Irish Immigration Service publishes weekly visa-decision table, highlights processing dates for business and employment visas

The Irish Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) has released its scheduled Tuesday update to the public visa-decision tables, dated 20 October 2026. The table—widely consulted by international assignees, global-mobility managers and immigration lawyers—shows that the Dublin visa office is now adjudicating standard business-visa applications received on 27 August 2026 and employment-visa files received on 16 August 2026. Appeals for those categories are being examined on files lodged in early April and January respectively. Although the ISD stresses that each file is decided on its own merits, the calendar-style snapshot offers the clearest available indicator of where an application currently sits in the processing queue. For multinationals planning short-term projects or urgent client visits, the published dates help determine whether a client or employee can realistically travel before year-end, or whether contingency plans such as the UK–Ireland Short-Stay Visa Waiver Scheme should be activated. The update also underlines the longer lead times facing family-reunification cases: ‘join-family—Irish citizen’ applications are still being assessed on files received in July 2024, reflecting the constitutional and human-rights analysis required. Student visas, by contrast, show moderate movement, with files of 22 June 2026 now in process—important intelligence for language-school operators finalising winter-intake cohorts. ISD again warns applicants not to purchase travel tickets until a decision has been issued, reminding carriers and HR teams that presentation of an onward booking does not influence an outcome. The agency notes that time frames can slip during holiday periods or at peak academic-year changeovers, reinforcing the need for employers to build realistic buffers into assignment programmes. For mobility professionals the message is twofold: accelerate the gathering of any outstanding documentation for files approaching the published dates, and keep travellers on standby for possible biometric-enrolment appointments once a preliminary decision is reached.