Last-minute reprieve for 56,000 foreign residents till end of 2023
Some relief for people waiting for a decision on longterm visas, but it’s not all positive. By
The Department of Home Affairs has yet again issued a last-minute reprieve, extending a blanket concession for long-term visa or waiver applicants awaiting decisions on their applications.
The holders of long-term visas can now legally remain in South Africa until 31 December 2023, although the lateness of the decision – 48 hours before these visas technically expire – has drawn sharp criticism.
The directive was communicated on Wednesday morning to Home Affairs’ head office, its Visa Facilitation Centres (VFS) and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s Consular Services.
The decision means visa applicants are permitted to remain in South Africa legally until the end of the year, pending the finalisation of their applications. Those travelling on passports issued by countries that are not visa-exempt are required to apply for a visitor’s visa to return to South Africa until their applications have been finalised.
Had this not been issued, more than 56,000 businesspeople, foreign staff and other international residents, who have been unable to formalise their settlement plans in South Africa owing to Home Affairs’ red tape and applications backlog spanning more than a decade, would have been forced to leave the country – or risk deportation – after 31 March 2023.
Friday had been D-day for immigrants. Unable to process residence applications swiftly because of an antiquated paperbased system, corruption and the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, Home Affairs was putting the screws on international visitors, telling them to leave to avoid being kicked out. The uncertainty has caused misery for families, business owners and skilled foreign workers, many of whom have lived in limbo, dependent on temporary visitors’ visas while their applications are “in process”.
One resident, a German mother who has two South African-born children and a South African husband, said the family had moved to the country in 2007. She had come in on a spousal visa when the couple already had one child already.
She later applied for permanent residency, which took more than two years to be denied on the grounds that her children – both minors – cannot support her financially. The couple lodged an appeal in 2012 and have been waiting since.
On Facebook, she found a group of foreigners in a similar position who launched a class action against Home Affairs in May 2021, based on applications and appeals taking longer than eight months.
Home Affairs did not oppose the first matter and agreed to settle and issue the permits. The consultancy behind the legal action, Global Migration
SA, has called for more applicants to join the action.
In the meantime, the German woman had to reapply for her temporary visa every two years. The family has now had enough and is planning to relocate elsewhere.
“My husband has a company that employs 30 people. If I take my husband and I leave the country, those people will lose their jobs. Home Affairs doesn’t see it. They don’t see who they are denying visas to. It’s bizarre.”
A Swedish citizen, also married to a South
African, also came forward to complain about the process. He has a successful tech business and has lived in the country for a decade.
“Do you know that Sweden was the first country in the world to recognise the ANC? And this is how they treat foreigners?”
He says he has consulted numerous immigration lawyers, who are also at a loss. So, instead of being banned from South Africa for five years, he plans to take his business to another African country, which is welcoming his investment and is excited about his project.
“If you look at my business, what we are doing and planning to do will bring in massive revenue. It’s an unbelievable loss to the economy.”
A US citizen had been told by his employer, a global consultancy, that if he could not produce a visa by Friday, he would be on borrowed time. He considers himself fortunate: a friend had been told that, come the 31st, he would have no job in South Africa.
Home Affairs has said it only expects to have cleared the paper logjam by about the middle of 2024. It currently takes about eight months to process a permanent residence permit application because it has to go through six processes.
The latest concession is only applicable to applicants who had submitted an application via a VFS centre on or before 31 March 2023. All visitors on short-term visas whose validity was issued for fewer than 90 days are excluded from this concession and required to depart before or on the date of expiry of their visas.