New Immigration Rules Bit Last Night

TEXTILE GUY

TEXTILE GUY

Honorary Master
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
16,878
Reaction score
16,895
Location
Florida USA
Any unaccompanied minor shall produce to the immigration officer:


(a) Proof of consent from one or both his or her parents or legal guardian, as the case may be, in the form of a letter or affidavit for the child to travel into or depart from the Republic: Provided that in the case where one parent provides proof of consent, that parent must also provide a copy of a court order issued to him or her in terms of which he or she has been granted full parental responsibilities and rights in respect of the child;

(b) A letter from the person which is to receive the child in the Republic, containing his or her residential address and contact details where the child will be residing;

(c) A copy of the identity document or valid passport and visa or permanent residence permit of the person who is to receive the child in the Republic; and

(d) The contact details of the parents or legal guardian of the child.
Click to expand...

So, I have an 17 year Egyptian student comming to SA. Unfortunately he will be deported.

Last night, there was obviously no body in charge of immigaration - at Durban airport.

The visitor arrived, having visited the SA consulate in Cairo prior to travelling, knowing that the rules may be a problem.

He has a passport, consent letter, an invitation letter from SA, a copy of his fathers passport.

Seemingly, we have missed something, but immigartaion cant tell us exactly what it is. It was the birth certificate firstly. But after some discussion this was dismissed.
It finally emmerged, they were un happy with the consent letter and that an organisation is recieving him rather than a person. I should add, that business and university invitation letters are not new, and have been - and remain the norm world wide.

So, my next step is a personal invitation and an e-mailed copy of a second consent letter.

The kid is now stuck. May not buy data, has no where to sleep other than a bench, while his father and us, take on the SA authorities to find out exactly what they need. (This despite us getting all our ducks in a row here and in Cairo, and the embassy in Cairo was satisfied that everything was in order).
 
Fun times!

It is probably just incompetence on the part of the officials in Durban,
 
So, I have now printed out the rules ex website.

Have copies of all documents, except ''new'' consent form.

Will ''try'' to get a police fellow to stamp the docs .... (not looking forward to that).

And will try again to get the dude into SA - assuming he still wants to do his internship here.

Subsequently learnt the kid spent the night in some sort of holding cell.

SA extending its warmest welcome :(
 
TEXTILE GUY said:
Snip.
Click to expand...

Good luck , i have dealt with these people extensively as i had a Chinese wife .
On a few occasions i could have executed a few of them quite happily while i looked in their eyes .
 
Last edited:
Sigh. I know a gent who took his son, and son's best friend on a trip to Namibia last month. While trying pout Quad biking on some dunes the friend rolled it, ended up with some broken ribs and also needed surgery. The doctors told them he was transportable, so the gent arrange to drive back to SA with him and book him into a Hospital in SA.

At the Border Post - our the staffwas under the misconception that the new Visa rules were allready in effect, and refused to let them - all three South African citizens - BACK into the country - because he did not have the relevant documentation. This was end of May, btw.
It took numerous calls, and finally a direct call from a Senior Home Affairs official - to get the officials to allow them in.
 
Sigh. I know a gent who took his son, and son's best friend on a trip to Namibia last month. While trying pout Quad biking on some dunes the friend rolled it, ended up with some broken ribs and also needed surgery. The doctors told them he was transportable, so the gent arrange to drive back to SA with him and book him into a Hospital in SA.

At the Border Post - our the staffwas under the misconception that the new Visa rules were allready in effect, and refused to let them - all three South African citizens - BACK into the country - because he did not have the relevant documentation. This was end of May, btw.
It took numerous calls, and finally a direct call from a Senior Home Affairs official - to get the officials to allow them in.
 
Sinbad said:
But it's absolutely unacceptable for the consulate to have given the kid the incorrect information.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. Sadly, it is a reasonable law. Asking our current crop of government officials to police them is a bit like giving a machinegun to a chimpanzee.
 
So, the update

It turns out the issue was the consent form. It was not in the format that Immigration was used to. Its a document called Annex C?

We got that filled out and that was acceptable.

Then - we couldnt get immigration to release the fellow, because he was handed over to the airline. The airline only had a rep available at 12H00.
Spoke to the rep, who spoke to immigration, and the guy was allowed thru passport control.

Apparently, he was one of 15 people due to be deported for paperwork issues due to the new rules - on one flight! I assume the rest were families with kids.

What a gemors.
 
Tourism is already on the decline, my wife has issues with DHA. I give up already dealing with DHA unable to process things correctly.
 
Aqua_lung said:
Tourism is already on the decline, my wife has issues with DHA. I give up already dealing with DHA unable to process things correctly.
Click to expand...

Well, the hotel owner, where this guy is booked into, has asked us to relate our story, because apparently the tourism industry is fighting tooth and nail to get this law scrapped.

They contend that, as in this case, a passport can only be issued to a citizen of a country who generally would have had to offer some credentials to get that passport.
The additional layers of security are a redundancy in this case ..... and many others.

The funny thing is that had this guy flown to Zim, and come in as a refugee, he would have been afforded a warmer welcome from a rights perspective.

Crazy.
 
TEXTILE GUY said:
Well, the hotel owner, where this guy is booked into, has asked us to relate our story, because apparently the tourism industry is fighting tooth and nail to get this law scrapped.

They contend that, as in this case, a passport can only be issued to a citizen of a country who generally would have had to offer some credentials to get that passport.
The additional layers of security are a redundancy in this case ..... and many others.

The funny thing is that had this guy flown to Zim, and come in as a refugee, he would have been afforded a warmer welcome from a rights perspective.

Crazy.
Click to expand...

My wife works at Cape Town International, retail store. She has seen sales decline after the new regulations putting staff under pressure. This country needs to get its priorities in order, but we're already in the scrapper.
 
Some guy with his teenage son was just turned away at the gate because he didn't have a consent letter from the mother.
 
And people still think this law is wonderful ....... keep believing that idiots.
 
DHA has always been a pain in the arse when trying to get foreigners into SA legally.
 
My niece came to stay from the USA for 8 weeks. She is 17 and she had all the necessary paper work. But they didn't even look at it. Only her passport.
 
LazyLion said:
My niece came to stay from the USA for 8 weeks. She is 17 and she had all the necessary paper work. But they didn't even look at it. Only her passport.
Click to expand...

possibly she look like adult that how they think she not child and look at passsport and let her in?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X