Immigration Act 2014 Under Review
On November 12, 2015 / Leave a comment
South Africa quite suddenly introduced the new Immigration Act last year after a very short public hearing phase. Now, more than a year later its clear: Industry and immigration experts should have been involved in the first place to point out concerns before implementing the law. A comparison between June 2014 and June 2015 showed that, with the exception of France, the number of tourists decreased for all the other nine leading overseas countries. China had the largest decrease of 28.4% – from 5 823 tourists in June 2014 to 4 167 in June (SouthAfrica.info)
But luckily its not all gloom and doom. There is in fact talk about relaxing some of the immigration laws especially the ones directly impacting on South Africa’s tourism industry. The announcement was made jointly on Friday, 23 October by the Tourism Ministry and Jeff Radebe, minister in the Presidency for planning, monitoring and evaluation.
Let’s have a look at which immigration regulations are due to change in the next 3 months to a year:
Unabridged birth certificate – Currently any child – South African or not – under the age of 18 travelling in and out of South Africa needs to hold an unabridged birh certificate.
Besides getting a new name, the unabridged birth certificate will in the future only be applicable to foreign travellers travelling in and out of South Africa. South African kids will need to have their parents’ identification and citizenship details printed in their passports. School children going on holidays overseas with the school need their parents identification in their passports as well as a confirmation letter from the school principal confirming the school tour.
For international kids the proposed changes are as follows: Countries in which visas are required to visit South Africa on holiday still need to provide an original birth certificate. Those documents can be handed in during the visa application process.
Children from visa-exempt countries will be strongly advised to bring with them proof of the relation and consent from the absent parents or guardians.
Biometric Information – Currently and since October 2014, the Immigration Act required visitors to apply for visas in person at South African embassies. This is because biometric information is required. The proposed changes allow visitors to South Africa with no South African embassy to post the application or apply through travel agents and do the biometric tests at the airport (once the system is set up).
Long term multiple entry visa – To make business trips easier and attract investors there is also talk about a visa allowing multiple entries for a period of 3 months. Plans around making things easier for investors also involves granting a certain category of frequent travellers (business and academics) from Africa a 10 year multiple entry visitor’s visa.
New visa facilitation centres – Two new visa facilitation centres soon to be opened in Durban and Port Elizabeth. Another one has been recently opened in Sandton.
Visa facilitation centres to be opened in Zimbabwe, United Arab Emirates and Botswana.
Visitors with valid visas – Interestingly, proposed changes also include privileges for foreigners with valid visas in their passports from countries like the UK, USA and Canada. The idea is that foreigners with such visas had to go through stringent checks before visiting these countries, so they should be issued a visa on arrival.
No changes are expected with regards to the life partner or spouse visa or any of the work visa categories.
Please note, none of these changes have come into effect yet. According to Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni: “The law still remains. People are coming to South Africa every day and they are still bringing their unabridged birth certificates. That will only change once a certain system has been implemented.”
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