Entering SA as permanent resident

Milano said:
I would just carry the original. My wife's TR permit is integrated within her passport so there will be no difference in risk carrying her PR once issued.
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Your wifes lucky as they don't do that anymore. Now the passport has no proof of permanent residence issued.
 
I take all my old UK passports with PR stamped in them as well as my PR letter
 
This seems so unnecessary and backwards.

I have a driver-license style PR card, which is valid for 2 years with biometrics. It's more valuable to me than my green mamba, especially when I enter EU borders.

I think the laminated story that Moose does could work well as it seems to give it more permanence.

eu.jpg
 
I have a signed letter issued by Home Affairs dated 1999 that shows my Permanent Residence Permit was issued in 1961. I take this letter, plus a certified copy, with me when I travel. I also have a SA ID book. I have lived in SA for 67 years, have employed 32 people and built a trade school in Khayelitsha free of charge.

Last time, on returning, I was asked to step aside at the immigration and told that this letter was no longer valid and I needed to get a sticker to go into the passport. The HA officer wanted to confiscate the letter but let me hand him the certified copy

I applied via VFS and paid them the R1800 fee. There is a 18 page questionnaire which includes questions about your mother and father. My father (who I have no idea who he was) died in 1946 and my mother in 1948, when I was 1 years old, in England. This did not go down well at the interview and I was told it is illegal to withhold material information

At the interview, the clerk dismissed the letter from HA as being of no consequence and I needed to apply afresh. They demanded a whole host of documents, financial statements, radiological reports, proof of address, assets and so on.

10 months later I am still waiting and an inquiry in the VFS website with the ref number I took to the interview in September 2018 shows "no record".

I have had to postpone two planned overseas trips as I bothered I will be denied return when I get back

Is this something that an immigration lawyer could attend to?
 
^

Wow, that is truly kak! But what is more surprising is that they wanted you to get a sticker in your passport - DHA stopped doing this in 2015 due to fraud, and now require you to travel with the original PR certificate.

I can recommend Eisenberg & Associates, I am doing my citizenship through them, and they are efficient.

Yours sounds more like an administrative issue than anything else, so hopefully they can sort it out quickly.

Good luck!
 
Thanks, I will give them a go. I have spoken to a few other immigration lawyers and they seemed clueless

Both HA and VFS are unhelpful
 
I'm sure Eisenberg will be able to help, they are the ones who took DHA to court over the 10-year naturalisation wait time and WON.

And more recently they also won against the need for spouses to leave ZA to apply for work permits.
 
chrisc said:
I have a signed letter issued by Home Affairs dated 1999 that shows my Permanent Residence Permit was issued in 1961. I take this letter, plus a certified copy, with me when I travel. I also have a SA ID book. I have lived in SA for 67 years, have employed 32 people and built a trade school in Khayelitsha free of charge.

Last time, on returning, I was asked to step aside at the immigration and told that this letter was no longer valid and I needed to get a sticker to go into the passport. The HA officer wanted to confiscate the letter but let me hand him the certified copy

I applied via VFS and paid them the R1800 fee. There is a 18 page questionnaire which includes questions about your mother and father. My father (who I have no idea who he was) died in 1946 and my mother in 1948, when I was 1 years old, in England. This did not go down well at the interview and I was told it is illegal to withhold material information

At the interview, the clerk dismissed the letter from HA as being of no consequence and I needed to apply afresh. They demanded a whole host of documents, financial statements, radiological reports, proof of address, assets and so on.

10 months later I am still waiting and an inquiry in the VFS website with the ref number I took to the interview in September 2018 shows "no record".

I have had to postpone two planned overseas trips as I bothered I will be denied return when I get back

Is this something that an immigration lawyer could attend to?
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So u are reapplying for a PR that u are suppose to already have ?
Anyway, turnaround time for a new PR is now 2 years. Atleast that's what the vfs website said when I checked it few months back.
 
joker08 said:
So u are reapplying for a PR that u are suppose to already have ?
Anyway, turnaround time for a new PR is now 2 years. Atleast that's what the vfs website said when I checked it few months back.
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Turnaround times from DHA mean nothing: I've been waiting for a PR verification since October 18, and my brother has been waiting for his PR application for over 2.5 years now...
 
chrisc said:
I have a signed letter issued by Home Affairs dated 1999 that shows my Permanent Residence Permit was issued in 1961. I take this letter, plus a certified copy, with me when I travel. I also have a SA ID book. I have lived in SA for 67 years, have employed 32 people and built a trade school in Khayelitsha free of charge.

Last time, on returning, I was asked to step aside at the immigration and told that this letter was no longer valid and I needed to get a sticker to go into the passport. The HA officer wanted to confiscate the letter but let me hand him the certified copy

I applied via VFS and paid them the R1800 fee. There is a 18 page questionnaire which includes questions about your mother and father. My father (who I have no idea who he was) died in 1946 and my mother in 1948, when I was 1 years old, in England. This did not go down well at the interview and I was told it is illegal to withhold material information

At the interview, the clerk dismissed the letter from HA as being of no consequence and I needed to apply afresh. They demanded a whole host of documents, financial statements, radiological reports, proof of address, assets and so on.

10 months later I am still waiting and an inquiry in the VFS website with the ref number I took to the interview in September 2018 shows "no record".

I have had to postpone two planned overseas trips as I bothered I will be denied return when I get back

Is this something that an immigration lawyer could attend to?
Click to expand...

Good grief, that’s a k@k story. Is the issue that the PR is too old or don’t they believe the letter issued in 1999?

They really should have plenty of other things to do, but they do love their petty bureaucracy.
 
Spizz said:
Good grief, that’s a k@k story. Is the issue that the PR is too old or don’t they believe the letter issued in 1999?

They really should have plenty of other things to do, but they do love their petty bureaucracy.
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Bureaucracy is a compliment for them. This is "Red-tapism".
They just want money under the table.
 
Naks said:
Turnaround times from DHA mean nothing: I've been waiting for a PR verification since October 18, and my brother has been waiting for his PR application for over 2.5 years now...
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pay the right guy and you will get it by next week.
 
Naks said:
Turnaround times from DHA mean nothing: I've been waiting for a PR verification since October 18, and my brother has been waiting for his PR application for over 2.5 years now...
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under what category was the application made ?
 
Eisenberg told me there is no need for them to get involved, since there is no dispute. It was suggested that I need to be more patient

On calling the 0124253000 number, different officials contradict themselves and said I should send an email to some fellow who deals with complaints

This email bounced
 
I used to have this Green-coloured permit, but it got confiscated ("lost") when I was coming back from Israel in 2016. There were several people on the plane whose English was almost non-existent and the Immigration desks were short-staffed. It took over two hours for this queue of people to move forward.

I had gone into the "SA Citizen / Permanent Residents" queue and the officer had a fit when he saw my British Passport without an (SA) exit stamp on it (it was stolen in Rome and I got a new one from the British Consulate in Tel-Aviv). He would not listen and when I showed my letter and papers, threw them on the floor. By this time we were in a separate room having a shouting match and I asked for his supervisor. This took a further 45 mins and this lady came in, took one look at what I had and told me I must leave. On the plane coming from Jhb to Cape Town I realised the green permit was missing

At HA in Wynberg I reported this, plus the name of the HA fellow in Jhb. Nothing came of it

Several Jewish friends who travel to Israel and back say this is par for the course. Either complete apathy or extreme aggressiveness and woe betides you cannot answer questions thrown at you in English
 
Naks said:
but a certified copy is only valid for 6 months?
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Who says?

I tried a certified copy this time and it worked so I'm going to stick with that from now on. I hope to be gone from SA within 12 months anyway so if I have to get another stamped in 6 months so be it.
 
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