Plight of legal immigrants being ignored - Irish Independent

[asrpb]

Plight of legal immigrants being ignored

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/lette ... 0#comments

Through your daily publication, I would like to shed some light on the plight of thousands of legal immigrants in Ireland who have applied for naturalisation.

I have been resident here for almost 12 years now. I spent five years as a student and finally applied for naturalisation in Ireland in January 2007.

As of yet, I have only got acknowledgements. All email or phone contact with the Department of Justice seems to fall on deaf ears. According to their own website, they are still dealing with applications made in September 2005. But according to a group discussion on the website www.immigrationboards. com, people who applied in February 2005 are still waiting.

There seems to be no helpline that can provide reliable information on the process, timings etc.

At the time of application, I needed to clarify some of the application questions and the information helpline only provided vague subjective information.

As part of the naturalisation process, the non-national has to live and work in Ireland for five out of nine (effectively) years at the time of application.

The application process itself takes anywhere up to three to five years. While I appreciate that the naturalisation is a sensitive process, asking a person to wait 10 years for a decision is ridiculous.

A year and a half into my application, I have heard nothing. I think that as a taxpayer in this country contributing to the economy, I should be afforded a bit more respect.

The essential problem with naturalisation is that the Department of Justice holds all the cards and the odds are stacked against the applicant no matter what.

I want to take a career break and need to find out how this will affect my application -- there is no official information line.

The Government is trying to control immigration into Ireland and is possibly looking at asking immigrants to carry identity cards -- is it too much to ask for some respect in return?

I would like to bring this issue to light through your publication because an archaic and long way of processing applications is unacceptable in the 21st century.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/lette ... 0#comments


READ COMMENTS AND YOU'LL GET THE IDEA WHAT IRISH PEOPLE THINK OF 'LEGAL TAX-PAYING HIGHLY QUALIFIED IMMIGRANTS'

HOW CAN YOU EXPECT THE IRISH GOVT TO CHANGE ITS POLICY

[yankeegirl]

Ugh. A couple of those comments really made my blood boil. I put a wee comment in, but who knows if it catually gets posted lol.

Thanks for posting the article.

[esharknz]

I actually showed those comments to some of my irish co-workers and they were horrified. I guess there are always people out there looking for a reaction. I'd never say those things about an immigrant. I've seen the positive contribution they've made to my home country (New Zealand). Maybe in time those Irish people will say the same. It's just pure ignorance really.

Three years is a ridiculous length of time to make a person wait, with many still under work permit conditions for a lot of this time (LTR - 18 months, now that's a bit crazy).

[amitwadhwa]

I posted that letter to the Independent - my work colleagues have nothing but support for our problems (all the Irish ones) - a few xenophobes are going to voice their opinions and like me they are entitled to their opinions

Anyway, I am hoping that this might lead to some improvements. Metro Eireann have kindly offered to carry articles and interviews on this topic too.

Lets see

[golwaycat]

Hi Amit

thanks for writing that letter , hopefully the misnter of justice will have a change of heart. But knowing these govt people they are bound deep in protocol and red tape. Some of the comments back from people were shocking .......... I am saddened that instead of looking at legal immigrants as hard working people who contrinbute tax.......... some of the jokers had the cheek to tell us to leave. My HR dept was very supportive on reading the article and has even offered to write directly to the misnister to speed my naturalisation application , but then I am not sure if the letter will be considered

regards

GG

[Guess-Any-Name]

I posted that letter to the Independent - my work colleagues have nothing but support for our problems (all the Irish ones) - a few xenophobes are going to voice their opinions and like me they are entitled to their opinions

Anyway, I am hoping that this might lead to some improvements. Metro Eireann have kindly offered to carry articles and interviews on this topic too.

Lets see

Well Done Amit

Have a read of this
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=26925

[asrpb]

LEGAL, HIGH-QUALIFIED, TAX PAYING IMMIGRANTS are waiting 3 years before getting YER or NO on their CITIZENSHIP applications ..... BUT, Take a look at this article from only yesterday’s news:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaki ... king80.htm

These Irish aren’t even legal. HOW HYPOCRITE IS THAT?

[joesoap101]

The people who make those kind of statements about legal immigrants are the very same people you will find in the dole queue, along with the likes of white van drivers!

[Guess-Any-Name]

Well the issue as I see it is a little different here. Here the Prime Minister himself is lobbying with the US govt for the plight of the immigrants in US..

So the question is:
how many of our own prime ministers or why go so far - our embassies here in Ireland - liaise with the Irish government and collectively take our problems to the Irish government??

We aren't even illegal !!!

[mktsoi]

LEGAL, HIGH-QUALIFIED, TAX PAYING IMMIGRANTS are waiting 3 years before getting YER or NO on their CITIZENSHIP applications ..... BUT, Take a look at this article from only yesterday’s news:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaki ... king80.htm

These Irish aren’t even legal. HOW HYPOCRITE IS THAT?

my friend, 3 years to get an answer for yes or no is bad, but think about this. 3 years later, they tell you they still have a big backlogs of the application and ask you to wait for another 3 years. haha, i know it doesnt sounds funny, but the way it is going in ireland. i can see that happen even if you agree with me or not.

[mktsoi]

Well the issue as I see it is a little different here. Here the Prime Minister himself is lobbying with the US govt for the plight of the immigrants in US..

So the question is:
how many of our own prime ministers or why go so far - our embassies here in Ireland - liaise with the Irish government and collectively take our problems to the Irish government??

We aren't even illegal !!!

it is a PR thing. they know it themself. no us president will pardon anyone irish now. if they do this, they will have to do it for the hispanic as well. 50000 out of the 12 million illegal immigrants. you think the us government wants do that??? to be relistic, everyone knows the answer. whatever the stupid irish minister was or is doing just running a show for his own election safeguard.

i have a friend, she is irish herself. she was telling me that her duaghter is working illegaly in states right now. the INS will let her adjust her status from illegal to legal as permanent resident of usa. but here is the catch, but here is the condition the ins will impose on her. no criminal records and cannot leave united states for 7 years. my friend was telling me that 7 years are too long and she also say that her daughter's life and work is in states now. you know what, i really wanted to tell her xyz@!@!@##!DSFS but i just dont want to be rude. her daughter was there ilegally in the first place, the INS just letting her to have a second chance and she is complaining about the 7 years? and after all, she wanted to be in states in the first place, what so bad to live there for another 7 years without leaving the country????

i would just say it to those illegal irish in states just like the some people said it to the legal migrants living and working in ireland in that article published in the independent link in this forum. IF YOU CANNOT WAIT, GO BACK TO IRELAND.

[jackab2]

Well I believe that with the slowdown in the economy, and with departmental budget cuts coming, it dosent take a gunius to work out where the cuts will be made. SO EXPECT EVEN MORE. REDTAPE, DELAYS, and whatever they can come up with to slow the process down.

[joesoap101]

Well I believe that with the slowdown in the economy, and with departmental budget cuts coming, it dosent take a gunius to work out where the cuts will be made. SO EXPECT EVEN MORE. REDTAPE, DELAYS, and whatever they can come up with to slow the process down.

Ironically the citizenship department turns a profit as a result of the EUR640 fee charged for naturalisation.

[sovtek]

Well I believe that with the slowdown in the economy, and with departmental budget cuts coming, it dosent take a gunius to work out where the cuts will be made. SO EXPECT EVEN MORE. REDTAPE, DELAYS, and whatever they can come up with to slow the process down.

Ironically the citizenship department turns a profit as a result of the EUR640 fee charged for naturalisation.

Put with the fee for the GNIB card they make a profit anyway. It's pretty much like everything thing else the government does. Its like the change tickets on the bus that you can never cash in unless you live in on O'Connoll or don't work normal business hours.

[mktsoi]

Well I believe that with the slowdown in the economy, and with departmental budget cuts coming, it dosent take a gunius to work out where the cuts will be made. SO EXPECT EVEN MORE. REDTAPE, DELAYS, and whatever they can come up with to slow the process down.

Ironically the citizenship department turns a profit as a result of the EUR640 fee charged for naturalisation.

guys, they making profit is one thing, but dont you think the worst thing about all that is they cant even give a better process or speed up for all the immigration matters after they started to charge money. the prcoessing time for LTR and citizenship are longer then ever, it is sad