BRITISH PASSPORT RENEWAL

I recently renewed my British Passport and went to Home Affairs to get my Permanent Residence stamp — only to be told that they do not do that anymore. When I asked how I could get back into the country without the stamp, the woman told me to take my old, expired passport with me. What concerns me is that the airline in the foreign country may refuse to let me board the plane to SA. Surely my SA ID book will mean nothing to them? Is there some new legislation about this? — John Hall

It is true that permanent-residence status is no longer endorsed / stamped into a foreigner’s passport by the Department of Home Affairs. That change came about quite suddenly, and may have something to do with moves afoot to amend SA’s immigration legislation, based on a white paper on international migration, published in July 2017. The pivotal proposal in your case is that the paper seeks to replace permanent-residence permits with temporary-residence visas. It’s not yet clear whether this will happen and what it will mean for permanent residents, but it was reported late last year that the new Bill on International Migration was expected to be available for comment this month.

In the meantime, with no stamps in their passports, permanent residents should carry their original permanent-residence permits when leaving and entering the country. If you do not have this, you can apply for one through VFS Global, which manages visa- and passport-related tasks for several governments, including SA.

There is a breakdown of the process at https://www.vfsglobal.com/dha/southafrica/proofresidence.html. You’ll fill out the online application (when

prompted, select “proof of permanent residence”), then schedule an appointment to submit the required documents at a VFS centre. The process will cost you R1,450.