SA visa nightmare for Swedish couple

WE ARE a Swedish couple, and for 29 years we have spent our holidays in Cape Town. Very soon (January 1994) we bought ourselves a flat in Sea Point.

We really like your country, and after retirement we decided to spend a longer period in South Africa.

The next step was to apply for 4-year visas, which we successfully acquired at the South African embassy in Stockholm.

At the expiry date of our visas we applied for new ones, and then the trouble started.

Applying for a visa is a lengthy and costly process. We supplied all the required documents and submitted the same to the embassy.

The result was that I received a 4-year visa, but my wife was denied. So, what we have done during the last 4 years is that my wife could only stay on a tourist visa (3 months), while I stayed a longer period at my convenience.

This time we decided to act a bit differently. When we entered the country in November 2018, we used the VFS Global Service here in Cape Town and applied for 2 months extension of our tourist visas.

We received extensions, BUT only 1 month for my wife and 3 months for myself.

To keep the visa requirement for departure, my wife had to buy a new return ticket, and I will stay as originally planned.

We feel badly treated by Department of Foreign Affairs. Although we own a flat here, and each have bank accounts in a local bank, we are denied sufficient extension of my wife’s visa.

We are now discussing whether to sell the flat, pull out of South Africa, and buy a holiday home in an EU country in southern Europe instead.