Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 February 2013
195. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the current position regarding residency status/eligibility for naturalisation in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9468/13]
View answerThe person concerned is a failed asylum seeker. He then proceeded to submit an application for subsidiary protection in accordance with the provisions of the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006. This application was approved and the person concerned was granted leave to remain in the State on 5th August, 2008.
The person concerned submitted an application for family reunification in respect of his wife and five children on 2nd April, 2009. This application was approved on 12th September, 2012 with the consequence that all six family members were granted leave to remain in the State under statutory family reunification provisions. This position still obtains.
I am advised by the Citizenship Division of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) that no application for a Certificate of Naturalisation has been received from any of the persons concerned. However, it will be open to the persons concerned to apply for a Certificate of Naturalisation when they are in a position to meet the lawful residency criteria applicable to the lodgement of such applications. Details on the criteria to be met by persons lodging such applications are available from my Department's Website (www.justice.ie).
Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response from the INIS is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or too long awaited.
