Sulla wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 1:56 am
I also anticipate that the DFA will come back to me on my complaint in the coming week. I predict that they will attempt to claim that the application timeline runs not from when I submitted my application to the embassy, but when it was received in Dublin or even when they opened it or began processing. ...
Naturally, I do not regard either of those exculpatory assertions as vaguely tenable. However, I believe that is the route they will take. Instead of attempting to tackle issues arising form the manner in which the department deals with incomplete applications and knock on delays, they are likely to claim that as irrelevant, as my application was fully processed well within the estimated time-frame. Therefore, regardless of their internal conduct, I suffered no damage.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
I predict you will get nowhere. What standing do you have for litigation? You are not a citizen. So you cannot claim you were denied a service reserved for citizens (like a passport). You submitted an application. That is not the same as signing a service contract. You were given an estimated time for processing a citizenship application. It was not a service guarantee. Nowhere in the application form
that I signed is there any such a promise. I expect your application contained no such language.
What is the damage you suffered? Waiting? You cannot argue that you were deprived of anything because you had no reason to assume that your application would be approved. If you made plans expecting to have our citizenship or passport by a certain date, that was your mistake, because you should have planned for the possibility that your application would be rejected or that it might be delayed, pending further documentation requests or other delays.
I am sure there are a number of barristers who would be happy to take your case, because regardless of its merits, they will get paid. But I think you should take some time to acquaint yourself with contract law before you invest in such an endeavor.
I do understand the frustration of everyone who is waiting, and has been waiting longer than expected. But it is not just about you. The Irish government has been forced to deal with issues thrust on them by their neighbor to the east. FBR application volumes are a relatively miniscule part of what they must address. The volume of additional passport applications they must process (which is a service for CURRENT citizens) is much greater than the FBR applications they have. In addition, they have to deal with border, tariff and other issues that might arise from the UK crashing out of Brexit. It is not "business as usual" in Ireland. Again, I am very sorry for those of you who were affected. But give DFA some slack.
FBR is not a major source of revenue, as some seem to think. So I have no doubt that if they need extra people to handle passport services to current citizens, FBR is going to take a lower priority. If I were someone born in Ireland and trying to renew a passport, I'd be pretty annoyed that I had to wait a long time, because DFA didn't want to offend FBR applicants.
I wonder why you want to be a citizen of a country whose goverment and civil servants you appear to hold in disdain?
