American moving w/ Irlish Passport

Hi, I'm from Louisiana.  My mom is Irish, so I am already considered an Irish citizen and I can get an Irish passport.  I have dozens of family in the UK and have been many times.  My sister moved there for a year last year. 

QUESTIONS: If I have an Irish passport I can stay and work as long as I want right?  EU are like states, more or less?  Work in TX or FL same thing? 

NEXT: How much money should I bring when I move?  I'm going to stay with family for a while.  Should I bring 1000, 3000 pounds?  HELP!

As I understand it, If you have an Irish passport you can stay and work there as long as you want (provided you're not a drain on the state).  With an Irish passport, they're just supposed to do a quick check at immigration and then wave you though.  If you want, you can assure your right to stay in the UK by applying for an EU residency permit (the EEC forms), though it's not required.  Further, though I believe it's only a Home Office concession (not written into immigration law) that because of older British/Irish ties, Irish nationals are supposed to be treated as British nationals under UK immigration law.  [Which may mean that you wouldn't even qualify for an EEC residency permit because your right to stay there is even more solid than just an EU-member's right to stay there.  Meaning: you're treating as a British citizen with the Irish passport and not as an EU member citizen, like a German, Italian, etc.]

Go to http://www.britainusa.com/visas/visas.asp
Click on "Do I need a visa?"

One thing to be concerned about: While Ireland and the UK don't mind, the United States does not recognize dual-citizenship.  They allow you to have another passport, but you can't take up arms for another country or work for their government, blah, blah, blah (common sense stuff).  They also want you to travel on your US passport - that's a bit of a problem since you need your Irish one to enter the UK.  I'd carry both with you and double-check how that would work with the US State Department and the Home Office in the UK.

Obviously (like the warning on this site states), I am not an immigration offical or lawyer.  I know about this stuff because my partner is Irish (from NI) and I was recently granted a Settlement Visa so that we can return to the UK to live.  If you have any further questions, message me and I'll try to give you some insight into our situation (and some links to sites we used!).

Good Luck!

It's simple - carry both passports.  You enter the US on the American one and enter the UK (and pretty much anywhere else, really) on the Irish one.

It's simple - carry both passports.  You enter the US on the American one and enter the UK (and pretty much anywhere else, really) on the Irish one.

Yup, I did just that when I took a trip to England last month.  I entered the UK with my UK passport and the US with my US passport.  Had no problems at all.  I was worried that when I reentered the US they might question me about the lack of an entry stamp in my US passport, but they asked nothing.

FormicaLinoleum, THAT was our concern!  (Great name, btw).  We have yet to head back to the US without a re-entry stamp, but I just assumed that - since my partner IS legally a US citizen - they really can't deny him entry (though they can grill him).  We don't anticipate any problems, but the first time we do anything on the visa passport stuff, we plan to carry all the documents we have, just in case we get questioned!  Better safe than sorry!

They don't care at US immigration about whether you have entry or exit stamps from other countries in your US passport.

I have been dual for a couple years now and I travel with two passports. Use the UK one here, the US one when entering the US.

Just DON'T, and I repeat DON'T, show the other (non-US) passport to US immigration.

Oh!  That's good to know!!!  We'll keep it tucked away. 

Dual citizenship is not an issue any more under US law, but US immigration officers are not lawyers. They may not know the intricacies. Be careful with them.

Before 1990, the US made it very hard to retain US citizenship if you VOLUNTARILY took another citizenship. That would not apply in the case of your partner, Cludet, because he would be deemed Irish from birth, but the last thing you want is to raise questions with Homeland Security.

Also - you can still get into hot water by not using your US passport when entering the US.

Obviously if they specifically ask you for some reason whether you have any other citizenship, I wouldn't lie about it. When I applied for my new US passport at the consulate a couple of years ago, they asked me whether I had taken any foreign citizenship in the meantime, and I told them yes, UK citizenship, and they said that's ok, we don't need to see the passport. So generally speaking it's a non-issue, but I have heard some horror stories lately about US immigration officers going postal, even on Europeans.