Home affairs on skid row
LEGAL ACTION: DELAYS OF MORE THAN 6 YEARS TO GET RESIDENCE PERMITS
➜ Immigration agents, clients expect the department to settle out of court.
No fewer than 180 would-be immigrants and their immigration services providers have hauled the department of home affairs to court for delays of six years and more in attempting to secure permanent residence permits.
The court documents say the applicants have several million US dollars to invest and possess critical skills that are sorely needed in the SA economy.
Some have been waiting more than six years for permanent residence as home affairs “has all but collapsed”, according to court papers. The delays in processing permanent residence applications is costing the economy R10-R15 billion a year.
Deposing for the applicants, Leon Isaacson, director of Global Migration Services, said he had been an immigration practitioner since 2007, at which time permanent residence applications were handled within six months.
This was because regional home affairs offices handled them. Then came a change. In 2010, then home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma centralised permanent residence applications in the Pretoria national office, prolonging the process from six months to three years.
In 2015, VFS Global was brought on board and the application process was prolonged from three to six years. “The inordinate delay in processing permanent residence applications has led to a decision, being made by the department, not to accept any further permanent
R10-15bn
annual cost to economy of failure to process residence permits.
residence applications,” deposed Isaacson.
“This decision effectively deletes Section 25 of the Immigration Act, which provides for permanent residents permits. It has blocked millions of US dollars, together with essential skills, from being invested into the SA economy.”
The department has all but collapsed, added Isaacson. “Not only is it not receiving any more permanent residents applications, and not capable of processing the existing permanent residence applications it has received, it has decided to make its job even more impossible by reviewing every permanent residence permit it issued from 2004,” said Isaacson. “An impossible undertaking.”
As a result of these delays, the department has failed to deliver on its legislative mandate and the applicants are asking the court to intervene on their behalf. Isaacson added that the Covid-19 pandemic has also aggravated delays in the issuing of temporary residence visas inside South Africa for up to six months.
The permanent residence permit backlog has been building for a while, and Global Migration Services, one of several immigration services providers bringing the case on behalf of the would-be
immigrants, said it felt compelled to take the matter to court on behalf of 180 applicants who have been waiting for up to six years for their applications.
“It is highly prejudicial for long-term residents to be without permanent residence, as banking facilities, education, employment and related issues are dependent on this status,” said Isaacson.
He added that home affairs was likely to settle rather than go to court, having indicated it did not want more litigation.
There also appears to be a growing cleave between the office of the presidency, which favours opening SA’s economy to skilled immigrants, and the department of labour, which appears less than enthusiastic about hiring foreigners. Isaacson suggested that home affairs was caught in the middle of this rift and paralysed into inaction.