My Day At The GNIB

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Johnjoe Boathouse writes:

After my annual 8-hour visit to GNIB, where I handed over €300 in exchange for a tiny plastic ID card exactly like the ones from previous years, I tried to capture some highlights for those that have never had the experience themselves in this fancy photo collage. I also found this very helpful site afterwards. It would surely alleviate the overcrowding if they were allowed to put posters in the waiting area. About the puke puddle in the entrance…that wasn’t mine.  It sat there for at least 2 hours, and was stepped in a few times before finally being covered – and it still hadn’t been cleaned up when I left.

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19 thoughts on “My Day At The GNIB

  1. Eamonn Clancy

    In fairness though, it’s still a hell of a lot better than where most people, who fled to here for our help, came from. Wouldn’t you say?

    1. Colin

      Not everyone there is ‘fleeing’ and a good few come from countries where efficiency in a public service is pride of place. Unlike here.

      1. idreadnaught(butheGNIB)

        Let’s run a straw poll of Broadsheet readers who have actually have to use the GBIP office. I’ll start:

        Nationality: New Zealand
        Highest qualification: PhD

        I am firmly in the camp to which Colin is referring. The GNIB office is a genuinely horrible place. When I first went there, I thought it was some sort of bad joke. But it’s not. They’re completely serious. It’s that badly organised and it really is that depressing. If you’re Irish, be thankful that you’ll never have to go there.

        I dread going there. I’m not quite here five years, but I will gladly pay the €1000 ‘fee’ for Irish citizenship to avoid going there ever again.

        1. Someone

          Nationality: Irish
          Spouse Nationality: USA
          Highest qualification: Does this really matter? Are we supposed to provide Ivory facilities to PhD grads, but dig a slop hole for refugees?

          Your problem is that you live in Dublin.
          We used the GNIB office in Anglesea Street Garda station in Cork, where the staff were pleasant enough. There was a bit of a line, but on the whole I used to just take an extended lunch break to go there with my wife.
          I will say what I have said to many others, dealing with immigration for my wife in Ireland was a hell of a lot better than dealing with immigration here in the US. Even if the yanks have fancier offices.

        2. Ernie Ball

          Nationality (before I was naturalised): USA! USA! USA!
          I also have a PhD, but I’m not sure why that’s relevant.

          I applied for naturalisation as soon as I qualified because the annual GNIB hell was really getting to me.

          Can someone explain why something like the American Green Card is impossible for Ireland to emulate? Why this nonsense where long-term immigrants have to go through this charade every year?

    2. Shockabilly

      Yeah like all those study abroad students from Canada & the USA fleeing from oppression famine and pestilence…

      All non EU citizens who stay in Ireland for longer than 3 months need to get a GNIB card – every 12 months too which is one of the really dopey aspects of the systems.

      Delighted to see a light being shone on that disaster that the Dept Of Justice runs on Burgh Quay.

  2. Alex Chilton

    Have to go there every year as herself is from outside the EEA. That myq thing is handy but too optimistic. It stopped mid morning and we were a good bit away. I’ve not spent a full day there, it’s more like half a day. If you time it right then the wait is less.

  3. nellyb

    state profiteering is nauseating, 300 euro – !
    wonder who that challenged greedy gobsh&te who approved the charges. medieval.

    1. Someone

      I spent well in excess of that getting me green card in the US, and it took almost a year.

  4. Paolo

    What an utterly stupid post.

    If you shine a blacklight in any bathroom in the world it will look terrible. That room looks pretty clean. Perhaps the person responsible for cleaning up vomit wasn’t in that day or was covering someone else’s shift? If I saw vomit in my workplace I wouldn’t clean it up. Would you?

    1. LiamZero

      It’s not a blacklight. That’s the anti-junkie fluorescent lights they have in the toilets there. And yes, the point is that there’s no toilet seat.

      But yeah, it’s utterly stupid because you completely missed the point.

  5. MBB

    You missed a picture of the workers sitting behind the glass and chatting to each other or just staring off into space for 15-30 minutes between each person they deal with from the queue. In my 7.5 hr experience there I think each person working there probably actually worked for 1hr total!

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