Emigration queries take off post-Gordhan

QUERIES on emigration from South Africa have escalated in the past week, with immigration experts dubbing it “the Pravin effect”.

Stuart James, who deals with immigration into and emigration from South Africa, said from last Thursday people had phoned the offices of his of Intergate agency non-stop.

The company helps South Africans move to Australia or New Zealand.

James said queries usually came over e-mail, but on Thursday and Friday 70% of queries were phonecalls.

He puts it down to Gordhan’s recall from his business investor road trip to the UK and US and subsequent firing.

Intergate currently receives on average 70 emigration queries a day, double the number of six months ago.

James said only about 15% of people asking about emigration have the scarce skills to qualify for entry into Australia and New Zealand.

Of those who qualify, some later decide they cannot afford the very expensive move to Australia, he said.

New Zealand requires people to have a job before going.

James said a greater number were “committing money” and flying to New Zealand to look for a job there.

He said a year ago people would ask to get a visa to move families to Australia, as an “insurance policy”.

Now they are trying to get visas with the clear intention of leaving the country.

From the day the clearance to emigrate into Australia is granted, families have three years to go.

James said families were not delaying their move anymore and were leaving immediately.

Migration agent Reuven Abeshouse, of Migrate to Oz, said they had definitely seen an increase in interest in migration to Australia.

Immigration Lawyer Chris Watters said: “The numbers [of emigrations] have been high for some months now, and unlike the usual pattern, the numbers have not tapered off.”

However, not all immigration lawyers think the numbers are unusually high.

Kramer Villion Norris lawyer, Goolam Norris said: “We have had an increase in people wanting to emigrate, mainly to the US. But, is there a massive spike? Probably not, at least with our firm.” — TMG