John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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437. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if visa applications submitted by religious orders or faith based organisations are processed expeditiously given the individuals concerned are usually completing their studies or simply being transferred to Ireland as part of their vocational training; if there is an average time for such applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40452/25]

Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I can advise the Deputy that the Ministers of Religion Preclearance Scheme, permits qualifying religious personnel permission to enter and remain in Ireland under certain conditions. It applies to both visa required national and non-visa required nationals. Full details of the scheme are available for review at:

Processing times for all preclearance applications are influenced by a number of factors and some applications may take considerably longer than average to progress to finalisation. 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.

The current processing times for Minister of Religion applications is available here:

The date published on the website is the oldest date of application currently being processed under a given category. At this time the oldest application on hand was received on 1 April 2025. However, it should be noted that the Visa team continue to process and make decisions on applications received after the published processing date. If a particular application takes longer to consider this may result in the published processing date remaining unchanged. I can assure you that this does not indicate the processing of these applications has halted overall.

My Department is committed to providing the best possible service to applicants. To provide greater clarity, officials in my Department are currently in the process of updating the Immigration Service website for processing times for decisions on visa applications by the Dublin Visa Office.

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. These increases have continued, in the first five months of 2025, my Department's Visa Division received approximately 88,400 visa applications and has issued over 76,900 decisions. This reflects an increase in applications of 14%, compared to the same period in 2024.

My officials are working to meet the increased level of demand, and over 5,400 additional visa decisions have issued in the first five months of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024.

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

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