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Stage | What happens |
| Shortlisting | Programmes filtered on immigration eligibility, NFQ Level 9, course code, city cluster, placement provision and fee, per 4.4 |
| Application | Applied months ahead of both the admission and the scholarship deadline, with referees briefed early |
| Final semester | Job search begins. Target roles checked against the Critical Skills Occupations List by SOC code |
| Graduation | Stamp 1G applied for before Stamp 2 expires |
| Stamp 1G months 1 to 12 | Offer secured within 12 months of qualifying, capturing the €36,848 recent-graduate threshold |
| Permit | Employer applies. Candidate does not start work until approval |
| Month 21 of employment | Stamp 4 application |
| Ongoing | Reckonable residence tracked from the Stamp 1G start date toward five years |
The shape of a pathway that works
What successful pathways have in common
- The search started before Stamp 1G was granted, not after
- The programme itself carried a placement or industry project, so Irish work experience existed before the search began
- Roles were checked against SOC codes rather than assumed eligible because the field sounded technical
- The city matched the field. Pharmaceutical and medical device candidates went to Cork and Galway rather than defaulting to Dublin
- The employer was told explicitly that no sponsorship was needed during Stamp 1G
- The Critical Skills and General distinction was understood before an offer was accepted
- The budget ran past graduation rather than to it
When it does not go to plan
Searches running past twelve months. HEA data says roughly one in four internationally domiciled graduates is not employed at nine months. What changes outcomes is usually widening the geography, widening the role definition within the same SOC family, and treating the first role as a permit-qualifying stepping stone rather than the destination.
General rather than Critical Skills outcomes. Common, and not a disaster. It means 57 months to Stamp 4 rather than 21, and can be improved later by moving to a Critical Skills eligible role, subject to the nine-month rule in 16.4.
Returning to India. A legitimate outcome, better handled as an orderly decision before permission expires than as a scramble afterwards. See 15.7.
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