Migrants living in Cork City waiting five months for residence permit appointments

Migrants rights group calls for plan to deal with backlog

Fiona Hurley of Nasc: 'The GNIB office in Anglesea Street, Cork City, is simply insufficiently resourced to deal with the backlog of cases that have continued to build since registration was suspended during covid-19.'

Immigrants living and working in Cork City are waiting nearly five months to receive an appointment to process their residence permit cards.

Migrants rights group Nasc said a clear timeline was needed as to when non-EEA immigrants — people who require a visa to live in Ireland — could carry out the renewal processes online and a plan was required to deal with the current extensive backlog.

It comes as non-EEA migrants living in Meath, Kildare, and Wicklow can now carry out their permit renewals through the Department of Justice’s website.

Those who need to register their permissions for the first time then will be able to do so at the Burgh Quay registration office, which is already responsible for Dublin.

According to the department, the countrywide transfer of resident permit registrations from gardaí to the department will be “substantially completed within the next 12 months”. 

“The department and An Garda Síochána continue to engage intensively on the scope of further immigration operations to transfer to the department and a roadmap outlining the functions for transfer is being finalised,” a spokesperson for the department said.

“This will set out the timeline for the transfer work relating to the nationwide first registrations and renewals of residence permissions for all other counties.” 

Nasc chief executive Fiona Hurley said while it welcomed plans for the countrywide transfer, the organisation would “like to see a clear timeline as to when that will be rolled out in Cork”. 

She added a plan to deal with the extensive backlogs should also be put in place as immigrants were currently experiencing wait times of up to 140 days to get an appointment in Cork City.

“The GNIB office in Anglesea Street, Cork City, is simply insufficiently resourced to deal with the backlog of cases that have continued to build since registration was suspended during covid-19,” Ms Hurley told the Irish Examiner.

These delays are having a knock-on impact on people’s ability to find and retain work, travel and access essential services.

“We also need to ensure that the current online system will be equipped to deal with the additional demand and that provision is made to ensure that those who do not have the IT resources or literacy can access the services so they can comply with their legal obligation to register,” Ms Hurley added.

The move to transfer the registrations from gardaí to the Immigration Service Delivery follows recommendations made by the Commission on the Future of Policing in Ireland to help “free up gardaí to focus on core policing duties.” 

In March, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the transfer was a “major step forward” and would “release valuable Garda hours to focus on operational and enforcement matters, such as deportations and investigations.” 

“And given our expectation that the number of deportation orders issued will increase significantly this year, freeing up of Garda resources will be particularly important,” she told the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) conference.