Phil Hogan
Ceist:455 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the reason it takes so long to process visas for non-nationals wishing to study here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2927/06]
Amharc ar fhreagraTuesday, 31 January 2006
Ceisteanna (350)
Freagraí scríofa
The visa section in my Department is committed to providing a high quality service to all its customers and is making every effort to process all visa applications in as timely a manner as possible. The timeframe for processing visa applications has been reduced in recent months and study visa applications currently take approximately three weeks from the date of receipt in the visa section. This may change from time to time depending on the volumes of applications at particular times and the resources available to process them.
In June 2002, my Department took the unprecedented step of seconding a number of dedicated visa officers to the Irish embassies in Moscow and Beijing. A primary objective of this initiative was to enable the provision of a better and more timely customer service by making decisions locally rather than having large numbers of visa applications sent to Dublin for decision. Following on from the success of this initiative, dedicated visa officers have also recently been seconded to the Irish Embassy in New Delhi. Significant extra resources have also been allocated to the visa office in the Department to cater for the large volume of applications.