I called a number of secondary schools in Cork last evening (Friday morning in Ireland – 11 hour difference) and have information and applications coming for my daughter. All of them were very pleasant and helpful, and seemed excited at the prospect of having a student from Hawai‘i there. None of them had previously heard about the “dependent of student” policy that had been related to me by the UCC International Student Office. One of the school is fee-paying, though the cost is not exorbitant. If Immigration requires us to put her in that kind of school, we will definitely comply. However, it is still not even clear if they will allow my daughter and wife to stay because of my status as a student:
“It is not the general policy to allow family members to join students who are in Ireland as students. You may be able to make a case as to why you should be an exception to this general rule.”
I’m still waiting to hear back from UCC ISO to see if we can come to this determination before we get there. I’m certainly not going to bring the family to Ireland and then have them deported.
