Fiona O'Loughlin
Question:908. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the timeframe in which a passport can be returned to a person who submits it alongside an application for citizenship. [33353/19]
View answerTuesday, 23 July 2019
Questions (908)
Written answers
I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that as part of the ongoing implementation of its Customer Service Improvement Plan 2018-2020, the process relating to the verification of passports has recently been streamlined. Accordingly, the bulk of passports are now returned to the applicant within two working days of receipt by the Citizenship Division, heretofore the process was to retain passports for upwards of ten weeks.
Following the change in work practices, there is a number of passports on hand relating to the period prior to the introduction of the revised work practices. I can assure the Deputy that INIS is proactively working to clear the backlog and it is expected that the bulk of outstanding passports will be returned to applicants within the next two weeks.
Queries about the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the INIS of my Department 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.