Vol. 513 No. 4
206 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the procedures involved in acquiring post-nuptial citizenship; the reason for the delay in processing these applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2727/00]
Section 8 of the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, as amended in 1986, provides that a non-national can make a declaration in the manner prescribed by the Minister accepting Irish citizenship as post-nuptial citizenship, after three years of marriage to an Irish citizen, who is an Irish citizen otherwise than by naturalisation or by honorary citizenship, provided that the marriage is subsisting at the date of lodgement of the declaration and that the couple are living together as husband and wife.
The procedure is that a declaration is made by the non-Irish spouse and an affidavit is sworn by the Irish spouse to the effect that the couple are living together as husband and wife and that their marriage is subsisting. Both affidavit and declaration are submitted along with the following documents: civil marriage certificate; long form birth certificates for both persons; divorce papers if applicable; Garda certificate of registration if applicable; two passport sized photographs of both spouses; and three proofs of residence.
If the couple are residing in the State, the application is lodged with the citizenship division of my Department. If, however, the couple are resident outside the State, the application is made with the Department of Foreign Affairs, either through an Irish embassy or consulate abroad or, where there is no such representation, at the consular section of the Department in Dublin.
The average time taken to process an application made in my Department is between six and nine months, which reflects the high volume of applications received. However, in respect of applications made abroad, the processing time is influenced by the speed with which the documents are forwarded by the Department of Foreign Affairs. From information received from that Department, I understand that, while there was a backlog of applications in a number of the embassies in the early months of 1999, this situation has improved greatly. Applications are now forwarded to Dublin within, on average, two months of receipt abroad.
