How do I legally move to Ireland to live and work?

I want to move to Ireland, and find a family, or group of friends to live with how do I do this?

• I'm 19 in a month, and my life has taken a sudden turn, not for the better. I live in a small town that revolves around gossip, and I'm tired of it. I went to college, but it didn't work out for me, I wasn't mentally prepared, I want to go back, just now in the state I live in. I've just got back from a trip to France with my aunt and uncle, and loved it. But my dream is to go to Ireland and Scotland, where my family traces back to, a long distance mind you. I'm a really simple country girl, I love horses, dogs, all animals in general, I will work, actually I really enjoy working, makes me feel useful :) If anyone has any idea how I can go about and move to Ireland, living with a really cool, chill family, or just a some college students who do foreign exchange stuff. It wouldn't be as an exchange program, but I would love to eventually go to school out there...please let me know...I'm desperate for a new start, and life changing experience.

• Answer:

  When I was 19 a whole heap of sh*t landed on my lap & the way I dealt with it was to turn my back on it & go live in another country. I wound up miserable in a culture where I was an alien & just generally drifting. With hindsight I know now that at 19 we think we're adults but we're not, we still kids and it takes a long time to learn to be an adult and fit in with the world around you, or in some cases give the world the comfort of thinking you fit in with it. Everything looks peachy when you're on holiday, it seems beautiful, amazing, exotic but at the same time there are a lot of people working really hard to make sure that holiday makers enjoy their experience & come back again, as a tourist. The idea of living in another country is exciting, living and working in another country, trying to integrate with the locals is a completely different of fish. If you want to come to Ireland or Scotland, go to the library, check out some guidebooks, they'll give you all the information you need about how to go about acquiring visas, what the place can be like. Come over on holiday, have a look around, see which one you like. Bear in mind the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom (Scotland) are two separate countries and you will need to investigate their Universities, funding arrangements and visas separately. This link has some information on coming to live in Ireland: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/moving-country/moving-to-ireland Applications to University in Ireland are centralised, as an international student you'll probably have to apply to the individual Unis but this site will also allow you to see what Universities are in Ireland & should give you their websites: http://www.cao.ie/index.php This is some information on visas to the UK, if you type 'moving to the UK' into google it also brings up loads of dedicated websites: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/passports-and-immigration/visas/ Applications to Uni in the UK are also centralised through UCAS, again you'll probably have to apply to individual Unis but this website will have all the courses & links: http://www.ucas.ac.uk/ Generally speaking with student exchange programmes you need to be in a University or college which participates in exchanges to be eligible. This is a link to a specialist forum dealing in travel & it has useful information on visiting the Republic of Ireland and the UK. Read some of the information in the top couple of threads first before you post any questions. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forum.jspa?forumID=25 Edit: I posted some links in another question you might find helpful regarding finding somewhere to live or find work: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080726141555AA1bsdx&r=w#BpFWOFrgO0MqJIQQ7yA2 This forum might also interest you: http://www.boards.ie/