Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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491. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the reason a person (details supplied) has been waiting over two years for a decision on an application; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62801/21]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The visa application for the person referred to by the Deputy was refused by the Visa Office in Abuja on 18 December 2019. The reasons for this decision were set out in the refusal letter sent to the applicants at that time. An appeal of this decision was made on 8 January 2020.

Appeals for applications of this type are processed in the order in which they are received, to be fair to all applicants. While every effort is made to process these applications as soon as possible, processing times will vary having regard to the volume of appeals received, their complexity, the possible need for the visa office to seek further information in relation to certain appeals and the resources available to process them.

All visa applicants are advised that the onus is on them to provide as much information in support of their application as they feel is necessary. Guidelines in this regard are posted on the Immigration Service website. When making an appeal, the applicant should take into account the reasons for refusal listed in the refusal letter. The appeal should include any further information or additional documentation they wish to have considered, and should be sent for the attention of the Visa Appeals Officer, in the relevant Visa Office, where the matter will be considered afresh.

Processing times and decisions at the Overseas Visa Offices can be checked on my Department's Irish Immigration website at: www.irishimmigration.ieby viewing the webpage for the relevant Office.

Queries in relation to the status of individual immigration cases may be made directly to my Department by e-mail using the Oireachtas Mail facility (inisoireachtasmail@justice.ie), 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.