Ireland’s Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) has warned visa customers to be vigilant from fraudsters when applying for a visa online.
Through a statement, ISD highlighted that Irish visa applications can only be submitted through the official AVATS website.
Irish visa applications can only be created and submitted on the official AVATS website: AVATS (inis.gov.ie). If you are making a visa application or associated payment on any other website, you may be using a cloned or fraudulent site, and your application will not be received or processed by the Visa Office.
The Immigration Service Delivery also called on all applicants to address their questions and concerns to AVATS.
Cases when applicants are subject to fraud when planning to apply for a visa are not few, with visa embassies and centres calling on applicants to be aware of fraudsters.
Earlier this year, a spokesperson from the visa application company VFS Global said that fraudsters pretending to be employees from this company have been selling fake Schengen visa appointments.
According to the spokesperson, there was an increase in the number of fraudsters offering such services.
There has been an increase in fraudsters this year who are taking advantage of people by selling appointments. We have seen some people come into the centre with appointment confirmations which are fake and were unfortunately scammed by these fraudsters.
Besides, in June this year, a number of seven applicants who were carrying forged documents in order to apply for visas to Italy were caught by two security personnel members at VFS Global, the Visa Application Center (VAC), in India’s capital, Delhi.
Local media reports noted that such documents were provided to the applicants by two Delhi-based agents in exchange for INR 30,000 to 55,000.
Authorities in Ireland receive a large number of visa applications each year.
According to the figures from the Immigration Service of Ireland, in the first half of last year alone, the country received a total of 64,302 visa applications, with nationals of India and Nigeria submitting the highest number of applications.
The figures from the same source revealed that the highest number of applications was submitted by nationals from India, with 24,277 visa applications, while those from Türkiye submitted 4,785 visa applications, followed by those from Nigeria, who submitted 4,112 visa applications.
In spite of the increased number of visa applications, authorities in Ireland are continuously attempting to find an effective solution to prevent fraudsters from being involved in fake visa applications.
