Confusion over the IBC/05 Scheme

From the Immigrant Council of Ireland blog comes news about applications for renewal of residence permits under the IBC/05 scheme. We blogged about the position of Irish-born children of migrants to Ireland here and you can find out more about the experiences of families under the scheme in this report.

The ICI will closely monitor any fall-out from the confusion around the process for renewing residence permits for the parents of Irish citizen children.  About 17,000 people have this type of residence permit (IBC), which are due for renewal this year.

In December, the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) advertised the process for renewing IBC residence permits, stating that people could do so by presenting at the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) or their local immigration office, with the relevant documents, fee etc. But people who followed the directions set out in the advertisements have been told by the GNIB that it is unable to renew their permits without further direction from INIS. INIS has indicated a second announcement about the renewal process will be made on www.inis.gov.ieand in national newspapers soon. In the meantime, many affected migrants have not been able to renew their residence permits.

This apparent breakdown in coordination between two parts of the Department of Justice has very serious ramifications, not least the fact that when a person’s current permit expires and is not renewed, they become undocumented.  This could have implications for a person’s employment security and possibly on citizenship applications, as well creating enormous stress and confusion.  The ICI has been in contact with both INIS and the GNIB in an attempt to have the situation addressed.