Dick Spring
Ceist:616 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of visa extensions issued to Chinese students in the past 12 months; and the numbers of students for each institution, school and so on. [9038/02]
Written Answers. - Visa Applications.
Dick Spring
Ceist:617 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of visas issued to allow Chinese students to study here since June 2001; and the institutions and schools and the number of visas issued to each. [9039/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 616 and 617 together.
An Irish visa is, in effect, only a form of pre-entry clearance. It does not constitute permission to enter the State. The holder of an Irish visa may be refused leave to land by an immigration officer if he or she does not have a visa despite being a visa required national. An immigration officer may in addition however refuse a visa holder leave to land on a number of stated grounds – for example where he or she is satisfied that the person in question is not in a position of self support or seeks to enter the State for a purpose other than that expressed.
A second point that must be borne in mind is that a person who is granted an Irish visa may choose thereafter not to travel to the State. Therefore the number of visas issued to persons of a particular nationality does not necessarily equate with the number of persons of that nationality who entered the State during any particular period.
Non-EEA nationals, other than asylum seekers, who are resident in the State for more than three months are required to register with the Garda Síochána and to obtain from it the permission of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to remain in the State for a particular purpose, for example, work or study. Prior to 21 September 2001, it was the case that the relevant information gleaned during the course of this process was recorded manually by the Garda Síochána. However the Garda National Immigration Bureau launched a new computerised registration system on that date. The purpose of this initiative was to transform the registration process from an entirely paper based system to a computerised system and to improve the quality of management information. In effect what this means is that all new registrations and renewals of registration are being captured on computer at present. Since most registrations are renewed annually much of the information is still paper based. As a consequence the information requested by the Deputy is not readily available and could only be obtained by the expenditure of a disproportionate amount of Garda resources.
However, I can say that in the year 2001 there were 90,446 non-EEA nationals registered in the State of whom 11,949 were Chinese. It is estimated that the vast majority of those Chinese nationals were in the State for the purposes of study although such persons are, subject to certain conditions, allowed to enter employment part-time during their course of studies and up to 40 hours per week during vacation periods.