Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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373. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if her Department will issue a visa (details supplied). [30004/20]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The person concerned originally applied for a Short Stay, category “C”, visa on 25 October 2019. This visa was refused on 18 November 2019, and was subsequently granted on appeal on 15 April 2020.

As part of the combined efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and to ensure customer safety, the Immigration Service of my Department took the decision to temporarily cease issuing visas from 20 March 2020. It remains the position that the Immigration Service is not accepting or issuing any short stay visa applications, except for cases that fall under the Emergency/Priority criteria, which was expanded to include those specific categories of travellers, identified as having an essential function or need in EU Council Recommendation (EU) 2020/912 of 30 June 2020.

It appears that the applicant's circumstances have changed and, based on the information available to the Immigration Service, a short stay, category “C” visa is no longer appropriate. The applicant should apply for a long stay, category “D”, Join Spouse visa. The visa office in Abuja is currently awaiting additional information from the applicant, to assist in the processing of this application.

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