Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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446. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the criteria required for a Ukrainian citizen seeking to travel to Ireland for a business trip; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26610/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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It is open to a visa required national to make a visa application for any purpose, the onus resting with the applicant to satisfy the Visa Officer as to why the visa should be granted. All information that the applicant wishes to have taken into consideration should be included with his or her application.

Guidelines on the visa application process, including details of the required supporting documentation for a business visa can be found on the website of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of my Department . It should be borne in mind, however, that the information contained on the website is intended to act as guidance only; it does not limit the discretion of the Visa Officer in dealing with individual applications. Visa applications for Ukrainian nationals living in Ukraine are lodged at our Honorary Consulate in Kiev and processed by the dedicated Irish Visa Office in Moscow, which is a sub-office of INIS.This Office handles all aspects of visa applications, including appeals, locally.

Queries in relation to general immigration matters 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.