Join family visa (non EU) processing times

[Trevphils]

Does anyone have experience of recently applying and receiving a join family visa for their non EU spouse, if so could you please advise on the processing times?

[Angel99]

Hi,
Give yourself 6 months - 18 months.

[learner__]

We're 9-10 months into the process and still waiting.

As far as I understand, your best chance of avoiding the 12+ months wait is to make your application look bulletproof, as when applications are initially examined at the receiving embassy some are granted without further examination in Dublin. Their two main considerations are 1) is it a real relationship and 2) does the sponsoring Irish family member have sufficient finances to support the visa applicant.

If I could go back I would be including letters from lots of people I know attesting to the relationship, my local TDs supporting the application etc.

The Visa Decisions page is of some use - but bizarrely the listed date for this kind of visa didn't move for over a year until recently. In May 2024, the longest wait time for processing as listed on that page was ~290 days. Fast forward to now and the wait time is ~700 days.

Some useful information can be found by searching for "join family visa" among Parliamentary Questions on oireachtas.ie. From there I've found that the "business target" for these visas is now 12 months - rather than 6 months as listed in the policy document. Unfortunately you can also see from recent questions that there are applications submitted in January 2024 that are still awaiting processing (more than 18 months). The whole thing is hard to understand and very frustrating.

[learner__]

Below are the dates from the Visa Decisions page at different points in the past 18 months.

What I've heard from someone working alongside the government is that the new requirement of visas for South Africans (introduced mid 2024) has seen big jumps in the number of applications and that's part of the reason for the significant delays in the system.

[Trevphils]

We're 9-10 months into the process and still waiting.

As far as I understand, your best chance of avoiding the 12+ months wait is to make your application look bulletproof, as when applications are initially examined at the receiving embassy some are granted without further examination in Dublin. Their two main considerations are 1) is it a real relationship and 2) does the sponsoring Irish family member have sufficient finances to support the visa applicant.

If I could go back I would be including letters from lots of people I know attesting to the relationship, my local TDs supporting the application etc.

The Visa Decisions page is of some use - but bizarrely the listed date for this kind of visa didn't move for over a year until recently. In May 2024, the longest wait time for processing as listed on that page was ~290 days. Fast forward to now and the wait time is ~700 days.

Some useful information can be found by searching for "join family visa" among Parliamentary Questions on oireachtas.ie. From there I've found that the "business target" for these visas is now 12 months - rather than 6 months as listed in the policy document. Unfortunately you can also see from recent questions that there are applications submitted in January 2024 that are still awaiting processing (more than 18 months). The whole thing is hard to understand and very frustrating.

Thanks for the info, the thing is, when my wife submitted the application at VFS Manila, they handed back a number of supporting documents as "not required", I questioned this as the documnets were my payslips and employment letters going back 2 years, but they replied saying that they were following procedure, my concern is that when the application goes to immigration it might get refused on the grounds of not having these documnets.