member residence permit. Instead of the three months permitted by law, the Federal Police Directorate took six months to determine that there were no grounds for suspicion. Two months of inactivity In another case, the relevant department of the Vienna City Administration also sent a file to the Federal Police Directorate Vienna, because it suspected a sham marriage in connection with an application for a family member residence permit. However, the case worker took two months to initiate an investigation. In this case, appropriate supervisory measures were initiated by the Ministry of the Interior. Waiting threeand-a-half years In October 2006, Mr. N., who was studying in Vienna, applied for an extension to his student residence permit. MA 35 proceeded on the assumption that he was not fulfilling the performance requirements in his studies and forwarded the file to the Aliens Police Authority so that measures could be taken to terminate Mr. N's residence. Quite apart from the fact that this procedure was unlawful, the file remained in the hands of the Aliens Police Authority for three-and-a-half years. MA 35 only followed up three times, at one-year intervals. Encouragingly, the Ministry of the Interior stated that it would inspect all the files handled by the case worker in question, in search of any other instances of delayed proceedings. Proceedings at a standstill for 9 months Ms. N. submitted an application to MA 35 for her daughter - at that time three years old - for an initial residence permit, for which a statement from the Aliens Police Authority was needed. The Aliens Police Authority took no less than nine months to determine that it did not have any objections to issuing the residence permit. In its comments, the Ministry of the Interior stated to the AOB that in this clear-cut case there was absolutely no justification for the proceedings taking so long. Evaluation will form the basis for future improvements The Ministry of the Interior has welcomed the AOB's criticism and initiated talks with the Vienna Chief of Police. Also, the Aliens Police Authority is currently reviewing its processing procedures. According to the current schedule, the outcome of these reviews will be available in 2011, and will form the basis for future improvements. 26