Australia's exclusive access to a special US work visa will come under threat when Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar takes up the issue with US President Donald Trump at the White House this week.
Ireland aggressively lobbied the White House and Congress last year to break Australia's monopoly on the E3 nonimmigrant visa but Australia, headed by Ambassador to the US Joe Hockey, successfully mounted their own campaign to thwart the Irish.
The E3 is a two-year visa allowing Australian professionals and their spouses to work in the US with no limit to the number of additional two-year extensions.
Only Australians can apply for the visa and other nations envy Australia's exclusive access.
"We expect the issue to feature during our meeting with the president," Ireland's special envoy to the US, John Deasy, told the Irish Times.
Australia was rewarded with 10,500 E3 visas a year after signing a free trade agreement with the US in 2005.
Varadkar is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House on Thursday in what has become an annual visit to mark St Patrick's Day.
Varadkar also has a breakfast meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence and will have opportunities to lobby senior members of Congress when he attends the annual Speaker's Lunch on Capitol Hill.
Ireland aggressively lobbied Congress last year and came within a whisker of being successful.
They guided legislation through the House of Representatives that would allow Irish citizens to apply for any E3 visas Australians did not use.
Australians only take up about half of the 10,500 visas each year.
The Irish effort was blocked in the Senate last last year when Australia lobbied some senators to put a hold on the vote.
With Congress in December mired in debate about funding for Trump's border wall, the government partly shut down and the 115th Congress ending its term, Australia was successful and Ireland was once again thwarted.
"We needed to pause the initiative for a couple of months, but the fact that it progressed so much last year means that we've no choice but to continue to pursue it," Deasy said.
