Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 519: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will review the administration and processing of a visa application in respect of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3740/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The visa application referred to by the Deputy was received in the Visa Office, Dublin on the 6 September 2011. Following consideration by a Visa Officer it was refused on the 14 November 2011 for the following reasons:

1. There was insufficient documentation submitted in support of the visa application, specifically the Visa Officer noted that the contact/host in Ireland had not provided their most recent P60;

2. The Visa Officer was not satisfied with regard to the relationship history of the persons concerned. The evidence provided in support of the relationship history was deemed to be insufficient.

The Applicant appealed the refusal to grant a visa. The decision of the Visa Officer was upheld by an Appeals Officer on the 20 December 2011. Each visa application is entitled to one appeal only. It is however open to the Applicant to submit a fresh visa application at any time.

Where doing so the applicant may wish to note that photographs and immigration stamps alone are not deemed to be sufficient evidence of a relationship having been in existence prior to the application being made. Because of the unique nature of each case, it is not possible to be completely prescriptive about the type of supporting information that should be supplied. However, verifiable evidence of a shared life or shared experiences together such as bank statements, common ownership of property or independent evidence of face to face meetings between the parties would all help. Guidance information on the visa application process is available on the website of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (www.inis.gov.ie). For future reference the Deputy may wish to note that the full visa application number is 7249872.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to INIS by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility which has been specifically established for this purpose. This service enables up to date information on such cases to be obtained without the need to seek information by way of the Parliamentary Questions process. The Deputy may consider using the e-mail service except in cases where the response from INIS is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.