Backlog of visas ‘due to loophole’

HOME Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has blamed backlogs experienced in his department on alarming growth in the number of notarial contracts being instituted by foreign nationals using non-existent spouses.

Motsoaledi was speaking at a media briefing in Hatfield, Pretoria, yesterday on the amended immigration regulations as he said there seemed to be some misunderstandings about them.

He said as a result of the confusion, the department would be withdrawing the gazetted amendments to clear up the misconceptions and re-gazette them as early as next week.

The minister admitted that his department was experiencing a backlog surrounding dependants, spouses and relatives’ visas being sought by foreign nationals approved to come into the country after successfully obtaining employment.

He said that in most cases, while the approvals were easily obtained, they did not include spouses and dependants, which many were decrying as they were not willing to be separated from their families.

While understanding this need, Motsoaledi said foreign nationals were allowed to obtain a spousal visa should they marry a South African citizen and this was causing a problem for the department.

With this loophole, he said they were finding that in many cases spouses who did not exist were being created through notarial contracts simply to obtain visas.

“The number of notarial contracts is increasing day by day but when we send immigration officers to visit such families, they don’t find any spouse and yet we have a document that says we must issue a spousal visa,” Motsoaledi said.

The minister said what was even more alarming was that the number of these contracts was growing in “leaps and bounds”, resulting in the backlog.

“This backlog is changing every day because the notarials are growing daily. Now we have a situation where immigration officers visit families for six months with no spouse in sight, so what are we to do? Unfortunately, it’s a problem we are going to have to change because it’s in the law.”

He stressed that his department usually did not experience backlogs on critical skills, general work and business visas “but people with critical skills may be complaining of delays referring to delays in obtaining spouses for their visas”.

“The only way to know that indeed we have delayed giving someone a critical skills visa is for companies to provide us with a name of the employed person, because once you appear in the gazette and give us a letter of employment from your employer we issue it (the visa) immediately.”

Motsoaledi said that while several complaints had been received from the Chamber of Business units, as well as allegations by the media, when requested to provide a list of names to verify, none were forthcoming.

“The reality we face is that you might be an engineer with a PhD but if no company gives you a job in South Africa, why should we allow you to come?

“The change we are bringing in these amendments is to do away with the requirement of having to go to the Department of Employment and Labour and replace it with a pointbased system.”

The minister said they were unable to expand more on the point-based system because it still needed to be gazetted as they wanted to hear what the public would say about the scoring or points awarded.