why the €40,904 tier is tied to a relevant degree.
For regulated professions, registration with the Irish body that oversees the field is part of eligibility, not a later formality. This covers medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy, and several allied health fields, with proof required from bodies such as the Medical Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, or CORU.6Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Registration Bodies for Certain Employments Without that registration, an application in one of those fields will not succeed.
What the Employer Must Be
The employer has to be a real business based and trading in Ireland, registered with the Revenue Commissioners and, where applicable, the Companies Registration Office. Beyond that, the workforce composition rule is the one that catches employers out: at least 50% of the company’s staff must be EEA nationals at the time of the application.3Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Critical Skills Employment Permit
Start-ups have a limited way around this. A company registered as an employer with Revenue within the past two years can seek a waiver, but only with a letter of support from Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland.
No Labour Market Needs Test
One eligibility hurdle that applies to other permits does not apply here. Because the Critical Skills list already identifies these roles as being in short supply, the employer does not have to advertise the position locally or show that no suitable EEA candidate came forward. That labour market step, required for the General Employment Permit, is skipped entirely.
What Qualifying Gets You
Qualifying carries advantages that other permit categories do not offer, and they matter to the decision of whether this is the right route.
Family can come immediately. A permit holder’s spouse or de facto partner and dependent children can travel to Ireland at the same time as the worker, without a waiting period. A de facto partner needs to show at least two years in a committed relationship. Once here and registered, the spouse or de facto partner receives a Stamp 1G, which allows them to work for any employer without needing their own employment permit, and to study. Stamp 1G is renewed annually, and after five years the spouse or partner may apply for a Stamp 4.7Immigration Service Delivery. Immigration Permission Stamps Children aged 16 and over register independently. Family members from visa-required countries apply for their own visas; de facto partners from visa-exempt countries still need preclearance before travelling.
You also reach open residency faster. After 21 months of employment in Ireland on a Stamp 1 or Stamp 1H based on your Critical Skills permit, you can apply for Stamp 4, which frees you from the tie to one employer and allows you to work for anyone, become self-employed, or start a business. The 21 months are verified through your Employment Detail Summary on Revenue’s portal. Since November 2023, a support letter from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is no longer required; the Department of Justice handles the process through Immigration Service Delivery.8Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Notice Regarding Stamp 4 Support Letters
If Your Application Is Refused
A refusal can be reviewed under the Employment Permits Act 2024, but the window is short. You have 28 days from the date on the refusal letter to submit a review request on the Department’s prescribed form.9Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Application Forms for Review of Decisions Under the Employment Permits Act 2024 There is no fee, and you get one review per application, so any additional evidence addressing the specific grounds for refusal needs to go in with that submission.