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I am a resident in Ireland, I have Garda National Immigration Bureau Registration Card and a visa in my passport for residence/work.

I wanted to fly to Egypt but I need to transit through London, and taking the test found in an answer to the UK transit visa question, it lists a couple items that I might have:

  • you have a common format residence permit issued by an European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland
  • a uniform format category D visa for entry into a country in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland
  • an Irish biometric visa

but I do not know if my work visa qualifies for one of these. How could I determine that?

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  • I am sorry, i just don't know what an Irish bio metric visa is and this is what i am asking, i just need to know if this is the same as normal visa stamped in my Egyptian passport?
    – user1781405
    May 13, 2015 at 14:53
  • i updated the question with the link please check
    – user1781405
    May 13, 2015 at 15:03
  • Biometric means containing data about your physical attributes - typically fingerprints etc - often in electronic form.
    – CMaster
    May 13, 2015 at 15:42
  • Presumably, it means that your biometrics and in particular your fingerprints, have been collected during your visa application. As this is only mandatory/available in a few countries, many people still get Irish visas without providing them. But what specific visa do you have and how does it look like? Since you mention working in Ireland, you probably have a uniform format category D visa and would therefore meet the requirements as well.
    – Relaxed
    May 13, 2015 at 16:09

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The Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service's page on biometric visas will give you more information on them. It states

You may be required to provide your biometric information as part of the visa application process.

...

For the purposes of the visa application process it refers to the capture of your fingerprints and, in some cases, a digital image of your face.

Countries in which visa applicants are required to provide their biometrics

Since March 2010, visa applicants residing in Nigeria (irrespective of nationality) have been required to provide their biometric information as part of the application process.

If you are resident in China or Pakistan you are required to provide your fingerprints each time you apply for a visa to Ireland.

The requirement to provide biometric information as part of the visa process is likely to be rolled out in other locations in the future.

So unless you are from one of the countries above it is unlikely that you have biometric visa.

However, if you are staying in Ireland long term, it is likely that you have either a residence permit or a category D visa in which case one of the first two points would apply to you so you wouldn't need a transit visa for the UK.

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