Violet-Anne Wynne
Question:1370. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Justice the status of a joint family visa application by a person (details supplied). [40100/21]
View answerTuesday, 27 July 2021
Questions (1370)
Written answers
The visa applications referred to by the Deputy were refused by the Visa Office in Abuja on 15 February 2021. The reasons for this decision were set out in the refusal letter sent to the applicants at that time. An appeal of this decision was made on 7 April 2021.
All visa applicants are advised that the onus is on them to provide as much information in support of their application as they feel is necessary. Guidelines in this regard are posted on the Immigration Service website. When making an appeal, the applicant should take into account the reasons for refusal listed in the refusal letter. The appeal should include any further information or additional documentation they wish to have considered, and should be sent for the attention of the Visa Appeals Officer, in the relevant Visa Office, where the matter will be considered afresh.
Full consideration will be given to any appeals received on behalf of the applicants, however the onus is on applicants to satisfy the Visa Officer that visas should be granted. Processing times and decisions at the Overseas Visa Offices can be checked at the webpage for the relevant office.
Processing of family reunification visa applications, such as these, may take up to 6 months to determine from the date the documentation is received in the relevant Visa Office. To be fair to all applicants, as you will appreciate, applications are processed in order by date received in the Office.
While every effort is made to process these applications as soon as possible, processing times will vary having regard to the volume of appeals received, their complexity, the possible need for the visa office to seek further information in relation to certain appeals and the resources available to process them.
Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility (inisoireachtasmail@justice.ie), 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 is, in the Deputy’s view, inadequate or too long awaited.