Ireland to Introduce Online Visa Appointment System in 2015

[caption id="attachment_1799" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image Credit: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Time[/caption]

The Department of Justice is set to introduce a new online visa appointment system for foreigners applying for a re-entry visa. The service will begin in 2015.

Currently, Ireland doesn't provide an option to book visa appointments online, which leads to chaos outside the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) in Dublin each day. People queue up overnight and wait for their turn to submit their application for Ireland work visas.

The Department spokesperson said that introducing online visa appointment system is a priority and is likely to be launched in the first quarter of 2015 itself.

As reported in Irish Times, more than 3,500 people have signed the online petition founded by Elif Dibek demanding online appointment system for immigration visas.

Irish Times quoted Elif Dibek saying, "There are people who paid thousands to study at the Smurfit School, tech workers like myself, parents etc. The queues have been bad every year but never this bad. The overnight queuing is insane.”

The crowd starts pouring in with their applications in hand around 8PM and wait till 8AM in the morning for the office to open. Some lucky ones get through the process in the first attempt, while others have to redo the whole exercise.

The change in the visa appointment system will make it easier for the applicants to get their GNIB Card without having to stand in long queues.

News Source: Irish Times

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