I will first preface this with the fact that Immigration in Ireland (at least in Cork) is very out of date.
The process starts when you land in Ireland, where you must have documents that you are going to be staying here as a student, have a place to stay, and present your passport to the immigration officer. At the end of this first meeting, you are stamped with a temporary visa, which allows you to stay in Ireland (without travel) until the date chosen by the officer.
The second step requires going to the county police station, waiting in line (starting at 6am) until they open the doors at 8am, and receiving a card with a number on it to come back, about two weeks after the this second date.
The third step requires getting into the same line at the police station, according to the number on your ticket and presenting all of the documents for your visa. Once approved, you get another card with a date to come back to receive your permanent resident card.
The fourth step is to recieve your card. Once again, for the third time, you must go to the police station to wait in line for your physical card. With this card, you can now leave Ireland for travel reasons.
If you are unlucky and do not have the correct documents, you will be sent away and given a farther out date to return. Or even worse, the office is known for overbooking their appointments, leading to students being given farther dates solely because the immigration office made a mistake.
What is worse is that a permanent visa, while a long process, is also only required if you are staying in the country for more than 90 days, and comes at a cost of $300. Being a single semester student, most student totals only come to 92-95 days. Even worse, the processes is being talked about moved out of Cork entirely for the upcoming year. This would force students to have to travel 4 hours by bus for appointments in Dublin. Due to this fact, there is a petition of the situation which can be found here. Another issue revolving around immigration, is that the immigration officers have so much control that the process is constantly changing and not well shared with the community, including school officials.
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