Ireland has moved quickly to give long-term clarity to the roughly 70,000 Ukrainians who have arrived since Russia’s 2022 invasion. On 26 May 2026 the Government approved a package of measures that will guide the country’s response once the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive (TPD) expires in March 2027. At the heart of the plan is a new immigration route – the “Temporary Protection Transition Scheme” – that will grant a renewable Stamp 4 permission in two-year blocks. Time spent on the permission will count towards the five-year residence requirement for naturalisation, giving beneficiaries a predictable path to citizenship.
![Ireland unveils ‘Temporary Protection Transition Scheme’ for 70,000 Ukrainian refugees]()
VisaHQ’s Dublin-based team is already fielding queries on the Temporary Protection Transition Scheme and can help both individual applicants and HR departments assemble the correct employment, salary and accommodation evidence, book appointments, and monitor application status through a single dashboard. Full details of their services are available at https://www.visahq.com/ireland/
To qualify, applicants must have lived in Ireland for at least a year under the TPD, have worked (or been self-employed) for six months with a salary of at least €29,432, and no longer rely on state-provided or subsidised accommodation. Families will apply as a single unit, reducing administrative burden for HR teams managing status for dependants. The Government also detailed a phased withdrawal of the hotel and guest-house accommodation network that was rapidly assembled during the refugee surge. Commercial contracts will start winding down in August 2026 and finish by March 2027, with residents expected to secure private housing or hosted arrangements. To support this shift, the Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) will revert to its original €400 per month rate from October 2026, incentivising hosts to continue offering rooms while refugees transition to independence. Corporate mobility managers should note that a dedicated application portal will open in September 2026. The Department of Justice will run information clinics with the Irish Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration to help applicants gather evidence of employment and housing. Multinationals that hired Ukrainian talent under the open labour-market access afforded by the TPD should review payroll records to confirm staff meet the six-month employment and salary threshold. While Ireland does not presently support voluntary returns to Ukraine, officials said they would work with EU partners on a bloc-wide reintegration programme “once conditions allow”. For now, the focus is on creating a clear legal bridge from emergency protection to mainstream immigration, giving employers and refugees alike the certainty they have been requesting for more than a year.
VisaHQ’s Dublin-based team is already fielding queries on the Temporary Protection Transition Scheme and can help both individual applicants and HR departments assemble the correct employment, salary and accommodation evidence, book appointments, and monitor application status through a single dashboard. Full details of their services are available at https://www.visahq.com/ireland/
To qualify, applicants must have lived in Ireland for at least a year under the TPD, have worked (or been self-employed) for six months with a salary of at least €29,432, and no longer rely on state-provided or subsidised accommodation. Families will apply as a single unit, reducing administrative burden for HR teams managing status for dependants. The Government also detailed a phased withdrawal of the hotel and guest-house accommodation network that was rapidly assembled during the refugee surge. Commercial contracts will start winding down in August 2026 and finish by March 2027, with residents expected to secure private housing or hosted arrangements. To support this shift, the Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) will revert to its original €400 per month rate from October 2026, incentivising hosts to continue offering rooms while refugees transition to independence. Corporate mobility managers should note that a dedicated application portal will open in September 2026. The Department of Justice will run information clinics with the Irish Red Cross and the International Organization for Migration to help applicants gather evidence of employment and housing. Multinationals that hired Ukrainian talent under the open labour-market access afforded by the TPD should review payroll records to confirm staff meet the six-month employment and salary threshold. While Ireland does not presently support voluntary returns to Ukraine, officials said they would work with EU partners on a bloc-wide reintegration programme “once conditions allow”. For now, the focus is on creating a clear legal bridge from emergency protection to mainstream immigration, giving employers and refugees alike the certainty they have been requesting for more than a year.
