News Articles

PERMANENT RESIDENCE APPLICATIONS

Source: Samigration, 13/02/2019


The delays are unacceptable and unexplainable and are causing untold
problems for applicants as they have to obviously keep their
Temporary Residence Visas current and valid for the duration pending
the outcome of the Permanent Residence applications.

A further complication is that many applications, too many to be
considered comfortable, are being refused on grounds that are
incorrect, unacceptable and potentially even unconstitutional.

Particularly hard hit is the category of foreign nationals married to
South African citizens. It must be remembered that a foreign national
only qualifies to apply for Permanent Residence on the basis of
marriage in that category, after 5 years of marriage, so these are
not “fly by night marriages of convenience”.

It is not uncommon to experience applications in this category that
have been outstanding for almost 3 years and sometimes even longer. A
further crunch comes with many of these applications again being
refused on grounds that are not relevant to the subject matter of the
application.

In every instance of a refusal an applicant has a right to apply for
a review in terms of Section 8(4) of The Act against that decision
but the further crunch comes with the processing time for appeals and
reviews which is indeterminate. The same applies to appeals to the
Minister.

Colleagues have mentioned to me they have review applications that
have been outstanding for almost a year or longer.

All of the above is not conducive to a healthy and well administered
Immigration regime. We wish to however assure our clients and
applicants that we are giving our very best endeavours to try and
resolve the impasse.

We will update in later newsletters. www.samigration.com


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