As you may be aware, Minister McEntee recently announced a once in a generation scheme to regularise long term undocumented migrants and their dependents living in the State.
As part of her announcement, the Minister also outlined a separate strand which will include a parallel process to implement the recommendation included in the report of the Expert Advisory Group, led by Dr Catherine Day, to allow international protection applicants who have an outstanding application and have been in the asylum process for a minimum of 2 years to apply.
This international protection strand will be a separate application process to the long term undocumented scheme and will be processed by the Ministerial team in the International Protection Office. I want to reassure you that you do not need to take any action at this time. Our aim is to write to our eligible applicants in early 2022 to outline the terms of the scheme and provide details on how they can opt to apply.
Further information will be made available on this website in January 2022, including details on the terms, criteria and application process for this strand, along with a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document, which I hope you will find helpful.
For those of you who will be celebrating Christmas, I wish you a Nollaig Shona Daoibh – a very Happy Christmas.
Thank you.
David Delaney
Chief International Protection Office