Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 151: To ask the Minister for Justice and Law Reform further to Parliamentary Question No. 1101 of 29 September 2010, if he will indicate the normal expected time to process an application for citizenship in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; if this case will be concluded before the end of 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1938/11]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As stated in my reply to the Deputy's previous question No. 1101 of 29 September 2010, a valid application for a certificate of naturalisation from the person concerned was received in the Citizenship Division of my Department in April 2008.

The application is being processed in the normal way with a view to establishing whether the applicants meet the statutory conditions for the granting of naturalisation and will be submitted to me for decision in due course.

It is not possible to provide more specific information in an individual case as processing requirements and time taken to carry out necessary checks vary from case to case. There is a limit to the reduction in the processing time that can be achieved as applications for naturalisation must be processed in a way which preserves the necessary checks and balances to ensure that it is not undervalued and is only given to persons who genuinely satisfy the necessary qualifying criteria.

I should remind the Deputy that queries in relation to the status of individual Immigration cases may be made direct to INIS by Email using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. The service enables up-to-date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek this information through the more administratively expensive Parliamentary Questions process.