Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 July 2022
1557. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Justice the steps that have been taken to meet the commitment to have citizenship applications processed within a year; the number of applications in the system; the current wait time for applications made prior to 2022; the current wait time for applications made in 2022; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40341/22]
View answer1581. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Justice the current average processing time for a citizenship application; if her Department is still on course to achieve processing times of six to nine months by the end of 2022, as stated earlier in the year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41007/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 1557 and 1581 together.
My Justice Plan 2022 commits to developing a fully digital, customer-centric immigration service and to enhance the efficiency of our immigration system. In line with these commitments, a number of actions have been taken to reduce the impact on immigration processing times, including the introduction of online applications, a new customer service helpdesk and a new customer-focused immigration website.
As a result of the introduction of the temporary statutory declaration process in January 2021, and the assignment of additional staff to the citizenship team, last year, 11,512 citizenship decisions were made. This is the highest number of decisions made annually since 2015 and reflects positively the significant changes undertaken to date.
For the first six months of 2022, almost 7,900 citizenship decisions have been issued, including 1,005 decisions on minor applications. This exceeds the total number of minor decisions issued during the whole of last year; when 868 minor decisions were made.
Since 1 January 2022, new applicants for citizenship no longer have to submit their original passport with their application. Instead, they can provide a full colour copy of their entire passport, including the front and back covers. This is also freeing up valuable staff that up to now have been engaged in returning passports to applicants and will also help to reduce processing times.
A number of digitisation measures have also been introduced to increase efficiency in the process, including eTax clearance, eVetting and online payments. The end result of the digitisation process will be to free up more staff to focus on processing applications in a timely and efficient manner, to improve service to our customers and reduce waiting times.
A scorecard was also introduced to help applicants to complete their applications with greater certainty than before. A review of this is currently being undertaken and an updated version is due to be published shortly.
There are currently approximately 25,500 naturalisation applications in progress, including 2,908 approved applications that require the completion and submission of the declaration of fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State; the payment of the statutory fee; and the submission of other required documents by the applicants. These applications can then be finalised and the certificate of naturalisation awarded.
The processing time for applications was 23 months last year and now stands at 19 months for decisions issued in the first six months of 2022. The table below sets out the average processing times by year since 2015, along with the number of applications decided in each of those years.
|
Year |
Number of Applications decided |
Average Processing Time (Months) |
|
2015 |
12,869 |
7 |
|
2016 |
11,081 |
6 |
|
2017 |
9,190 |
7 |
|
2018 |
11,139 |
10 |
|
2019 |
9,319 |
12 |
|
2020 |
3,551 |
13 |
|
2021 |
11,512 |
23 |
Finally, my Department hosted the first in-person citizenship ceremony since the pandemic on 20 June 2022 with 950 people receiving their certificate of naturalisation. Further ceremonies are planned for December, in Killarney.
