|
SA Migration Newsletter
13 / 2022 |
 |
||||
 SA Migration
International was created out of the need for a
specialist organization to assist people wishing to immigrate,
volunteer, work, bring family, study or open businesses in South
Africa.
The special permits for Zimbabweans make it easier for Zimbabwean nationals to legalise their stay in South Africa by cutting red tape and dispensing with most of the ordinary visa requirements.
There are nearly 200 000 Zimbabweans in South Africa who are living on borrowed time.
They are in the country on a special visa, the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP). This visa category was introduced more than a decade ago to accommodate an influx of refugees who were fleeing political persecution and economic devastation in Zimbabwe.
At a Glance
• The Department of Home Affairs is providing an automatic extension of status until June 30, 2022, for applicants currently in South Africa with pending visas and waivers, due to processing delays in adjudicating long-term visa applications.
• The processing delays are a result of a measure put in place in January, where the Department of Home Affairs required all long-term visa applications to be adjudicated in Pretoria, instead of at the South African consular posts. Due to understaffing, there is now a backlog of applications.
• Employers should ensure that they plan their employees’ start dates at least six months in advance to accommodate the lengthier processing times to meet their projected assignments or local employment start dates.
Pretoria - In an ongoing clampdown on the use of fraudulent South African documents, a Bangladeshi national was arrested while trying to leave the country on Wednesday night via the OR Tambo International Airport with a fraudulent South Africa passport.
“We have traced where this passport was issued and which corrupt home affairs official issued it. The corrupt official who issued it is one of those who are on the radar of the department’s counter corruption branch, hence another arrest is imminent,†said Home Affairs Minister Motsoaledi.
The Department of Home Affairs is working on a number of new technologies which it says will help speed up travel times.
In its recently tabled annual performance plan for 2022/2023, the department said this will include the introduction of new biometric solutions at both the country’s airports and land borders.
The country is also introducing new visas and an e-gate systems which are expected to cut down on processing time.
Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS)
The department is in the process of developing a Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS) which will enable the capturing of fingerprint and facial biometric data of all travellers who enter or exit South Africa.
More than 150 people caught up in a backlog of visa applications have reportedly not been told how long delays might be.
BBC News says British couples kept in separate countries by the backlog have contacted the broadcaster to raise the issue of delays, with complaints of some applications taking twice the usual processing time of three months.
The BBC says British citizen Deon Barnard and his wife Heather, who both grew up in South Africa, applied for a visa on December 23, with Mr Barnard moving to London to start a new job.
Stripping someone of their British citizenship is contentious, so a new clause allowing the government to revoke it without notice has reinvigorated the debate on how the Home Office views citizenship. Analysis by Laura Hutchinson of Dods Political Intelligence
Before the government stripped London-born Shamima Begum of her British citizenship in 2019 for joining Islamic State in Syria, many were unaware the home secretary had such powers at their disposal.
In fact, aspects of this authority have existed in some form since 1914. New powers included in the nationality and borders legislation have brought the subject back under parliamentary scrutiny, with concerns raised about the impact this practice could have on ethnic minorities.
for restricting how many migrant workers, students and visitors can come into the country.
Travellers from a country needing visas to enter New Zealand, such as China, India and South Africa, have to wait till October under the government`s current border timeline, unless they have an existing visa or border exemption.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has 20 percent fewer staff than before the pandemic and has been juggling the surge in one-off residence visas and an overhaul of work visas.
But it denied its ability to process visas was the sole factor in the delay to re-opening to the rest of the world. SA
Migration International
Tel.: +27 (0)71 632 9555 Fax: +27 (0)21 461 2611 Email: info@sami.co.za |
SA
Migration
Tel.: +27 (0)71 632 9555 Fax: +27 (0)21 461 2611 Email: info@sami.co.za
Table of Contents
1. About SA Migration
2. Zimbabweans stuck in limbo in South Africa 3. South Africa: Concessions Granted Due to Processing Delays of Long-Term Visa Applications 4. Bangladeshi national arrested at OR Tambo International Airport while attempting to leave SA with fraudulent passport 5. Expect big travel changes coming in South Africa, including a new ID system 6. British couples separated by visa backlog ‘being kept in the dark over delays’ 7. Is citizenship a right or a privilege? 8. Lower staff numbers at Immigration NZ blamed for visa `bottleneck`
Contact us: 
SA Migration Business Pack for free download.   
(click on pic for your study info)  Knysna Lagoon 
Zulu Village (click on pic for full size) 
Retired in South Africa (click on pic for your retirement info)  Knysna Elephants |
||||
