The question every Nigerian family in Ireland asks
Your parents are getting older. Maybe Dad is slower after a hospital stay, or Mum is struggling with her sugar and her eyesight, and the relatives who used to call round are busy with their own lives. You are in Ireland with work, children and maybe a mortgage, and the natural thought is: bring them here, where you can look after them yourself.
Ireland makes it very hard to bring a parent to live with you. This page explains the rules as they stand in 2026, what visits involve, and the other option: care for your parents in their own home in Lagos, run by nurses, with proof every day that it happened.
Family reunification for a parent: the rules
A parent who is not from the EU or EEA usually comes to live in Ireland as a dependent relative under the Non-EEA family reunification policy. Immigration Service Delivery publishes the 2026 income thresholds, and immigration solicitors describe the rest of the policy this way:
- the sponsor must have earned income in Ireland, in each of the previous three years, above 185% of average yearly earnings for one relative and 250% for two;
- for 2026 that means at least €96,929 gross a year for one parent, €130,985 for two, and €165,042 for three;
- only one sponsor's income is assessed, so a couple can't add their salaries together;
- the same thresholds apply again each time the parent's permission is renewed;
- a parent's guaranteed income, such as a pension, can offset part of the threshold, but a parent who can support themselves may not count as dependent at all;
- you must show your parent really depends on you, that there is no alternative support for them at home, and that you have suitable accommodation. Medical insurance and financial guarantees are conditions of any grant.
For most Nigerian families in Ireland, those thresholds rule the route out. Even for those who meet them, the file has to prove dependency and the medical position in detail, and a weak application can simply be refused. If you want to try, speak to an immigration solicitor first.
Visit visas for parents
Most Nigerian parents come to Ireland as visitors. To see family for less than 90 days, a parent applies for a short stay (C) visit visa. The fee is €60 for a single entry or €100 for multiple entries, and multiple entry visas are approved only in limited circumstances. The application includes an invitation letter, an accommodation plan, proof of funds and proof that your parent will return home.
Your parent must also have medical or travel insurance when they arrive, and show it to the immigration officer if asked. For an older person with high blood pressure, diabetes or a past stroke, insurance that covers those conditions properly is expensive, and some policies exclude them. A visit is lovely for everyone, but it doesn't solve who looks after Mum the rest of the year.
What your parent gives up by moving
Even when a move is possible, it isn't always what a parent wants. In Ireland they would leave their house, their church, their friends and the freedom of going out on their own. Many spend the day indoors while the family is at work or school, and an Irish winter, with short, wet, grey days, keeps them inside even more. Parents often tell their children, gently, that they would rather stay home.
For you, a move usually means becoming their main carer around a full-time job. That is a huge commitment, however much you love them. Care is work, and it is easier to do well when trained people share it.
Bringing them over or care at home in Lagos: side by side
How care at home in Lagos works from Ireland
Home Care Nigeria is a nurse-led home care agency in Lagos. We look after your parent the way you would if you lived around the corner: someone they know, at the same time every day, who notices when something isn't right.
- You enquire from Ireland. Tell us about your parent on the enquiry form. It takes a few minutes.
- A registered nurse visits your parent at home. They meet your parent and anyone living with them, look at their prescriptions, test results and any hospital papers, and agree safe ranges for readings like blood pressure and sugar. You can join by video call.
- Within 48 hours you get a written care plan and a monthly quote.
- Care starts. A trained caregiver visits daily or lives in. They check in at the home on our app, and the location is checked, so you know they were really there.
- The nurse signs every report before you see it, and you read it on the family portal, with readings, medicines given or refused, meals, mood and anything that worried the caregiver. Urgent concerns reach the nurse and you straight away.
Time zones: almost no difference
Lagos is on West Africa Time, UTC+1, all year. That is the same time as Ireland in summer and one hour ahead in winter. You can read a morning report over breakfast in Dublin, and call the nurse during your working day without anyone being up at night.
Paying from Ireland
You pay us directly, by card or bank transfer, and every invoice appears on the family portal next to the visit reports, so you can see exactly what you paid for. Paying the agency directly also means the money for care doesn't pass through a relative. If you send money home for other costs, since 1 May 2026 transfers through licensed money transfer operators are paid out in naira, and the euro to naira rate you get depends on the operator. Our guide to making sure money sent home is spent on care explains how families keep it safe.
When you visit
Most flights from Dublin to Lagos connect through London or another European hub. Meet the nurse and the caregiver in person when you come home, or plan the assessment around a trip. You don't have to wait for one, though: the nurse can do it with you on a video call.
Example: a son in Dublin and his father in Surulere
This is an illustration of how care works, not a real client. Names and details are invented.
Chidi is a software engineer in Dublin. His father, 79, lives alone in Surulere after his wife passed, with type 2 diabetes and a bad knee. Chidi looked into bringing him over, but the family reunification threshold was far above his salary, and a three-month visit each year left nine months with nobody checking on his father.
Chidi enquired one evening after work. Two days later a nurse visited his father, with Chidi on a video call, went through his clinic notes and set safe ranges for his blood sugar and blood pressure. The plan put a caregiver with his father every morning: a wash, breakfast, his tablets, a sugar check and a slow walk to the end of the street and back.
Now Chidi reads the report on the bus to work. When his father's sugar readings drifted up over a week, the nurse spotted it, spoke to his doctor, and the caregiver changed his breakfast. Chidi still calls every evening, and they talk about the football instead of whether he ate.
Questions to ask any agency in Lagos
- Is a registered nurse responsible for my parent, and can I speak to them?
- Will I get a written report after every visit, or only a phone call?
- What checks have the caregivers had: ID, guarantor, references?
- How do you know the caregiver was really at the house?
- What happens if the caregiver is sick, late or leaves?
- Who acts at night if something goes wrong, and how will I hear about it?
Our guides to signs an elderly parent needs help, hospitals in Lagos for older parents and old people's homes in Lagos go into more detail. See also how care is priced, and our pages for families in the UK, the US and Canada.