I am pleased to say that the British Irish Visa Scheme has been very successful to date in attracting more Chinese and Indian visitors to both Ireland (North and South) and the United Kingdom by enabling both countries immigration systems to work in tandem to promote and facilitate legitimate business and tourism travel. For example, in China the number of short-term visas has increased by 35% in 2015 and by a further 15% this year to date. Of course these figures only reveal part of the story as a large number of visitor visas have also been granted by the UK authorities for the countries involved enabling these visitors to travel onwards to Ireland. The volume increases reported by Tourism Ireland bears this out.
I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that an integral part of the scheme is the utilisation of modern technology and information systems to capture biographical and biometric information for all visa applicants, and the use of joint (with the UK) Visa Application Centres across China and India for the lodgement of visa applications and the initial processing of documentation. This provides a greater coverage for customers as well as changing the processing procedures in the visa offices. It also ensured that the operation of Scheme has not incurred a significant additional workload beyond dealing with increased visa application volumes. In that regard an additional two local staff have been employed in the Beijing Visa Office to assist with office administration and with visa processing.
