Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications currently being processed by his Department seeking leave to remain in the State; if he will indicate the month and year from which officials are currently processing applications; if he will provide an update on the application submitted by a person (details supplied) in Dublin 7; when it is expected that this application will be considered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14874/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have been informed by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of my Department that an application was received for permission to remain in the State from the person mentioned on 18 December 2012. An examination of this case indicated that this person arrived in Ireland on 17 August 2006 and was registered in the State as a Student until 30 November 2012. There are no undue delays in processing cases in this category involving 'timed-out' students; in many jurisdictions cases involving persons who entered as students and who seek to remain as permanent migrants are rejected automatically whereas in others, decisions can take many years to be finalised. I am advised that this case is being assessed on its merits and will be decided upon in the coming weeks.

All non-EEA students resident in the State are subject to the student immigration rules set out under the "new immigration regime for full time non-EEA students" which was published in September 2010 and has been in effect since 1 January 2011. These rules stipulate that non-EEA nationals may reside in Ireland as students, subject to the provisions of the new regime, for a maximum period of seven years. As this person arrived in the State in 2006 he is now classified as a timed out Student.

On the matter raised by the Deputy on the numbers seeking leave to remain in the State, for the sake of clarity, I should state that there are a number of categories of immigrants who could be so classified. The categories in this respect include cases such as those comprehended by the person in the Question - i.e. students and timed-out students. The number in this category is approximately 2,000 and essentially represents the ongoing "work in progress" workload.

Other categories include failed asylum seekers, applicants for subsidiary protection and humanitarian leave to remain. Other immigrants such as those who come here on short-term visas and wish to remain for longer periods, persons who have been here unlawfully for lengthy periods and who have been detected by the Gardaí as well as those who no longer have lawful immigration status make up the remaining caseload. By definition, this caseload varies over time and without engaging in a major detailed exercise, it is not possible to state the numbers in these categories.

However, I can say that the entire caseload for the first two months of this year on all aspects of immigration, including naturalisation, registrations, EU Treaty Rights, visas, family reunification, long-term residency, investor programmes, asylum and related applications, as well as general applications for leave to remain and so forth, amounted to in excess of 40,000.