ESRI Claims Ireland Immigration System Is Business Friendly

22 Jul 2015

According to a new report from the Economic and Social Research institute (ESRI), it  has claimed that,  Ireland’s immigration system has become increasingly business friendly as the number of visas issued for the business purposes has increased by 15% during the span of  4  years.

As per the study, the number of business related visas issued by the state has increased to 15,400 during the last year.

The think –tank has said that the number of non-European business people are looking to come to Ireland is likely to be considerably higher, as the national’s belonging to  number of nation’s such as United States do need visas to travel here.

Report author Eglie Gusciute has said that despite the attempts made by the government to boost the business migration, high cost when they get here may act as a deterrent.

While the older schemes have been focused on preventing the misuse of business migration channels, the Department of Justice and Equality have noted that this has not been a major problem in Ireland.

There are now more options available to non –EU migrants who wish to set up a business or to invest in Ireland.

While the new measures seem to be working in terms of facilitating the business people, high living cost as well as lack of accommodation may deter few investors and also entrepreneurs.

There are relatively very few foreign owned business in Ireland, which account for just 2% of the overall share of the enterprises.

However, the ESRI reports point out that these businesses are generally large in terms of employment and In terms of higher value export activity.

The ESRI report has found out that business related visas has represented the second largest category of Visa granted during the last year, accounting for 17% of all the visas granted.

The think tank have claimed that older, more rigid immigration scheme is now replaced with new programmes, which are introduced to attract migrant investors as well as entrepreneurs.

As per the immigration investor Programme (IIP) with a minimum investment varying between €500,000 and €2m, 55 permissions were granted since 2012.

3 permissions were granted in the same period, under Star-up Entrepreneur programme (STEP). It targets the high potential startups.

The ESRI has stated that, during the course of its research, both Ibec and American Chamber of Commerce have cited that high living cost and lack of private rented accommodation as act as a barrier in attracting people involved in business to Ireland.

The research has found that administrative barriers in obtaining spousal visa and difficulty  may also act as a deterrent to business migration.

Employers receive trusted partner status and it helps in speeding up the employment permit applications with the help of Department of jobs, Enterprise and innovation. It has been recently launched and it is trusted partner initiative.

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