The Department of Justice recently announced that it is their intention to resume the acceptance of visa applications, through their commercial partner, VFS, in the seven locations overseas where they have visa offices, as well as in the Dublin office from Monday 22nd June. The seven visa offices overseas are based in China, India, UAE, Turkey, Nigeria, Russia and the UK.
There are still restrictions in place in some of these countries, so where it isn’t possible to resume from the 22nd June, it is intended to resume accepting visa applications as soon as is possible thereafter. The initial resumption of services may also be on a limited basis in certain locations – for example, in China, only four of the fifteen Visa Application Centres (VACs) will be allowed to open initially and in Turkey and elsewhere, initial opening hours may be limited.
This is indeed good news as from Monday, June 22nd students, subject to local advisories, can submit their visa applications for courses commencing in September and October.