Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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606. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the procedure to make an application for family reunification in respect of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 6. [33608/14]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Persons from a visa-required country are required to have a valid Irish visa to land in the State (section 4(5)(b) of the Immigration Act, 2004).

It is open to a visa-required national who wishes to join a family member currently residing in Ireland to make a visa application, 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 submitted with their application.

The criteria that apply to the consideration of an application for a visa for the purposes of family reunification are set out in the Policy Document on Non-EEA Family Reunification published by my predecessor on 31 December 2013. The document is available on the website of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service ().

Guidelines on the visa application process, including details of the required supporting documentation for a 'join family' visa application can be found on the website of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service of my Department at www.inis.gov.ie. 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.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to the 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 the INIS is, in the Deputy's view, inadequate or too long awaited.