Appointment sellers and scams: how to stay safe

The simple rule

• Booking is free. ISD says there are no costs involved in booking a registration appointment.
• You can only book on ISD’s Customer Service Portal, at portal.irishimmigration.ie. Appointments can’t be booked through anyone else.
• If you’re 16 or over, you book your own appointment, in your own name. If the name doesn’t match the person who turns up, it won’t go ahead.

So anyone selling an appointment, an “expedited” slot or a booking service is, in ISD’s words, not acting for it, with no appointment to offer and no access to the booking system.

Check a message or offer

Tick anything that happened. Every red flag comes from an official warning from ISD, the Department of Justice or ComReg.

Appointment sellers

Some people offer a Burgh Quay slot “this week”, or a booking service, for a fee. ISD is clear:

• third parties have no access to its booking system and no appointments to offer;
• offers of expedited slots for money are scams;
• an appointment made in someone else’s name, or for you by someone else, won’t be completed.

If you can’t find an early date, keep checking the portal yourself: ISD releases extra slots when it can, and you can reschedule to any free date at any time. A booking made within 90 days of arriving is enough to stay until your appointment.

Fake calls and texts

ISD and the Department of Justice have warned about calls that:

• come from Irish mobile numbers, and can look like ISD’s own number;
• use an automated voice claiming to be “The Immigration Service”;
• say your visa or permission has expired, and ask you to press 1;
• repeat the message in another language;
• reach people at random, even those who’ve never dealt with ISD.

The Department says you’ll never be contacted about these matters unless it’s replying to a query you sent, and it never asks for bank or account details by phone or SMS. Don’t engage, don’t call back, and don’t share any personal information.

ComReg’s advice for any suspicious call or text: Stop (don’t rush; hang up if you’re pressured or threatened), Check (do you know the number?), Avoid (don’t use any number or link in the message: contact the organisation through its official website), and Mark it as spam, then block it.

Fake websites

ISD has warned that visa applications can only be made on its official system, AVATS. On any other site, you may be using a cloned or fraudulent website, and your application won’t reach the visa office. The same goes for registration and renewals: type the address yourself, or start from irishimmigration.ie. The checker above tells you if a link is one of the official addresses.

Your passport and documents

• Never post your passport to ISD unless a Registration Officer has specifically told you to.
• Never buy documents, letters or stamps. ISD refuses a registration that uses a fraudulent document, passes your details to the Gardaí and, if you don’t hold a valid permission, deportation proceedings can follow.

Getting real help

Not every third party is a scam. Solicitors and NGO workers can support you: they set up their own Customer Service Portal account and raise queries on your behalf. You can see who represents you under Representatives on the portal, and remove them at any time. What nobody can do is sell you an appointment or book one in your place.

Common mix-ups

Common questions

Sources