Concerns About Traveling to Ireland After Unpaid Hospital Bill

Upvote:4

Ireland has a similar but not exact legal system as the UK. The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) deals broadly with criminal code whilst the description of your circumstance would fit within the civil code. Criminal law essentially relates to offences and breaches that negatively affect society as a whole, rather than just one person.

Civil code deals with disputes between companies, organisations, individuals, etc It's highly unlikely that INIS would be aware of your circumstance or predicament with the hospital bill unless you were applying for naturalisation. Only then would they want to know if you are a good citizen and would request your file (if any) in the civil courts in order to make a decision.

The issuance of visas are straight forward as INIS follows their own guidelines and they don't involve third parties. A good example is a case where a woman reported her husband (CEO of a company) to have an affair with a lady (foreign alien) who was working for his company. Her permit was renewed despite the allegation.

If you have had your debt for a while, just know that after six years have passed, your debt may be declared statute barred - this means that the debt still very much exists but a CCJ cannot be issued to retrieve the amount owed and the lender cannot go through the courts to chase you for the debt.

The CCJ may still reflect negatively on your credit score and lenders may be unwilling to lend or offer a mortgage. If you owe the debt, I recommend that you pay it.

Upvote:14

I can't say whether you're likely to be denied entry to Ireland, but if a debt is due you should really pay it. Fortunately, it should only take a short while to confirm the details, and payment can usually be sorted out within a couple of days.

Call the hospital's main phone number. Explain the problem to whoever answers the phone and they should be able connect you to the right department.

They'll be able to confirm the amount of the outstanding debt, if any, and may be able to take payment by credit card immediately, or advise how to pay.

Since the debt has apparently been passed to a debt collection agency you might have to deal with them. The hospital can tell you exactly who and should be able to give you contact details. Call the agency and discuss payment arrangements.

International payments are trivially easy. If you can't pay by credit card, a call to your bank in the US should get you the information you need to send the money that way.

A word of warning: this could be a scam. Talk to the hospital first, and if you do send money, use a traceable system like the banks. Don't use Western Union!

More post

Search Posts

Related post