The scorecard was introduced to aid citizenship applicants in completing their applications with greater certainty than before.
This followed an examination of the application process by my Department, which found that incorrectly submitted applications are diverting considerable resources from general processing, leading to a longer processing time for all applicants.
A preliminary review of applications that have been received in recent weeks indicates that the quality of applications have improved since the introduction of the scorecard system. This is a welcome development and builds on other recent measures implemented to further improve the customer experience, including “Tara” the e-chat bot, e-payments, e-tax clearance and Gardaí e-vetting and the removal of the requirement to provide the original passport.
My Department is aware that for certain applicants the scorecard may not have addressed their individual circumstances. Accordingly a review is currently ongoing with a view to issuing updated guidance by the end of March 2022.
In these cases, the applicant can provide an affidavit detailing their situation and submit this with their application for naturalisation.
