Iranian Scholars & Researchers Urge Ireland to End Visa Delays After Year-Long Wait

A group of Iranian nationals who plan to resettle in Ireland for work, education or research purposes are calling on the authorities to resolve the visa processing delay, which is affecting them greatly.

In a petition initiated by a group of Iranian nationals, the affected individuals are urging the Irish authorities for a faster visa processing service, pointing out that many of them have been waiting for their visas for seven to 13 months, Schengen.News reports.

This situation has often resulted in missed job opportunities and academic positions for Iranian scholars, impacting their lives and careers. There are a dozen people who are seeking faster visa processing but it is estimated that hundreds are affected by the visa processing delays.

According to data published by the Irish Department of Justice, a total of 350 long-term visa applications were filed by Iranian applicants in 2024. Out of these, 190 were approved (54 per cent), 29 (eight per cent) were refused and, 131 (37 per cent) were pending.

In comparison with applicants from India, China and Pakistan, which represent the country of origin for most Ireland visa applications, Iran has one of the highest percentage shares of pending applications.

While the share of pending applications from Iran is 37 per cent, the same rate for Indians is 5.9 per cent, which means that 1,806 applications out of 30,177 requests are still pending. For Chinese applicants, this share is even lower – 186 applications or 2.6 per cent of 6,939 requests are pending.

Iranian Scholars Seek Authorities to Address Visa Processing Backlogs
Due to the long visa processing that is jeopardising these individuals’ futures, the Iranian group has made two appeal requests, with the first one seeking faster processing of long-pending applications.

In addition, the group calls on the Irish authorities to address the issue of backlogs by tasking additional resources to process these applications and also “work toward a more consistent processing timeline for all applicants.”

The Iranian scholars reveal that they have made several attempts to contact the authorities and sought answers from them but so far there has been no success.

Some of their efforts include emailing the head of consul at the Honorary Consulate of Ireland in Tehran and also contacting the new ambassador of Ireland in Tehran. While the first one provided no clear answer, the new ambassador has not responded to their emails as of February 18, 2025. Schengen.News has also reached out to the Irish Embassy in Tehran for more clarification but has not received any response yet.

Source: https://schengen.news/iranian-scholars-researchers-urge-ireland-to-end-visa-delays-after-year-long-wait/