Trinity’s Graduate Students’ Union (GSU), alongside the three Trinity senators, have expressed concerns to the Minister for Education and Skills, as well as the Tánaiste, after delays over immigration registration have caused students to fear they won’t be able to go home for Christmas.
Only months after the introduction of a new online booking system to prevent students having to queue for hours outside the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB), concerns have once again been expressed about delays in the immigration registration process.
The new system, introduced in August, allowed non-EU students to make an appointment to renew their visa through the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration (INIS) website before arriving to the office at Burgh Quay to register or renew their visa.
Since then, however, many students have not been able to obtain registration appointments since arriving in Ireland, with many expressing concerns about the impact this could have on their travel plans over Christmas. Without registering, they may have issues re-entering the country if they left.
President of the GSU, Shane Collins wrote in a letter to the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton; and the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Frances Fitzgerald, that the delays were causing a “great amount of stress for the international student community who now face the prospect of not being able to travel home to their families for Christmas”.
Collins, in an email to The University Times, said that, despite the improvements to the system, “it doesn’t combat the fact that our immigration services do not have the resources to assist international students with their visa process in what we would view an efficient time scale”.
The INIS is planning to make appointments available on Saturdays through November. Collins also stated that Fitzgerald has indicated that the INIS offices will consider offering appointments on December 3rd and December 10th.
“We need some reassurance that INIS are going to ensure that the backlog is cleared in time for students wishing to return home at the end of Michaelmas term can indeed do so. For many, they’ve indicated their fear of not being able to go home for Christmas and this is surely not the image of Ireland we wish to project”, Collins said.
In an email to The University Times, Senator Ivana Bacik, Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology in Trinity, said: “As soon as Shane informed me of this I communicated my concern directly with the Minister for Justice and am awaiting a response from her.”
Bacik also said that the other Trinity senators, Senator Lynn Ruane and Senator David Norris have “signed a letter”, compiled by Norris, “to the Minister seeking a resolution to the backlog”.
In an email statement to The University Times, Louise Staunton, International Student Experience and Global Officer Co-ordinator with the Global Relations Office in Trinity, said that the office is working with INIS, the GSU and the Department of Justice and Equality to “resolve immigration registration issues”. She added that the Global Relations Office recently met with INIS and that Trinity are also in “discussions with the Irish Universities Association (IUA) and ICOS (Irish Council for International Students) to resolve the issue”.
Staunton explained that some students not only require registration, but a re-entry visa should they wish to leave for the Christmas Holidays, creating “an additional hurdle as they are seeking to obtain both a registration appointment and then a re-entry visa appointment”.
In an email statement to The University Times, Kieran McNulty, President of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), stated that he had asked Provost Prendergast to “formally ask for more hours” and that he was happy to work with both the Global Room and the GSU “on whatever’s required”. On the senator’s request for INIS to add additional open days, he stated “I hope this happens”.
Collins added that the GSU’s council has voted to “pursue improvements to immigration and visa processes and campaign for the introduction of multi-year visas for returning international students”. Collins pointed out that utilising such a system would “would reduce the year on year pressure on INIS services”, adding that INIS have indicated that a multi-year registration system could be brought in in the new year: “We simply state collectively this must occur if we don’t want to end up in the same situation this time next year.”
