Burgh Quay, Dublin this morning.
Is this absolutely necessary?
Sam writes:
Hundreds of people from all over Ireland queue around the block waiting for the Garda National Immigration Bureau to open in Dublin at around 6:30 this morning. People in the queue who didn’t wish to be identified said that many camp from as early as 1am with children only to be told that there are no more tickets and that they must come back another day. Some people said that many (though I was unable to verify this) are seeking a visa enabling them to return to their country of origin to visit family…
Previously: The Queue Of Shame
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By coincidence, someone I know was in that queue today. For hours and hours. He had to take the day off work to do it. He’s been here for years, has a job and is entirely within the law in every aspect of his status here. It’s a crazy system, tho I know immigration depts are bad the world over. But that’s no excuse.
A disgrace.
Proof positive the civil service is an ‘Idiocracy’ as opposed to a bureaucracy.
It’s a first-come first-served ticket based system. You queue up for several hours, get your ticket, and then wait for an unknown number of hours until your number comes up. There are about 18 counters, and never more than 4 active. Why this couldn’t be replaced with an appointment based system I don’t know. Whatever slight efficiency you lose in the number of people served per day, you more than make up for for those people, who don’t have to take the entire day off work, just to pay 300 euro, just so they can stay in the country for another 6 months.
+1
I would be livid.
And your alternative is…?
Ulster UK?
In all the centuries of thought and effort to develop an efficient and humane bureaucracy, no genius has yet been able to develop an alternative to having people queue for hours and hours in the freezing cold for a limited number of tickets over and over again.
Paul has a suggestion there if you were to read the comments
Get them all in the one place like that, then bring in the trucks, load them up and straight to the docks for deportation.
Sorted.
A dear colleague of mine, a respected professional working for a large multinational and a naturalised Irish citizen, was in that queue from 3am last night, hoping to get a re-entry visa for his wife. He wasn’t seen by GNIB.
He will be spending tonight again on our city streets, hoping we will be seen tomorrow by GNIB. As I write this, it is 2 degrees C, forecast to reach minus 1 to minus 3 tonight.
The people in positions of power responsible for this situation are simply beyond contempt.
Ah for fupp’ss sake will you all stop fupping whining.
No votes in those queues – think politicians give a sh*t? As long as the system just about struggles along it will do. Nothing short of a complete collapse, scandal or massive public outcry will get it to change.
Shameful.
I used to have to do this to renew my GNIB card every year until I moved out of Dublin. Dublin’s system is miles better than Cork’s, which didn’t have tickets so you waited in line and never know if you’d be seen that day and they had terrible hours and no seating, but in Kildare you make an appointment! I used to record the times in Dublin so I could remember what worked best for the following year. Here’s an example from August 2013 as non-student:
-6:56am Got in line outside (long line)
-7:20am Doors opened to about 30 non-students
-7:30am I was let in, was ticket #5, took a seat
-8am Processing began
-8:15am I was seen
-8:33am Card printed and done!
All in all, it wasn’t the worst experience. Once inside, re-entry visas are ticketed and processed in a different section, and I never had to register as a student in Dublin, only Cork, so not sure what that’s like.
That was best time, and I think it was because it was a Tuesday. Two years earlier I was in line at 6:50am, but was ticket 30, was seen at 9am and had my card printed and finished by 10
Don’t get me started. I photograph these queues every year, just to have a record. It never gets better and is obviously worse towards holidays, when people realise they forgot to apply for re-entry visa.
Math behind those queues is also quite interesting.
GNIB card is €350 (before 2012 €150). Multi visa (reentry to Irekand multiple times )€100, single visa €50 (why would you go for it, if you travel a lot?). Both of them to be renewed yearly. So in total on average every year a person in that queue leaves €450 to the Immigration office. Do some calculations how much that office cashes daily!
Now, the rumours are going that GNIB card fee will be raised to €550…. Hellooooooo?
…yep, bloody immigrants ripping us off
why are those guys worshipping a Toyota?
I know it doesn’t completely solve the problem, but my team at Code for Ireland have developed a free website to help people in this queue.
When you get your ticket, you enter the details into http://www.MyQ.ie and it will tell you how long you can expect to wait.