Migrant permit delays in Cork making students feel ‘like prisoners’ in Ireland
David Russell: 'You can have a situation that a student is in communication with the school asking questions, prices, and all that, and then they later come back and say, they have decided to not come to [Cork or Limerick] because they heard of these problems with immigration.'
International students, especially those who travel to Ireland for English language courses, are “actively” choosing not to come to Cork due to extensive backlogs in renewing their residency permits, a college director has claimed.
“[The students] add to the vibrancy of Cork City, they also add to the economy, and they rent, work and pay taxes. They work in restaurants, bars, cafes, and offices, as home care assistants, and delivery drivers,” chairperson of the Progressive College Network (PCN), and director of NED college David Russell said.
However, Mr Russell said prospective students are hearing through word of mouth about lengthy delays in Cork, Limerick and Waterford, in having their permits renewed — delays they won't face if they opt for schools based in Leinster.
At present, non-EEA migrants, those who are not citizens of the European Economic Area, are required to pay €300 annually to renew their permit and receive the plastic card, which states they are legally allowed to live in this country, through the mail.
Non-EEA migrants who study, live and work in Cork City must book a face-to-face appointment with gardaí in Anglesea Station to renew their residence permits, but a backlog following the covid pandemic means they are now facing delays of between two and six months to receive this appointment.
However, if living in Dublin, Kildare, Meath or Wicklow, a recent change allows people to do the whole renewal process online through the Department of Justice’s website. Mr Russell said students talk amongst themselves and eventually find out about the permit delays in Munster.
“You can have a situation that a student is in communication with the school asking questions, prices, and all that, and then they later come back and say, they have decided to not come to [Cork or Limerick] because they heard of these problems with immigration,” Mr Russell said.
He says this is now a “daily occurrence” and schools are “100% losing out.”
Hercules Rodrigues Limeira, who is currently doing an English Language course in Cork City, said he was unable to work because his visa expired last year and he was waiting for an appointment at Anglesea Street Garda Station
The 31-year-old who moved from Sao Paulo to study and improve his English said he could not get an appointment until two months after his visa expired. Being forced out of work while waiting to renew his permit "was stressful" as he had bills and rent to pay.
Last December he had applied for an appointment to renew his student visa, but did not get an appointment until April this year - two months after his visa expired.
“I was like really anxious all the time and nervous,” Mr Limeira said. “It was stressful.” He said the system in Cork City for renewals needs to be changed as it is affecting a lot of migrants, and making it difficult for them and international students to work, pay their bills, rent and live.
Language student Fiorella Benevides Peralta said while she does not see any major issues while waiting for appointments, she knows of a number of people who could not work because their visas were about to expire or expired.
“Because they are unable to get a job, they run out of money that they need to survive,” Ms Peralta said.
“What happens if people run out of money and still need to pay for the visa? What happens then if they use that money to pay bills, rent or even food?” she added.
The Costa Rican national said she applied for an appointment four months before her visa expired. She got an appointment two months after it expired.
“I travelled to Iceland and it was fine but it was on the way back that they had questions,” Ms Peralta said.
“They asked me if I knew that my visa was expired, and I said yes, but I can’t do anything about it because I am waiting for an appointment.” The 26-year-old said she had to show all the correspondence between herself and Cork City immigration before she was allowed to re-enter the country.
Immigration solicitor at Sinnott Solicitors, Úna O’Brien points to the "unfairness" of the anomaly where non-EEA migrants living in Dublin can apply, through the website, for a renewal up to 12 weeks in advance
“This puts non-EEA nationals living outside of Dublin at a huge disadvantage in circumstances where some have to wait as long as 20 weeks for an appointment,” Ms O’Brien told the .
“This is just to process the renewal, they then have to wait a number of weeks to receive the IRP card so the whole process can take half a year,” she added.
Ms O’Brien said that registration offices in Cork, Limerick and Waterford appear to have the longest wait times and migrants living in these areas “at present have been left behind”.
Ms O'Brien said while the immigration officers who are members of An Garda Síochána working in these offices "are doing their best to process the appointments, additional gardaí need to be assigned to these duties to clear the backlogs.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the nationwide transfer of permit registrations will be “substantially completed within the next 12 months.”
However, Ms O'Brien said this transfer should be an “immediate priority” which would then allow an extension of the online system to larger urban areas with a “chronic” lack of appointments before moving countrywide to create a standardized system for renewals.
“At present, we have a two-tier system which is grossly unfair and really not fit for purpose,” Ms O’Brien added.
While the delays affect migrants' ability to work, Ms O’Brien said it can also affect the reckonable residency for citizenship applications, especially if there is a gap in their permission, 12 months before making an application.
The knock-on effects can “result in delays in citizenship applications being processed and citizenship being granted as a person must have a valid permission to remain for their application to be finalised and citizenship granted.”
Mr Russell said Cork should have been one of the first counties to be included in the roll-out plan and if the transfer process takes up to a year, it will lead to further problems for English language schools, including a drop in the number of students applying.
Michelle Fernandes, 37, moved to Ireland from Pakistan in 2016 to study. She then moved on to an employment permit which allowed her to work. She now lives in Cork with her partner, Alan O’Mahony, under a Stamp 4 visa and works full-time.
Different permission stamps see different renewal periods. In the case of Ms Fernandes, the type of permission she is on would require her to renew it every year. Last year, she applied for an appointment in September. Her visa was set to expire in December.
Six months after she sent out the email, she received an appointment — two months after her visa expired. This is not the first time that Ms Fernandes experienced delays like this which affected her plans to travel or work.
Two years ago, she and her partner booked flights and accommodation for a trip to Portugal which was a requirement for her before she applied for a Schengen visa. Because Ireland is not a part of the Schengen area, an Irish residence permit (IRP) would not allow a non-EEA migrant to enter without a valid visa.
Most non-EEA migrants are required to apply for a Schengen visa if they wish to travel to places like France, Spain, Germany or Portugal. Ms Fernandes had three months left on her permission when she received an appointment with the Portuguese embassy.
However, when she attended the visa interview, she was told that because she had only three months left on her current permission, and did not have a new renewal on hand, her visa would be likely refused. Ms Fernandes said she withdrew her papers from the application.
The couple said they had to cancel their holiday to Portugal and lost all the money on the flights and hotels as they were non-refundable.
“We’ve given up on travelling,” Ms Fernandes said. She said she “felt like a prisoner” because of the backlogs.
Her partner, Mr O’Mahony, added these delays had affected her mental health severely. “During this six-month delay, it was in her mind all the time that she was not getting [an appointment],” he said.
Mr O’Mahony said:
However, Ms Fernandes said it was not fair and was frustrated with paying the full amount of €300 for the renewal that lasted less than a year. When she attended her appointment in February this year, the permit was given until December. It was not backdated, or given until February 2025.
“It’s just the fact that people have to wait so long for these appointments and then they won’t backdate your permit,” Ms Fernandes said.
“So every time they pay €300, I’m only getting technically what I can use like six months, so where is the fairness in that?”, Ms Fernandes said.
Come December, the 37-year-old will have to go through the same process again and is afraid that it will affect her ability to retain the job she is currently in as it is a temporary role. She added that she is “fed up” with the current system and wants a “simple service” that works efficiently and effectively.
Stephen was afraid he was going to lose his job as he was not able to receive an appointment from Anglesea Street Station.
He was given a three-year spouse visa and applied for an appointment in December last year as he was told that he could not apply for his renewal six weeks before the visa expired. His visa was due to expire at the end of January this year but did not receive an appointment until April this year.
However, because the information about processing times is not readily available online, Stephen’s employer gave him an eight-week extension to get his permission in hand after looking through Justice’s website which applied for Dublin at the time.
As the days approached the end of the extension, Stephen said he reached out to the gardaí to see if he could get a document that stated he was legally allowed to stay in the country and work due to their backlog.
“I said I needed something for my work to say that I am still legally allowed to be in this country and that I am not defaulting on a visa by continuing to work,” he said.
“So they sent me out a generic copy and paste e-mail that said ‘If you applied after this date and you applied within your six weeks, then you’re still eligible to work,” Stephen said.
The nursing student said he went back to his employer with that, but that they had only cited Justice’s notice online. Stephen said he had to explain to them that it was different in Cork.
“It was a back and forth, and I reached out to a migrants' rights organization and asked what are my options here,” he said. “Because I can’t lose my job, especially because now I’m eight weeks into an expired visa, so no one’s going to take me with an eight-week-old visa.
“It’s one thing to have gone over the time frame with the company, but it’s another thing to show up with an eight-week-old card and say, ‘yeah no, but it’s grand’,” Stephen added.
The healthcare worker said the whole process was extremely stressful and saw him having to make several different phone calls “all day, every day” on his breaks and lunches to see if something could be worked out.
In 2023, 300,775 residence permits were issued across the country, according to Justice Minister Helen McEntee. The figures were released through a parliamentary question. Of these, 103,772 were given to first-time applicants, with 197,003 for renewals.
According to Ms McEntee, applications for renewals can be accepted up to 12 weeks before the visa expires.
The name of the person has been changed to protect his identity
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