Good news for foreign students in Ireland!
The Irish government has announced the launch of an online visa renewal platform. That way, you won’t have to go to an immigration office to apply for renewal.
For now, the system can only be used by foreign students residing in Dublin, but there are plans to expand the service to other cities and visa modalities.
To apply for renewal, students must access this website and register. You will need to send scanned copies of the documents and pay the renewal fee. In addition, you will need to send your passport and Irish Residence Permit (IRP) by mail to the address of the immigration service. The IRP must be expired or expected to expire in the next 29 days.
The application will be verified and, if approved, students will receive their passport back and a new IRP, which will be sent by post.
Before that, it was necessary to schedule an appointment over the internet and personally go to the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service (INIS) in Burgh Quay to do the renovation. However, it was very difficult to find available times, as there is a “black market” of operators who buy schedules and then sell them as a way of making a profit, which is illegal.
In a note, Minister Charlie Flanagan said the system “will allow officers to process renewals more efficiently”, in addition to relieving pressure on immigration offices that, when reopened, will be dedicated exclusively to students who register for the first time. , as they need to provide their biometric data (photography and digital).
In 2019, the INIS office in Burgh Quay processed more than 105,000 requests, of which about 70,000 were renewals.
