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Applying for a Smart ID â€` Friendly staff, air-conditioned room, but still a long wait

Source: My Broadband, 16/01/2019

Once users had registered for the ID card online, they must then
visit a Home Affairs office with a live capture system or one of a
few participating banks which have a Home Affairs section inside.
Registering online
Step one in getting your Smart ID is registering on the
eHomeAffairs portal.
The online portal allows users to submit applications and
supporting documents online, make online payments, and schedule
appointments at a Home Affairs-enabled bank branch.
To create an account, users must register with their full name, ID
number, cellphone number, email address, state which bank they are
with, and enter their bank account number.
This does make you feel uneasy, but the portal states it is so
payment can be made for a Smart ID application.
It must be noted that users must also have Flash enabled in their
browser, and to login to their online profile they will have to
enter a one-time PIN sent to them from Home Affairs on their
cellphone.
Once you have verified your details and logged in, you are then
required to fill out a few forms to capture your home and postal
address, nationality, and citizenship status.
To make an appointment for your Smart ID application at a bank
branch, you must be a customer of that bank.
For me, this was Standard Bank â€` with the closest branch
Centurion. The purpose of the appointment was to have my
fingerprints and photo taken, as the actual application for the
Smart ID card is processed online.
Once you have selected your bank and the branch you want to visit,
you select a timeslot.
I selected 11 January, Friday, for 11:00 â€` 12:00.
Online payment
To confirm your booking, you are required to pay the application
fee online â€` which was R140.
Standard Bank customers can pay using the MyBills feature, with
Home Affairs essentially sending you a bill you must authorise to
be paid.
Users select the MyBills section in their online banking profile
and navigate to the Home Affairs line and activate it as a billing
beneficiary.
After it is activated you can access the auto-populated Home
Affairs bill which is generated after you have gone through the
payment section on the Home Affairs website. You then enter the
reference number provided on the Home Affairs website into your
bill, and click pay.
Home Affairs states that you have to pay online and cannot pay at
the bank branch you visit.
Once you have made your appointment and paid, you receive an SMS
confirming your booking.
Comfy seats, long wait
I arrived at Standard Bank Centurion and immediately saw a Home
Affairs sign at the entrance.

After asking an employee at reception where the Home Affairs
section was, I went upstairs to the Private and Business banking
suites â€` where the Home Affairs desk was located.
The area had adequate, comfortable seating, it was air
conditioned, and was what you would expect from a bank â€` neat and
tidy.

When you enter and approach the Home Affairs desk, you provide the
staff member with your ID number and details â€` and she notes that
you have arrived.
You are then issued a ticket with a number on it. I arrived at
11:15, and after receiving my ticket â€` number 56 â€` sat down among
a few other people who were also there for the Home Affairs
service.
While the Home Affairs section is in the bank, bank clients and
citizens do not queue together or share any other resources
besides the chairs â€` meaning the Home Affairs operations do not
affect banking services, and vice versa.
A few minutes after sitting down, ticket number 52 was called for
their photos and fingerprints â€` which meant my turn should be up
soon.
It was not.
While the chairs were comfortable, the air conditioner kept the
room cool, and the Home Affairs staff were friendly, time started
to drag.
Almost 40 minutes later, 12:00 came and went, and I was still
waiting.
So did 12:30, and a few people who were there for the same reason
as me had joined the queue.
It must be noted that people who were there to collect their Smart
ID card were processed much faster, and in the time I was waiting
many citizens came in and out after receiving their IDs.
With 12:40 approaching, my number was finally called and I went
into the photo and fingerprint room.
The office had two photo booths in it, and two Home Affairs staff
who sat at PCs and had digital fingerprint scanners on their
desks.
Once again, the staff member was friendly and asked me to place my
thumbs one at a time on the reader.
I then signed twice on a digital signature pad, and was directed
to a photo booth.
The booth has a DSLR camera inside of it which is positioned in a
column that can slide up and down. The chair you sit on is also
adjustable.
After I sat down and the employee adjusted the camera and the
chair, he returned to his PC and took two photos.

And that was it.
The wait to get in was long, but the actual biometric capture took
less than 5 minutes.
The employee told me I will receive an SMS stating that my
application was being processed â€` which I did â€` and that I will
receive another SMS when my Smart ID is ready for collection.
After retelling my story to friends, however, I was reminded that
an hour-and-a-half in a comfortable, quiet office to get a new ID
was a dream compared to many experiences they had at Home Affairs
branches.

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