Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) has announced that its new “Employment Permits Online” system will launch on April 28, 2025.
What to Expect
- To facilitate the move to Employment Permits Online, the existing EPOS website will be taken offline from 6pm on April 17, 2025, for 5 business days.
- Importantly, all completed draft employment permit applications must be submitted before the EPOS system is taken offline. Draft employment permit applications prepared but not submitted before the EPOS system is taken offline will not be transferred to Employment Permits Online. Only fully completed and submitted applications will be transferred to Employment Permits Online for processing.
The new system will introduce a portal space with separate and individual accounts for both employers, employees and agents.
Registration: Employment Permits Online will require all users (employer, employee and agent) to set up a portal account, in order to access the system and to submit future employment permit applications.
- For employers, registration will also require the provision of some key additional documents, that is, Revenue and CRO details. Once these documents have been uploaded and validated (by the Employment Permits Unit) accounts will be ready to go.
- The initial email address used to register a portal account will be set as the ‘Administrator’ for the account. More than one administrator can be assigned for an account.
Portal account: Once registration has been completed (including verification), users will have access to their new portal accounts. Portal accounts will provide a record of current and historic applications, as well as a new ‘status update’ feature – allowing users to see at what stage of the process any current applications have reached (draft, awaiting payment, processing, requested information, issued, refused, appeal and so on).
Enhanced data protection: Requests from DETE will issue as an email from Employment Permits Online direct to the verified email addresses of the parties (employer, employee or agent) linked to the application. The parties can then ‘reply’ to this email, which is then returned directly to the application record on the employment permits system.
Additionally, the submission of requests for permit; renewals, change of employer, appeals, withdrawals, cancellations, and so on) all take place through the portal account. Any relevant documents associated with the processing of these requests by the employment permits team, will also be requested to be provided.
Joint applications: An additional feature of Employment Permits Online, is that all employment permit applications will be jointly completed online by the parties involved, the employer and prospective employee (as well as the appointed agent, if applicable).
Trusted Partner initiative: To set up and maintain a valid portal account, employers are required to submit relevant Revenue documentation in addition to their CRO number. These would be the key documents required for Trusted Partner status. Therefore, the Trusted Partner initiative will no longer operate under Employment Permits Online. As all employers will now operate from portal accounts, this will deliver more efficient processing of applications, benefiting all users.
Erickson Insights & Analysis
Erickson Immigration Group will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more news is available. Please contact your employer or EIG attorney if you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions.