CARISA LEE

Re­porter

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers says he has asked his per­ma­nent sec­re­tary to pro­vide a re­port on why Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als now need a visa to vis­it Ire­land.

An up­date to the Irish Im­mi­gra­tion Ser­vice web­site on Fri­day stat­ed:

"With ef­fect from 12 May 2025, na­tion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go will be re­quired to ob­tain a visa be­fore trav­el­ling to Ire­land.”

It fur­ther stat­ed that a tran­sit visa will al­so be re­quired, if in­tend­ing to tran­sit through Ire­land en route to an­oth­er des­ti­na­tion.

How­ev­er, the ad­vi­so­ry not­ed that na­tion­als of T&T who made trav­el plans be­fore 12 May 2025 and who can pro­vide ev­i­dence of a valid book­ing and pay­ment for the trip, may be ac­com­mo­dat­ed for emer­gency trav­el in the fol­low­ing sit­u­a­tions where the sched­uled trav­el is on or be­fore 31 May 2025:

• A crit­i­cal med­ical case in­volv­ing a fam­i­ly mem­ber be­ing se­ri­ous­ly ill or un­der­go­ing med­ical treat­ment. Ev­i­dence from the rel­e­vant med­ical in­sti­tu­tion must be pro­vid­ed.

• Vis­it­ing for a sig­nif­i­cant fam­i­ly event – a birth, wed­ding, or fu­ner­al. Suit­able ev­i­dence must be pro­vid­ed.

• Tak­ing up a place ob­tained in a third-lev­el in­sti­tu­tion on an un­der­grad­u­ate or post-grad­u­ate de­gree course. Ev­i­dence must be pro­vid­ed from the rel­e­vant in­sti­tu­tion.

• Tak­ing up em­ploy­ment and hold­ing an Em­ploy­ment Per­mit for Ire­land. Ev­i­dence of the per­mit is­sued by the De­part­ment of En­ter­prise, Trade and Em­ploy­ment must be pro­vid­ed.

• Trav­el­ling for busi­ness. Con­fir­ma­tion of the arrange­ments for the vis­it from the busi­ness in ques­tion must be pro­vid­ed.

The ad­vi­so­ry said that any­one falling with­in the above cat­e­gories should email be­com­ingvis­are­quired@jus­tice.ie with the sub­ject line “Visa Re­quired – Emer­gency Trav­el Re­quest­ed”.

Min­is­ter Sobers said the re­port will tell him where T&T stands with Ire­land and pos­si­ble so­lu­tions mov­ing for­ward.