moving to Ireland

Ultimate Guide to Ireland's Working Holiday Authorisation

Ultimate Guide to Ireland’s Working Holiday Authorisation

Ultimate Guide to Ireland's Working Holiday Authorisation

I’ve gotten many emails over the past few years of people who come across my blog and want to know “How did you do it?” How, at 22 years of age, did I move from South Louisiana to Dublin, Ireland? Did I do it through a program? Did I have a job? How did I afford it? Was it scary?

Well, folks, I’ll tell you how I did it. I up and moved to Dublin, with no job or place to live, because of a little something known as the Working Holiday Authorisation – an amazing (yet little-known) program between Ireland and citizens of The US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Hong Kong, Chile, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

The rules and requirements vary slightly from country to country. For the purpose of this post I’m focusing on the Working Holiday Authorisation offered to people from the United States.

So here we go!

[UPDATE: This post has been updated in 2022 with new/updated information. For example, some processes/applications that had to be done in-person when this article was originally written in 2017 have now been moved online, companies that are no longer in business have been removed, etc. This has all been reflected here.]

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Ireland month #1

Expat Life in Ireland // Month #1 recap and photos

Ireland month #1

I’m a little late on writing this post, as technically last Thursday marked a month of living in Ireland. But, that just goes to show how insanely hectic life has been since I moved here! Getting settled in as an expat in Ireland has pretty all-consuming.

Just for a little background info, my friend Maggie and I moved to Dublin, Ireland on a year-long working holiday authorization visa. When we moved across the Atlantic at the end of April, we had no jobs and no places to live lined up. Not nerve-wracking at all, right?! So here is a summary of our first month of expat life in Ireland!

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I'm Moving to Ireland from the US!

I’M MOVING TO IRELAND!!!!!!!!

I'm Moving to Ireland from the US!

Holy cow.

I have been dying, and I mean DYING, to finally share my big news! I have been looking into the Irish Working Holiday Authorization for months now. I’ve been preparing all the necessary paperwork, filling out the application, gathering documents, etc. I finally submitted my visa application to the Irish Consulate Embassy in Chicago a few weeks ago. Since then, I’ve been waiting patiently to hear back from them, since it usually takes about 3 weeks.

Well, I got my approval email this week, so I’m finally approved for the visa which means I’M MOVING TO IRELAND FOR A YEAR, YA’LL!

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