Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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97. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality to outline the status of an application for a visa in respect of persons (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33561/16]

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 visa applications referred to were received in the INIS Visa Office, New Delhi, on 29/12/2015. The applications are currently awaiting examination.

The Visa Office has experienced an unprecedented increase in the volume of applications of this type which has led to some delays in processing. As the Deputy will appreciate, in order to be fair to all applicants, applications are processed in order by date received in this office. While every effort is made to process them within a reasonable time frame, processing times will vary having regard to the volume of applications, their complexity and the resources available.

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 the New Delhi Visa Office (ndvi@dfa.ie).