Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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487. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if he will engage with relevant Departments on the significant visa processing delays being experienced by a group (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27683/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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On 10 July 2024, visa requirements were introduced for nationals of South Africa.

My Department has established a dedicated South Africa desk to process these applications along with Visa Application Centres, located throughout South Africa, through an outsourced visa service provider. This is to ensure the facilitation of legitimate travel with processes that are robust, effective, and fair.

The Department publishes guidance for applicants, target processing times and weekly decision reports, at the following webpage:

www.irishimmigration.ie/south-africa-visa-desk/

The current target processing time for visa applications submitted is between 6 and 8 weeks for applications to visit family/friend and approximately 12 weeks for tourist applications.

I can advise the Deputy that a majority of visas are issued in line with the published processing targets. Applicants are advised that unforeseen delays can arise, which are outside the control of the Visa Desk. With this in mind, my officials recommend that, for short stay visas, applicants should apply up to 90 days in advance of their proposed travel dates and that applicants should not book flights until they have received and validated their visa.

If an application has significantly exceeded the above times, it is possible that, on initial assessment, the application has not met the criteria to be issued a visa, and further assessment/verification is required. In such instances, processing times will be longer than those stated above.

Any applicant can now directly check the status of their visa application on my Department's new Customer Service Portal. They can register for, or log in to their existing account, at:

portal.irishimmigration.ie/en/

As an Oireachtas member, you can also request the status of individual immigration cases by e-mail, using the Oireachtas Mail facility at: IMoireachtasmail@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 Question process.