Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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181. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the weekly actual and target average turnaround times for South African visa applicants, broken down by category of visa, for the past three months, in tabular form. [39817/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that on 10 July 2024 visa requirements were introduced for nationals of South Africa, bringing our arrangements into alignment with the visa requirements of Schengen members states, and with those of the UK.

The Dublin Visa Office have established a dedicated “South Africa Visa Desk” to process applications from residents of South Africa. My Department also established Visa Application Centres, located throughout South Africa, with visa service provider VFS Global. This is to ensure the facilitation of legitimate travel with processes that are robust, effective, and fair.

My Department does not collate weekly average turnaround statistics in the manner requested by the Deputy. An examination to provide the average and target processing time by visa type and by week as requested by the Deputy would be voluminous in nature, require a significant amount of staff time and resources and could not be warranted. I can advise the Deputy that following a recent examination of processing times I can confirm that the majority of short term visit visas are processed within a 12 week period.

Table 1. below details the number of first instance decisions issued for short stay visas processed by the South Africa Visa Desk from 10 July 2024 to 18 June 2025.

* Please note, figures are correct at time of issue, however, all statistics may be subject to data cleansing.

In 2024, approximately 201,000 visa applications, of all types, were received by the Visa Division of my Department. This reflects an increase of 21%, compared to 2023, with over 35,000 additional applications received. Since the introduction of these requirements in July 2024, over 12,900 applications of all types have been received by the South Africa Visa Desk and over 8,800 decisions have issued with an overall 89% grant rate.

The South Africa Visa Desk publishes guidance for applicants, target processing times and weekly decision reports, at the following webpage:

Table 2. below details the current target processing times for complete visa applications submitted to the South Africa Visa Desk:

*Tourist / Performance group applications are not included in target processing times.

** Excludes “De Facto (unmarried) Partner.

I can assure the Deputy that efforts are being made to improve the current processing times. 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.

I understand extended wait times can be frustrating. I want to assure anyone who is waiting on a decision that my Department is doing everything possible to progress applications as quickly as possible. In recent months, additional resources and staff have been assigned to my Department’s Visa Division which I expect will reduce the waiting times for all applications. People are advised that unforeseen delays can arise, which are outside the control of the Visa Desk. Processing times for all applications are influenced by a number of factors. The time it can take varies depending on the type and complexity of application; individual circumstances; peak application periods; such as holidays or the start of the school year; and, crucially, the quality and completeness of the application lodged.

Any person can now directly check the status of their visa application on the Immigration Service’s new Customer Service portal. They can register for, or log in to their existing account, at: