Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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99. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when a decision will be made on an application for the spouse of a person (details supplied). [11288/17]

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 was received in the Irish Visa Office in New Delhi on 21 November 2016. The application is currently awaiting examination.

I am further advised 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 updated in December 2016. 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 the New Delhi Visa Office (newdelhivisaoffice@dfa.ie).