Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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562. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the current backlog of the number of marriage vias appeals; and the timeframe by which an appeal (details supplied) would expect to be processed. [14767/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The visa application referred to by the Deputy was refused by the Visa Office in Dublin on 10 August 2022. The reasons for this decision were set out in the refusal letter sent to the applicant at that time. An appeal of this decision was launched on 10 October 2022.

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.

Full consideration will be given to any appeals received on behalf of the applicants, however the onus is on applicants to satisfy the Visa Officer that visas should be granted. Processing times and decisions at the Overseas Visa Offices can be checked at the webpage for the relevant office.

A Marriage Visa is considered for a Short stay only and it is expected that the visa required national will return to their normal place of residence before the expiry of their visa. If it is the intention of the person referred to enter the state and continue to reside here, then they should apply for a D Type - Join Family visa application.

The following pages on the Irish Immigration website may be of some assistance:

www.irishimmigration.ie/coming-to-join-family-in-ireland/

www.irishimmigration.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Policy-document-on-Non-EEA-family-reunification.pdf

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.