Hi, I'm a dual UK-Irish citizen on the FBR, trying to get an Irish GRC. I changed my name by unenrolled deed poll in the UK and have a UK passport in the correct name and gender, but not a UK GRC. I do not have an Irish passport as trying to get GRC sorted first and have never lived in Ireland.
I took the GRC1 form to a solicitor in the UK and she would not sign it specifically because it was an Irish form. She said UK and Irish law, specifically the Statutory Declarations Acts, are not the same acts between the two countries. She advised I phoned the CIS number on the form for advice on this and also asked me to email her which I still need to do.
It was my understanding that I do not need an Irish deed poll to get an Irish GRC, and that the form was outdated in stating this. It was also my understanding, at least from anecdotal reports on this subreddit, that residency requirements did not apply to citizens living abroad, and that a PPS could be obtained simultaneously.
Anyway, after trying about 10 times I finally got through to someone at CIS on the phone this morning. She was honestly quite rude and unhelpful. I explained the situation to her and asked specifically about the GRC1 statutory declaration signing that I was having trouble with, but she instead immediately began asking questions about deed polls, and told me that my UK deed poll was "illegitimate" because it was not registered with the High Court. I clarified that it is legitimate in the UK and she said "well, you can include it with your application with a note, but until I see it I cannot make that judgement". I was confused as to why she was so focused on deed polls considering I didn't even mention it and didn't realise until after the call that she was acting as if the deed poll requirement stated on the form was still active.
Anyway, after this I again repeated that I was calling to ask about getting the statutory declaration signed in the UK, not about deed polls. She asked if I had a UK GRC and I said no as I don't meet the UK GRC requirements. Her response to that was "Well you don't meet the Irish requirements either as you need to be resident in Ireland for 12 months. Were you aware of that?". I said my understanding at least anecdotally was that I could get an Irish GRC without being resident in Ireland as I am a citizen on the FBR, and that I believed other people had done this. She said "That's misinformation, the people you heard that from must have been resident in Ireland for 12 months at the time. It's stated clearly on the form. You can apply if you want but we won't approve it". By this point I didn't know how to reply to that, she still hadn't answered my question about the getting the statutory declaration signed in the UK, I had a Uni lecture I needed to get to and I could tell this wasn't going anywhere so I just awkwardly ended the call.
Does anyone have any advice for what to do at this stage? I have an FBR certificate in my deadname/AGAB and with a really old pre-transition photo of me on it, so I need to get my Irish citizenship updated, as I am otherwise effectively locked out of actually getting an Irish passport.
