Ireland Writes Its Own Visa List, and Has Been Shortening It
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Sweden on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
147 exceptions recorded across 54 countries · none match Sweden to Ireland · Visiting as a tourist
Nothing about a short visit to Ireland is decided in Brussels. Whether a visa is needed before travelling is decided by an order the Minister makes under section 17 of the Immigration Act 2004, and the order in force is the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014. Article 3(a) of it exempts nationals of the states listed in Schedule 1; article 4 requires a transit visa of nationals of the states listed in Schedule 5, which reaches people who never leave the airport. Both Schedules were replaced whole on 10 July 2024 and Schedule 1 has been cut three times since. Arrival is a second question with its own answer: a permission under section 4, which an immigration officer may give or refuse on twelve listed grounds, and on which that officer writes how long you may stay and whether you may work.
At a glance
- Who decides the visa list
- The Minister, by order under section 17 of the Immigration Act 2004
The order in force is the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014.
- Where the visa-free list is
- Schedule 1 to that Order, substituted whole by article 2(a) of S.I. No. 335 of 2024
Cut since by S.I. No. 68 of 2025, S.I. No. 164 of 2025 and S.I. No. 242 of 2026.
- A transit visa as well
- Required of nationals of the states in Schedule 5, for passing through a port
Article 4 of the Order. Schedule 5 was substituted whole by article 2(c) of the same 2024 Order.
- Entry itself
- A permission an immigration officer may give or refuse
Section 4(1) and section 4(3) of the Immigration Act 2004.
- Grounds for refusing it
- Twelve, from want of means to an intention the officer does not believe
Paragraphs (a) to (l) of section 4(3), as the revised Act prints them.
- How long a visitor may stay
- Whatever the officer writes on the permission
Section 4(6) lets the officer attach conditions as to duration of stay and engagement in employment, business or a profession.
- Whether the Union's common visa list reaches Ireland
- No - Ireland does not take part in it and is not bound by it
Recital 39 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, which names Council Decision 2002/192/EC as the reason.
Requirements
- A valid Irish visa, unless your nationality is in Schedule 1 to the Visas Order
- A valid Irish transit visa if your nationality is in Schedule 5, even to pass through a port
- A passport or equivalent document establishing your identity and nationality
- A permission given on arrival by an immigration officer under section 4
Country-level policy
Ireland and the United Kingdom have shared a free travel area since long before either joined anything, and there is no Irish statute that grants it. The mechanism is a subtraction. Section 2 of the Aliens Act 1935 says an alien is a person who is not a citizen; section 10(1) lets the Government exempt the citizens of a country from the Act; the Aliens (Exemption) Order 1999 exempts every citizen of the United Kingdom from the Act and from every aliens order made under it. The Immigration Act 1999 then defines a non-national as an alien other than one exempted under section 10 - so a British citizen is not a non-national, and the Immigration Act 2004, which regulates non-nationals and nobody else, does not reach them. The Employment Permits Act 2024 borrows the same definition for foreign national, so the permit system does not reach them either. The Common Travel Area does appear by name in the 2004 Act, twice, and both times it is about keeping other people out of it.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Sweden
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, an immigration officer may, on behalf of the Minister, give to a non-national a document, or place on his or her passport or other equivalent document an inscription, authorising the non-national to land or be in the State (referred to in this Act as “a permission”). (2) A non-national coming by air or sea from a place outside the State shall, on arrival in the State, present himself or herself to an immigration officer and apply for a permission.»The whole of Irish entry law in two sentences: a document an officer may give, applied for on arrival.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administrative consolidations of Irish Acts, prepared by the Law Reform Commission under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975. Each revised Act prints the date it is updated to, the latest Act and statutory instrument considered in its preparation, and annotations after every section recording which instrument inserted, substituted or deleted each passage, with the commencement date and the commencing order.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Commission states on every page that it assumes no responsibility and gives no guarantees as to accuracy or completeness; a revised Act is an administrative consolidation, not an official text, and where it differs from the Acts it consolidates the Acts prevail. Its revision date is a cut-off: an amendment commenced after it is not in the text. The editorial apparatus is inside the sentences - F-markers, square brackets and ellipses sit between words - so a quotation cannot be taken across one, and the annotations and editorial notes are the Commission's own writing rather than anything enacted. Coverage is partial: there is no revised text of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 or of the Aliens Act 1935, and the Commission revises Acts only, never statutory instruments.
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«( e ) that the non-national, not being exempt, by virtue of an order under section 17 , from the requirement to have an Irish visa, is not the holder of a valid Irish visa;»The visa requirement is written as a ground of refusal rather than as a duty, and it points at the section 17 order rather than carrying a list of its own.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administrative consolidations of Irish Acts, prepared by the Law Reform Commission under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975. Each revised Act prints the date it is updated to, the latest Act and statutory instrument considered in its preparation, and annotations after every section recording which instrument inserted, substituted or deleted each passage, with the commencement date and the commencing order.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Commission states on every page that it assumes no responsibility and gives no guarantees as to accuracy or completeness; a revised Act is an administrative consolidation, not an official text, and where it differs from the Acts it consolidates the Acts prevail. Its revision date is a cut-off: an amendment commenced after it is not in the text. The editorial apparatus is inside the sentences - F-markers, square brackets and ellipses sit between words - so a quotation cannot be taken across one, and the annotations and editorial notes are the Commission's own writing rather than anything enacted. Coverage is partial: there is no revised text of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 or of the Aliens Act 1935, and the Commission revises Acts only, never statutory instruments.
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«(6) An immigration officer may, on behalf of the Minister, by a notice in writing to a non-national, or an inscription placed on his or her passport or other equivalent document, attach to a permission under this section such conditions as to duration of stay and engagement in employment, business or a profession in the State as he or she may think fit, and may by such a notice or inscription at any time amend such conditions as aforesaid in such manner as he or she may think fit, and the non-national shall comply with any such conditions.»Duration and the right to work are conditions on the permission, not features of a visa class. There is no fixed visitor period in the Act.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administrative consolidations of Irish Acts, prepared by the Law Reform Commission under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975. Each revised Act prints the date it is updated to, the latest Act and statutory instrument considered in its preparation, and annotations after every section recording which instrument inserted, substituted or deleted each passage, with the commencement date and the commencing order.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Commission states on every page that it assumes no responsibility and gives no guarantees as to accuracy or completeness; a revised Act is an administrative consolidation, not an official text, and where it differs from the Acts it consolidates the Acts prevail. Its revision date is a cut-off: an amendment commenced after it is not in the text. The editorial apparatus is inside the sentences - F-markers, square brackets and ellipses sit between words - so a quotation cannot be taken across one, and the annotations and editorial notes are the Commission's own writing rather than anything enacted. Coverage is partial: there is no revised text of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 or of the Aliens Act 1935, and the Commission revises Acts only, never statutory instruments.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«(1) No non-national may be in the State other than in accordance with the terms of any permission given to him or her before the passing of this Act, or a permission F17 [ given to him or her ] after such passing, by or on behalf of the Minister. (2) A non-national who is in the State in contravention of subsection (1) is for all purposes unlawfully present in the State.»The other half of the permission: without one you are unlawfully present, for all purposes.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Administrative consolidations of Irish Acts, prepared by the Law Reform Commission under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975. Each revised Act prints the date it is updated to, the latest Act and statutory instrument considered in its preparation, and annotations after every section recording which instrument inserted, substituted or deleted each passage, with the commencement date and the commencing order.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Commission states on every page that it assumes no responsibility and gives no guarantees as to accuracy or completeness; a revised Act is an administrative consolidation, not an official text, and where it differs from the Acts it consolidates the Acts prevail. Its revision date is a cut-off: an amendment commenced after it is not in the text. The editorial apparatus is inside the sentences - F-markers, square brackets and ellipses sit between words - so a quotation cannot be taken across one, and the annotations and editorial notes are the Commission's own writing rather than anything enacted. Coverage is partial: there is no revised text of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 or of the Aliens Act 1935, and the Commission revises Acts only, never statutory instruments.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«3. It is hereby declared that the following classes of non-nationals are specified as classes the members of which are not required to be in possession of a valid Irish visa when landing in the State: ( a ) nationals of a state or territorial entity specified in Schedule 1;»About this source
The electronic Irish Statute Book: every Act of the Oireachtas since 1922 and every statutory instrument, each at a stable ELI address built from year, type and number. A full Act or instrument is served at the /print path; the /html path returns only the arrangement of sections. The site also carries a legislation directory page per Act listing every instrument made under it, which is the only published index of the orders that make up a scheme.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: This site publishes Acts **as enacted** and statutory instruments **as made**, and nothing else. It is not the law in force and does not claim to be: the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014 has been amended more than twenty times and the text served at its address is the 2014 original, with no marker to say so. Section 819(4) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is served in words replaced in 2008. For an Act the Law Reform Commission has revised, the revised text is the one to read; for the Taxes Consolidation Act and for every statutory instrument there is no revised text anywhere, and the current wording has to be assembled from the amending instruments by hand. The directory page for an Act is reachable; the equivalent page for a statutory instrument returned an error when tried.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«4. It is hereby declared that non-nationals who are nationals of a state or territorial entity specified in Schedule 5 are specified as a class the members of which are required to be in possession of a valid Irish transit visa when arriving at a port in the State for purposes of passing through the port in order to travel to another state.»The transit visa. It is a separate declaration against a separate Schedule, and it bites on a journey that never enters the State.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The electronic Irish Statute Book: every Act of the Oireachtas since 1922 and every statutory instrument, each at a stable ELI address built from year, type and number. A full Act or instrument is served at the /print path; the /html path returns only the arrangement of sections. The site also carries a legislation directory page per Act listing every instrument made under it, which is the only published index of the orders that make up a scheme.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: This site publishes Acts **as enacted** and statutory instruments **as made**, and nothing else. It is not the law in force and does not claim to be: the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014 has been amended more than twenty times and the text served at its address is the 2014 original, with no marker to say so. Section 819(4) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is served in words replaced in 2008. For an Act the Law Reform Commission has revised, the revised text is the one to read; for the Taxes Consolidation Act and for every statutory instrument there is no revised text anywhere, and the current wording has to be assembled from the amending instruments by hand. The directory page for an Act is reachable; the equivalent page for a statutory instrument returned an error when tried.
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«(a) by the substitution of the following for Schedule 1: “SCHEDULE 1 Article 3(a) Andorra Hong Kong (SAR) Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Antigua and Barbuda Hungary Samoa Argentina Iceland San Marino Australia Israel Seychelles Austria Italy Singapore Bahamas Japan Slovakia Barbados Kiribati Slovenia Belgium Latvia Solomon Islands Belize Lesotho South Korea Brazil Liechtenstein Spain Brunei Darussalam Lithuania Sweden Bulgaria Luxembourg Switzerland Canada Macau (SAR) Taiwan Chile Malaysia Tonga Costa Rica Maldives Trinidad and Tobago Croatia Malta Tuvalu Cyprus Mexico Ukraine Czech Republic Monaco United Arab Emirates Denmark Nauru United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies El Salvador Netherlands United States of America Estonia New Zealand Uruguay Eswatini Nicaragua Vatican City Fiji Norway Finland Panama France Paraguay Germany Poland Greece Portugal Grenada Romania Guatemala Saint Kitts and Nevis Guyana Saint Lucia ”,»Schedule 1 as it stood on 10 July 2024, printed by the Statute Book in three columns and read here across them, so the order of the names is the reading order and not the alphabet. Three states have been removed since and are named in the overrides.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The electronic Irish Statute Book: every Act of the Oireachtas since 1922 and every statutory instrument, each at a stable ELI address built from year, type and number. A full Act or instrument is served at the /print path; the /html path returns only the arrangement of sections. The site also carries a legislation directory page per Act listing every instrument made under it, which is the only published index of the orders that make up a scheme.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: This site publishes Acts **as enacted** and statutory instruments **as made**, and nothing else. It is not the law in force and does not claim to be: the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014 has been amended more than twenty times and the text served at its address is the 2014 original, with no marker to say so. Section 819(4) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is served in words replaced in 2008. For an Act the Law Reform Commission has revised, the revised text is the one to read; for the Taxes Consolidation Act and for every statutory instrument there is no revised text anywhere, and the current wording has to be assembled from the amending instruments by hand. The directory page for an Act is reachable; the equivalent page for a statutory instrument returned an error when tried.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(c) by the substitution of the following for Schedule 5: “SCHEDULE 5 Article 4 Afghanistan Ethiopia Nigeria Albania Georgia Somalia Bolivia Ghana South Africa Botswana Honduras Sri Lanka Cuba Iran Vanuatu Democratic Republic of Congo Iraq Zimbabwe Dominica Lebanon Eritrea Moldova ”.»The transit-visa list on the same date, read across the same three columns. Four states have been added to it since.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The electronic Irish Statute Book: every Act of the Oireachtas since 1922 and every statutory instrument, each at a stable ELI address built from year, type and number. A full Act or instrument is served at the /print path; the /html path returns only the arrangement of sections. The site also carries a legislation directory page per Act listing every instrument made under it, which is the only published index of the orders that make up a scheme.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: This site publishes Acts **as enacted** and statutory instruments **as made**, and nothing else. It is not the law in force and does not claim to be: the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014 has been amended more than twenty times and the text served at its address is the 2014 original, with no marker to say so. Section 819(4) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is served in words replaced in 2008. For an Act the Law Reform Commission has revised, the revised text is the one to read; for the Taxes Consolidation Act and for every statutory instrument there is no revised text anywhere, and the current wording has to be assembled from the amending instruments by hand. The directory page for an Act is reachable; the equivalent page for a statutory instrument returned an error when tried.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«This Regulation constitutes a development of the provisions of the Schengen acquis in which Ireland does not take part, in accordance with Council Decision 2002/192/EC ( 16 ) ; Ireland is therefore not taking part in the adoption of this Regulation and is not bound by it or subject to its application»Added 2026-10-10, and relabelled the same day: it was first filed as recital 46 and the Regulation has thirty-nine, numbered without a gap, of which this is the last. This record was first written with every statement about the Union's visa regime removed, because the only reading of this Regulation then in the store was the consolidated text, which is a documentation tool with no preamble in it, and EUR-Lex was intermittently serving a 680-byte stub in place of the original. The original is now stored and says it in terms: the Regulation that decides who needs a visa for Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Poland and Sweden does not reach Ireland at all.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Union's legal database. Publishes each act as adopted in the Official Journal and, separately, a consolidated version carrying every amendment to a stated date, identified as 0YYYYRNNNN-YYYYMMDD. The consolidated text marks each amended passage with the instrument that changed it.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text is explicitly not authentic - EUR-Lex says so on the document - and only the Official Journal version has legal force. It also says nothing about how any member state applies the act: a regulation is directly applicable but the border practice, the evidence an officer may ask for and the national exceptions are in national law, which is published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Irish Statute Book serves a statutory instrument as made. The Visas Order of 2014 is not the text in force and has not been for a decade: its current Schedules have to be assembled from the amending orders, and the ones read for this record are the ones quoted here and in the overrides.
Being named in Schedule 1 removes the visa and nothing else. Section 4(3) is the same list of grounds whether or not a visa was needed, and paragraph (a) - that the person cannot support themselves - applies to a visa-free arrival exactly as it does to anyone else.
A visa for one of the other European countries on this site is not a visa for Ireland and never was, and the Regulation that gives those states their common list says so about Ireland in its own preamble. The practical consequence is the one travellers get wrong: a Schengen visa admits nobody here, and Ireland's own Schedule 1 is the only list that matters.
- consolidatesImmigration Act 2004, revised
Revised Acts, Law Reform Commission · consolidated to 2026-06-15
About this source
Administrative consolidations of Irish Acts, prepared by the Law Reform Commission under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975. Each revised Act prints the date it is updated to, the latest Act and statutory instrument considered in its preparation, and annotations after every section recording which instrument inserted, substituted or deleted each passage, with the commencement date and the commencing order.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The Commission states on every page that it assumes no responsibility and gives no guarantees as to accuracy or completeness; a revised Act is an administrative consolidation, not an official text, and where it differs from the Acts it consolidates the Acts prevail. Its revision date is a cut-off: an amendment commenced after it is not in the text. The editorial apparatus is inside the sentences - F-markers, square brackets and ellipses sit between words - so a quotation cannot be taken across one, and the annotations and editorial notes are the Commission's own writing rather than anything enacted. Coverage is partial: there is no revised text of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 or of the Aliens Act 1935, and the Commission revises Acts only, never statutory instruments.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- publishesImmigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014
Irish Statute Book, Office of the Attorney General
About this source
The electronic Irish Statute Book: every Act of the Oireachtas since 1922 and every statutory instrument, each at a stable ELI address built from year, type and number. A full Act or instrument is served at the /print path; the /html path returns only the arrangement of sections. The site also carries a legislation directory page per Act listing every instrument made under it, which is the only published index of the orders that make up a scheme.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: This site publishes Acts **as enacted** and statutory instruments **as made**, and nothing else. It is not the law in force and does not claim to be: the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014 has been amended more than twenty times and the text served at its address is the 2014 original, with no marker to say so. Section 819(4) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is served in words replaced in 2008. For an Act the Law Reform Commission has revised, the revised text is the one to read; for the Taxes Consolidation Act and for every statutory instrument there is no revised text anywhere, and the current wording has to be assembled from the amending instruments by hand. The directory page for an Act is reachable; the equivalent page for a statutory instrument returned an error when tried.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- publishesImmigration Act 2004 (Visas) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2024
Irish Statute Book, Office of the Attorney General
About this source
The electronic Irish Statute Book: every Act of the Oireachtas since 1922 and every statutory instrument, each at a stable ELI address built from year, type and number. A full Act or instrument is served at the /print path; the /html path returns only the arrangement of sections. The site also carries a legislation directory page per Act listing every instrument made under it, which is the only published index of the orders that make up a scheme.
Standing:
Cannot be cited for: This site publishes Acts **as enacted** and statutory instruments **as made**, and nothing else. It is not the law in force and does not claim to be: the Immigration Act 2004 (Visas) Order 2014 has been amended more than twenty times and the text served at its address is the 2014 original, with no marker to say so. Section 819(4) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is served in words replaced in 2008. For an Act the Law Reform Commission has revised, the revised text is the one to read; for the Taxes Consolidation Act and for every statutory instrument there is no revised text anywhere, and the current wording has to be assembled from the amending instruments by hand. The directory page for an Act is reachable; the equivalent page for a statutory instrument returned an error when tried.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source