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Foreign graduates who qualify with critical skills in SA no longer get residency automatically

Source: Business Insider, 12/02/2022

• Since 2016, foreign students who graduated in South Africa in a critical skills field would get a permanent residency permit without needing work experience.
• But these waivers were recently revoked, in the same week that the department of home affairs gazetted South Africa`s new critical skills list.
• Additionally, critical skills visas won`t be available to skilled foreigners looking for work, as was previously the case.
• These two changes have side-lined young, skilled foreigners who were looking to live and work in South Africa, according to a leading immigration agency.
Foreign graduates who`ve acquired `critical skills` in South Africa are no longer automatically offered permanent resident status.
South Africa`s critical skills list was recently updated for the first time since 2014. Foreigners who posses a critical skill are prioritised for a working visa or permanent residence in South Africa. The updated list, officially gazetted by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi earlier in February, contains 101 job descriptions.
Amid a burgeoning backlog of applications, made even worse by the suspension of new submissions during lockdown, having a critical skill is one of the quickest and sure-fire ways to obtain a permanent residency permit (PRP) in South Africa.
The list is designed to attract foreigners with certain skillsets and work experience that are in short supply locally.
Foreign students studying towards a critical skill in South Africa could previously look forward to obtaining a PRP upon graduating. This was done through a series of waivers, signed into law by then-Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba in 2016.
Amendments to the Immigration Act allowed foreign graduates �` who`d studied at a South African tertiary institution in the areas of critical skills �` to apply for PRP without needing to:
• Submit a certificate from the professional body, council, or board recognised by the South African Qualifications Authority.
• Get confirmation from the relevant department confirming the applicant`s skills or qualifications.
• Acquire five years of post-qualification work experience.
• Submit testimonials from previous employers.
These six-year-old waivers were withdrawn by Motsoaledi just days before the newest list of critical skills were gazetted.
While all applications received before February `will continue to be processed`, foreign students studying towards a critical skill in South Africa will need to comply with all the original regulations of the Immigration Act once graduated.
`The problem with this is that our universities are attracting the brightest [minds] in Africa and a lot international students and that`s a competitive advantage for our economy,` Andreas Krensel, CEO of IBN Immigration Solutions, told Business Insider South Africa.
`Now we don`t give these graduates an easy entry into the job market. When we talk about attracting young, talented people, this [the withdrawal of the waivers] is definitely a step back.`
And the withdrawal of the 2016 waivers isn`t the only newly introduced hurdle to young foreigners looking to live and work in South Africa, according to Krensel.
Part of the department`s updates to the critical skills list includes a number of transitional arrangements, which deals with applications which have already been lodged under the 2014 criteria. Previously, foreigners could apply for a 12-month critical skills visa without an offer of employment. Krensel refers to this as a `job seekers visa` which attracted young foreigners with critical skills to look for employment in South Africa.
Part of the transitional arrangements revokes the ability to gain a critical skills visa without a solid offer of employment.
`This was very handy in attracting young, highly qualified people. Now they`ve done away with this. If [South Africa] is serious about attracting international talent, it needs to be attractive as an international comparison,` said Krensel, adding that while government`s concerns about unemployment, especially among local graduates, were understandable, the latest changes pushed South Africa back on a global standing.
`A lot of countries offer job seeker options and South Africa does not anymore, so that`s a problem.`
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