Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1464. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Justice the average waiting time for successful naturalisation applications to be processed at present; the number of applications currently being considered; and the number of live applications still being processed that were submitted prior to 1 September 2020. [43961/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI am deeply conscious of how important the granting of naturalisation is to those who apply for it and my Department continued to accept and process citizenship applications throughout the pandemic and during all levels of public health restrictions.
There are currently approximately 26,800 naturalisation applications in progress, including 3,961 applications which were submitted prior to 1 September 2020.
Regrettably, the current average processing time for naturalisation applications is approximately 23 months. For a broad range of reasons, some cases will take longer than others to process. In some instances, completing the necessary checks can take a considerable period of time.
However a number of digitisation measures have 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.
Additionally 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.
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.
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 generally, including the introduction of online applications, a new customer service helpdesk and a new customer-focused immigration website.
