Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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91. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will expedite a visa application for a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28148/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that the person concerned was granted permission to remain in the State, on a stamp 4 basis, on 11 October, 2011. This permission was subsequently renewed, with the latest permission granted up to 12 August 2016. An application for a renewal of permission to remain was received in the INIS on 18 July, 2016. The application is currently under consideration and the INIS will be in contact with the person concerned when a decision is reached on their case.

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 long awaited.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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92. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality if she will expedite a visa application for a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28149/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) of my Department that the application referred to by the Deputy was received by the Visa Office on 26 January 2016 and is currently under consideration. The sponsor has been contacted twice via email in relation to the provision of supporting documentation, and a response is awaited.

I am further advised by INIS that, while a business target of 6 months is advertised for long term 'join family' applications where the spouse is an Irish national, this time-frame is subject to the receipt of all required documentation as set out in the Family Reunification Policy Document published on 1 January, 2014. The Visa Office endeavours to have applications of this nature processed earlier than this target but this is not always possible. As you will appreciate, in order to be fair to all applicants, applications are processed in order by date received. Both the applicant and the sponsor will be informed as soon as a decision is made.

The Deputy may wish to note that 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.

In addition, applicants may themselves e-mail queries directly to INIS (visamail@justice.ie).