Cork health jobs at risk over delays with permits

Cork residents working in healthcare roles could be in danger of losing their jobs, due to long delays to the renewal process for residency permits (IRPs).

Janet Baby Joseph, who works in the healthcare service in Cork, told The Echo that she is not affected by the issue, but has started a WhatsApp group for Indian people in Cork who are, and it now has more than 500 members.

“Recently there’s been a huge backlog,” she said, explaining that applicants cannot apply for renewal until 12 weeks before the permit is set to expire. She said the Government is currently only processing the renewals applied for last November.

“In healthcare, they know that if we throw people out of work, the healthcare system will be stuck, but people in other sectors are finding it really hard. Nurses and healthcare assistants working for agencies are not allowed to work.

“All our records are in the system, they’re just a click away, but 24 weeks are being spent on this renewal. If you have a year permit, you need to apply again almost as soon as you get your card.” Jincy Shinoj, who also works in healthcare, said she has been waiting for her IRP renewal since the start of the year.

“There are a lot of people with different kinds of issues; like, it is affecting their jobs. If we need to travel to India, it’s a problem for us. It’s difficult to come back because we need the IRP card to travel.”

Satish Bala told The Echo that he and his wife both work in healthcare, and were set to get keys to their new house recently, but the bank has frozen the process due to delays with their documentation.

“Everything was approved, but the bank suddenly say our permit is expiring. The house owner is putting us under pressure to move on. We had sorted furniture and electronics to be delivered, and now it is delayed so we are going to have to rebook it all,” he said, adding this will cost them several thousand euro.

Robin Jose said that he has already received a suspension letter from his retail company due to delays to his IRP, which he applied for in December.

“In retail, sales, or any other company or temporary job like with an agency, the company are helpless, they can’t legally let you work,” he said. “There is no way to contact the department over the phone, only the online portal, and you can’t go to an office and talk to a person. We are ready to pay more money for the card, but we are losing money because we can’t work.

“People who have had loans approved can’t get them without this card. People are struggling with going to another place or if they need to go back to India.”

He added that two friends of his were waiting more than eight hours at the airport last week for their details to be checked with the embassy.

Cork Labour senator Laura Harmon said that “radically improved communication” from immigration services and a reduction in delay times are needed.