Visa requirements for Irish citizens

Ireland belongs to the European free movement area, so Irish citizens need no visa anywhere in the Schengen area and can use a national ID card.

Of the 198 countries whose entry rules are known in both directions, Ireland and 78 of them let each other’s citizens in without a visa obtained in advance (visa-free, on arrival or with an ETA; an e-visa counts as a visa).

No country asks holders of the Irish passport for a visa beforehand while its own citizens enter Ireland without one.

The reverse holds for 82 countries: holders of the Irish passport get in without a visa obtained in advance, but their citizens need one for Ireland (Albania, Angola, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh and 77 others).

13 countries ask holders of the Irish passport for a visa obtained before travel from an embassy, a consulate or a visa centre. 2 of them have an embassy or consulate on record in Ireland.

11 countries have no embassy or career consulate on record in Ireland, so the application usually goes to one of their posts in another country. Counting the post an official diplomatic list names for Ireland, or else the nearest one within 2,000 km, those posts are most often in the United Kingdom (6) and Belgium (3).

The United States refused 25% of visitor-visa (B1/B2) applications from citizens of Ireland in fiscal year 2025, by the State Department’s adjusted refusal rate. 85 of the 197 nationalities with a published rate had a lower one and 111 a higher one; the middle value was 32%.

Schengen consulates in Ireland refused 3.1% of short-stay visa applications in 2025 (all Schengen consulates worldwide: 15%). Among the 74 countries where they received at least 10,000 applications, that is the 71st highest rate. The figure counts every nationality applying there, not only citizens.

Visa-free travel with the Irish passport

By continent, the Irish passport is visa-free in 44 countries in Europe, 30 countries in the Americas, 21 countries in Asia, 17 countries in Africa and 6 countries in Oceania. The longest visa-free stays for Irish citizens are allowed in Georgia (360 days), Antigua and Barbuda (180 days), Armenia (180 days), Barbados (180 days), Costa Rica (180 days) and Dominica (180 days).

Visa on arrival

Irish citizens can get a visa at the airport or land border of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt and 26 others.

E-Visa and electronic travel authorisation

An e-Visa, applied for online before the trip, is how Irish citizens enter Azerbaijan, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cuba and 18 others. Australia, Canada, Israel, Ivory Coast, Kenya, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and 3 others ask instead for an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a lighter online check than a visa.

Ireland’s neighbours

The United Kingdom admits Irish citizens without a visa.

How the passport compares

Among neighbouring passports, the British passport ranks 36th (157 destinations). Of the 198 passports in the data, 78 can enter visa-free and 120 need a visa from an embassy or consulate for Ireland.