Exploratory Data Analysis of The Irish Citizenship Applications

After living and working in Ireland for five years, I was finally eligible to apply for Irish citizenship through naturalisation. Something that is intended to make my life less complicated and more humane, especially after surviving on the third worst passport in the world according to the Passport index; the Syrian passport.

Unfortunately, the process that would normally take up to 6 months has been ongoing for over a year now. The unforeseen ramifications of the Brexit vote made thousands of British with Irish heritage rush to apply for Irish citizenship in order to keep leveraging the benefits of the European Union. This loaded the already slow system and caused delays to the application already in the pipeline. On top of that, in July 2019, “A High Court judge, in a significant decision, has ruled the “continuous residence” requirement in citizenship applications means an applicant for naturalisation must have “unbroken” residence in the State for an entire year immediately before the date of their application.” [The Irish Times]

This rule caused over 16,000 applicants unnecessary stress and delay as the system went into hibernation waiting for the authorities to decide on what is acceptable as a “continuous residence” in Ireland. [The Irish Times]. Finally, in November 2019, the ruling was appealed by the…