That’s the term that the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service uses for certain people who legally enter the United States either as tourists or using a Visa for temporary work or study as a student.
At the end of their authorized admission period, these nonimmigrants are required to depart the United States unless they obtain an extension of stay or change of status that permits them to remain in the country.
Those who do not depart on time are called overstayers.
Based on anecdotal reports, this category applies to many Irish immigrants to the United States over the past 40 years.
In the 1980s and 1990s, these Irish new arrivals would typically visit their relatives in the States. A relative might find a job in the construction trades or some other blue-collar job where they could be paid on a cash basis. At the time of their hiring, their immigration status would be unlikely to come up.
Employers are legally required to participate in the I-9 employment eligibility verification process in which they examine documents presented by new hires to verify identity and work eligibility.
However, compliance is not universal, especially among small businesses that do not keep records of casual workers.
According to the Congressional Research Service, current laws do not make it a crime for overstaying, although there are various immigration-related consequences. (https://crsreports.congress.gov R47901)
Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the current session of Congress would establish civil and criminal penalties for overstaying, including fines and imprisonment. But it has not been voted on by the Senate.
More recently, Irish overstayers, as they are called, are not as common as they were a few decades ago.
Number one, Ireland joined the European Union in 1973.
As EU citizens, Irish people are legally entitled to live, work and study in any EU country. Their educational degrees are also recognized throughout the EU.
Living and working elsewhere in the EU is often a better option.
I talked about this a couple of weeks ago with my second cousin, Joe, who spent a summer working for an international engineering firm in New York City in the 1970s when the unemployment rate in Ireland was extremely high.
He lives outside Dublin in County Wicklow and is the Irish distributor of a U.S. paint brand. One of his daughters lives in Amsterdam and one of his two brothers lives with his family in Germany.
Joe said he would advise his three children against living in the United States because of the divisive political atmosphere. Plus, Ireland is at full employment.
In July 2024, Ireland’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.7%, according to the latest Irish Central Statistics Office estimate. The number of unemployed stood at 136,100.
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