Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Depending on the country, there are differences in the numbers of applications and ways in which embassies in the original countries are operating. While I do not have the exact times, I can tell the Deputy that the top ten nationalities in terms of the short-stay visa grants are India, China, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, the Philippines, Egypt, Colombia and Saudi Arabia. This ranges from 25,000 applications to 850 applications. Depending on where people are coming from, but also the structures in their countries, there are variations in the overall timelines. When we take into consideration the fact that this year alone we have had a 20% increase in the numbers of all types of visas, coupled with the significant increase in the number of international protection applicants coming through the system, as well as the work we are doing to support those coming from Ukraine, the number of staff has been increased significantly right across the immigration service. We have managed to keep the times within the timeframes we are setting and are still trying to reduce them further through engagement with the individual embassies and those individuals impacted by certain cases. My focus is to ensure we can have this system as efficient and effective as possible.

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