Lawyers complain about delays within Immigration Department

Finally the lawyers have had the opportunity to show to their clients that the delays to grant visas and residence permit to foreigners is caused by the internal procedure of the Immigration Department to send all the applications to the Director for the final signature. Thus, hundreds of visas and residence permits are stuck in the Director's office.

Last week, a group of specialists in Immigration Law presented a formal letter to Clovis Sinisterra, Immigration Department Director, expressing their concern about the unjustified delay in the signing of visas and residence permits pending. Furthermore, they also claimed for the online publication about the approval and denial of applications for residence permits on the website of the institution.

In this regard, a high source of Immigration acknowledged that after an audit carried out last January, it was determined that Legal Counsel had at least 600 cases dealing with the applicants because they had incomplete files.

I totally agree with the position of the National Bar Association (Immigration Counsel), because we are really tired of trying to explain this to clients for whom the procedure will never be clear enough, because it is not the way in which the immigration department works in their countries of origin. I hope this initiative will help to have a more efficient and fast internal procedure.