Licence Number 2007/01/0484

What does this mean? In order to give out Immigration Advice and consult with the public, by law you would need to be registered with the DHA. Our practitioners are qualified Immigration Specialists. Registration number 2007/01/0484

Why use our company to process your South Africa Visa?

The answer is simple. We are a new age, forward thinking Immigration Consultancy and we love to satisfy our clients. We have a burning passion for customer service and for South Africa Visas and Immigration

If you have ever thought about the prospect of leaving your home country for greener pastures, South Africa might be the place to consider.

Socially, politically and geographically, South Africa boasts an array of culturally diverse environments making it a pleasure to live in. The people are colourful, the economy is emerging and its a great place to raise a family or conduct business.

There are many visas one can apply for. From Life Partner, Retirement and Work Visas to Study, Visit and Volunteer Visas. Whatever you want to do in South Africa, there will be a visa that you can apply for.

Many foreigners have found themselves in a catch 22 situation when looking for work in South Africa.

An employer will ask the foreigner to see his/her south african work permit before they offer them a job. The foreigner will always need a work permit before they can get a job. How can this problem be solved?

To be honest, its a difficult one. The misconception at a corporate level leaves little to no room for negotiation when discussing employment at a company.

Our company works with employers to help them understand the Immigration Act, work permits as a whole and also the possibilities of working if one is a spouse of a South African citizen on a spousal visa.

Applying for a general work permit in South Africa can be difficult. There must be evidence that no South African can fill this position. The company you are going to work for must demonstrate that it has exhausted all measures to find a local.

With a spousal visa, all these conditions fall away. One just needs a job offer!

I am an Immigration Practitioner registered with the Dept of Home Affairs in South Africa. I have been involved in the industry for just over 7 years now and I have become accustomed to the shenanigans that go on within South African government departments as a whole and particularly Home Affairs.

Being firmly embedded in the system, you find yourself "playing the game" as a matter of survival despite what you really feel about the people you are woking with and the flawed processes that plague the industry.

One issue, however, continues to astound me. It seems strange to think that Home Affairs can possibly lose a foreigners application. An application that would determine this persons right to continue his/her stay in the country. This seems to be the general excuse when following up on ones application at a regional DHA office. Home Affairs staff are stating that applications have been "lost"!

Are they trained to say "Sorry sir, your file is lost" ? I am convinced that this is the case because so many staff members are using the same excuse. This is by no means a coincidence. The files are often recovered months later and the finalisation of the application is then expedited. Often applications are

"lost" and applicants are asked to resubmit a copy of the application so it can run through the system again and hopefully get approved. This happens sometimes 2 or 3 times over before an outcome!

The problem of the lost applications is understandable. We are purely inneficient when it comes to administration and the processes we follow and the systems that are being used are not condusive to quick outcomes and swift results. My major problem lies in the fact that Home Affairs staff are impulsively stating that an application is "lost" when in actual fact it is sitting in Pretoria amongst a pile of other applications waiting to be processed. Why say this? Say ANYTHING else but to state that "your application has been lost" is purely ridiculous, irresponsible and unprofessional. What are our visitors thinking and how are they feeling about their future stay in the country when they have just been told "your application has been lost".

Where are these applications being sent? Why are they "being lost" ? Why is Home Affairs saying they are "lost" and then miraculously finding them again? The Immigration Act states 30 days processing time for applications submitted locally. If an application isnt lost, which would be considered lucky, one can expect an outcome anytime between 1 and 4 months.

Ridiculous.

Written by Robbie Ragless - New World Immigration South Africa

www.nwisouthafrica.co.za

The Department of Home Affairs is going to focus on transforming its staff to build more caring and security-conscious employees, the department's Director Generalsaid on Tuesday.

Following the unqualified audit the department received last year - the first time since 1995 that it had achieved such an audit - the department is now pushing for a clean audit, he said.

Apleni was briefing media in Parliament following the department's appearance before the National Assembly's Committee on Home Affairs.

South Africa is very close to losing scarce skilled resources to other African countries as massive foreign direct investment projects in energy, mining, transport, telecommunications and water supply gets under way on the African continent, warned experts.

Sandra Burmeister, CEO of Landelanhi, Africa partner of global Amrop executive search group, said a substantial $150bn (R1.13 trillion) of projects were planned on the African continent over the next three years, and many countries were more attractive than South Africa in terms of their regulatory environment.

She said South Africa was a favoured hunting ground for skilled workers.

It has been announced that Immigration NZ is considering cancelling visa-free status for holders of SA passports, due to the ease of obtaining SA passports by fraudulent means.

This will make finding employment in New Zealand for South Africans a lot more difficult, as they would need to apply for a visitor visa.

Nigeria has accepted the apology tendered by the South African government over the deportation of 125 Nigerians over fake yellow fever vaccination card.

However, the country is seeking the outright waiver of the yellow fever card requested at South African airports as the country is free of the disease.