Immigration Act South Africa – The Commencement Date Is Out
On May 23, 2014 / Leave a comment
Over the past months the immigration industry has been waiting in anticipation for the Department of Home Affairs to implement its new immigration framework.
Although change is necessary for a number of reasons (refer to our article Immigration Act, South Africa 2014 – expected changes) the processes which the Department of Home Affairs chose to follow many consider to be flawed.
The proposed immigration regulations are inconsistent and in some cases not constitutional. Not enough time was provided for public comment and not enough planning seems to have gone into training Home Affairs’ officials and preparing the public for these changes (refer our article Increase in Department of Home Affairs Rejections).
All stakeholders within the industry, barring the Department of Home Affairs it seems, agree that the revised laws need further work to improve the immigration landscape in order to have the desired effect of promoting the economy by inviting foreign expertise to develop the skills of local labour, but at the same time protecting the South African workforce.
The initial implementation date of 1st April came and went, while Home Affairs kept quiet. Initiate Immigration has now received the latest and final version of the new immigration regulations. Although signed only on the 16th May, the new immigration act was published yesterday 22nd May, and the date of implementation of the new law is set for 26th May.
Our suspicion has been confirmed that the Department of Home Affairs will implement the new law without sufficient notice. An official statement by the Department of Home Affairs, released this morning (23 May 2014) has now confirmed that the new immigration law will be implemented on 26 May 2014. This sudden move by Home Affairs will have a significant impact on a number of visa applications which have not been submitted yet.
It was understood that after the public submissions the Department of Home Affairs started revising some parts of the proposed new immigration laws. Once we were able to familiarise ourselves with the new and final immigration law which has been out since last night, we will be able to report if this is true and report on the changes in detail.
Due to the lack of notice, it has thus been virtually impossible to prepare clients and their visa applications in terms of the new immigration laws. This is made more difficult by the fact that some structures proposed in the new regulations have not been made public. The new critical skills list, for example, has not been published; the new requirement from the Department of Labour for General Work Visas have not been made clear; new investment amounts for Business Visas or Retired Visas have not been communicated to the public; Corporate Visa requirements remain counter-intuitive.
Although Initiate Immigration has informed and updated all clients on a regular basis as well as the public through its blog posts, press releases, newsletters and website, the reality is that nobody in the industry, including the Department of Home Affairs, is 100% ready for these changes.
Consequently, come 26 May 2014 we will all face a new chapter together. However, some of the themes (corruption, incompetence, inconsistency, lack of transparency, and placing political agendas above economic considerations) will remain the same.
Initiate Immigration has been preparing for the changes in the immigration law for months, and our staff is well trained on the new legislature. As soon as the doors at the Department of Home Affairs open on the morning of 26 May we will know if the old law is still applicable or if the new immigration Act has in fact been rolled out at Home Affair offices.
We understand that the coming weeks and months could become stressful. My team and I will continue to fully support you throughout the changes that await us all. We will advise you and confirm your options, always having your best interest at heart.
There will undoubtedly be times when the news we give or the suggestion we provide will not be pleasant. The next few months will thus be a time of great change, and companies, applicants and immigration specialists must be prepared to adapt. Immigration to South Africa will not be as easy as it was before, but with our team assisting you there is no reason why it should not be as successful.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know and we will gladly address them together. Please feel free to follow us on social media for ongoing updates: Facebook | Google + | Twitter | LinkedIn
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