New Immigration rules cause controversy

Nod

Nod

Honorary Master
Joined
Jul 22, 2005
Messages
10,968
Reaction score
2,715
Location
Darling
Source: http://www.fin24.com/Business/New-bill-may-discourage-immigration-20101006
Proposed amendments to the Immigration Act will have far-reaching consequences for foreigners wanting to invest and work here, as well as for the domestic immigration industry.

Foreigners will now personally have to visit offices of the department of home affairs or a foreign embassy to apply for permits to enter the country.
Click to expand...
In terms of the amendments no-one could in future apply on behalf of an applicant.

Leon Isaacson, chairperson of the Forum of Immigration Practitioners (Fipsa), said serious problems already existed in terms of the advice provided by staff at embassy offices.

Many of the offices, he said, were in an extremely deplorable state. To expect someone to stand in queues in those crowded and filthy centres would certainly discourage anyone from coming to the country – whether a student, chief executive or investor.

The amendments also threatened almost 20 000 jobs in the immigration industry.

The reason was the scrapping of Section 46 of the Immigration Act – which regulates the industry – in the draft amendment act on immigration.

Isaacson said the scrapping of Section 46 meant that any Tom, Dick and Harry might in future give advice on immigration.

To date the act has determined that only an attorney, advocate or immigration practitioner is permitted to represent any other person in terms of the processes and procedures of the Immigration Act.

The draft act was published on Friday, leading to large-scale unhappiness among practitioners and their clients.

MaXuba Immigration chief executive Jaco van der Merwe said there was considerable concern over the amendments.

Most companies in South Africa, he said, made use of a practitioner or attorney to submit their applications on behalf of their senior employees who did not have the time or experience to submit their applications themselves.

It has also been proposed that the status or conditions of a permit cannot be altered without the approval of the minister.

A study permit, for example, cannot be converted into a work permit without the minister's approval.

Where on earth would the minister find the time to handle these applications, asked Van der Merwe.

He explained that if a foreign engineering student had completed his studies in South Africa he would first have to leave the country to apply for a work permit in another country.

The same would, for instance, apply to a chief executive with a short-term work permit to set up business operations in the country.

Should he wish to convert it into an ordinary work permit he would first have to get the minister's approval or leave the country to apply for an ordinary permit outside South Africa.
Click to expand...
 
Why the hell would anyone want to immigrate to SA anyway? Unless you're looking for a safe haven to conduct crime from, there are not many worse places you can choose to end up.
 
So people who wanted to move to SA the legal way (i.e. law-abiding people) are discouraged .... but those people who just cross the borders from neighbouring countries in the dead of night are welcome ? :(
 
Unfortunately this will only discourage the immigrants that can actualy benefit SA's economy. The poor immigrants that come to South Africa for Assylum / handouts / crime will still come to SA - they are used to standing in queues. SA's slide to anarchy will continue.
 
blunomore said:
So people who wanted to move to SA the legal way (i.e. law-abiding people) are discouraged .... but those people who just cross the borders from neighbouring countries in the dead of night are welcome ? :(
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. You've got to wonder what the reasoning behind this is.
 
blunomore said:
So people who wanted to move to SA the legal way (i.e. law-abiding people) are discouraged .... but those people who just cross the borders from neighbouring countries in the dead of night are welcome ? :(
Click to expand...

Sucks.
 
The next thing the government needs to do is to start imposing reciprocal visa restrictions on countries that require visas for South African citizens. It hardly seems fair that citizens of the USA, Australia, UK, EU, etc are allowed to visit our country without a visa and yet we are required to obtain a visa to go to theirs.

I was really disappointed that the government didn't go through with its threat to impose visa restrictions on British tourists when the UK started saying it was going to impose visas on South African citizens.
 
deweyzeph said:
The next thing the government needs to do is to start imposing reciprocal visa restrictions on countries that require visas for South African citizens. It hardly seems fair that citizens of the USA, Australia, UK, EU, etc are allowed to visit our country without a visa and yet we are required to obtain a visa to go to theirs.

I was really disappointed that the government didn't go through with its threat to impose visa restrictions on British tourists when the UK started saying it was going to impose visas on South African citizens.
Click to expand...

Why?
Its our passport thats so easy to illegally obtain, not really the case with any of the foreign passports you mentioned, those restrictions werent introduced out of spite
 
alloytoo said:
Why would it be?
Click to expand...

Because plenty of people are really happy living in SA? As much as the people bitching and moaning get all the attention, a lot of people like SA just fine. Sure it could be improved, but day-to-day life, for me at least, is better than in would be in many of the countries people typically emigrate to.
 
nivek said:
Why?
Its our passport thats so easy to illegally obtain, not really the case with any of the foreign passports you mentioned, those restrictions werent introduced out of spite
Click to expand...

That's really not the problem of South African citizens, that's the government's problem to sort out. I don't see why South African citizens should have to suffer through the humiliation and expense of having to apply for visas to travel to other countries, when the citizens of those countries can waltz in here visa free. They should have to suffer just like South Africans have to. That's fair. Ideally nobody should have to apply for visas.
 
deweyzeph said:
That's really not the problem of South African citizens, that's the government's problem to sort out. I don't see why South African citizens should have to suffer through the humiliation and expense of having to apply for visas to travel to other countries, when the citizens of those countries can waltz in here visa free. They should have to suffer just like South Africans have to. That's fair. Ideally nobody should have to apply for visas.
Click to expand...

we voted for them

if SA were to impose those restrictions it would be out of spite and not due to security reasons, which is the reason visas exist, and which is why other countries have restricted us, you can go buy a SA passport today, try do that in any other country
 
The_Assimilator said:
Why the hell would anyone want to immigrate to SA anyway? Unless you're looking for a safe haven to conduct crime from, there are not many worse places you can choose to end up.
Click to expand...

South Africa is better off than a lot of countries. My wife and I have the option to live and work anywhere. My wife is qualified to practice medicine in the Philippines and in the USA. We chose SA because of the high quality of life we get in East London. Now compared to my wifes country... SA rocks. She comes from a real 3rd world country. South Africans who have not traveled have this warped perception that SA is the pits and 3rd world. We are way closer to first world than 3rd world.

I understand parts of SA are crap holes, but there are massive parts of SA that just rock :D

Right now our current method of handling immigration sucks. My wife has been married to me and living here for months... and she still does not have a relatives permit. We are still waiting on Pretoria to get off their fat asses and do some work :( Its sickly ironic as SA needs more doctors, but the red tape is slowing us down massively.
 
This is the way it's supposed to be, represent yourself when you apply for your visa at the Embassy.
I really really cannot see a single problem with this.
 
deweyzeph said:
That's really not the problem of South African citizens, that's the government's problem to sort out.
Click to expand...

It IS our problem - the ANC did a sterling job of running Home Affairs into the ground with incompetency and corruption hence the requirement for visas to enter first world countries.

deweyzeph said:
I don't see why South African citizens should have to suffer through the humiliation and expense of having to apply for visas to travel to other countries, when the citizens of those countries can waltz in here visa free.
Click to expand...

UK Immigration WARNED home affairs numerous times that too many sheep are coming in with fake passports - did our esteemed home affairs to anything? Nada - hence we're back to the "Privileges" imposed during Apartheid: Instead of applying and carrying a "pass" you now have a "visa" - very ironic... :whistle:
 
deweyzeph said:
That's really not the problem of South African citizens, that's the government's problem to sort out. I don't see why South African citizens should have to suffer through the humiliation and expense of having to apply for visas to travel to other countries, when the citizens of those countries can waltz in here visa free. They should have to suffer just like South Africans have to. That's fair. Ideally nobody should have to apply for visas.
Click to expand...

This is typical squater mentality - If I'm not allowed to have something nobody else should have it - Similar to burning down libraries because your not happy with service delivery effectively destroying the exact thing that you are complaining you don't have.
Instead of putting pressure on our goverment to be more effictive you now want to deny other people out of spite.
As far as South African citizens. Aren't the SAA flight attendant Drug Mules also SA Citizens - one of the reasons why England require SA citizens to have Visas is because of all the drugs entering UK from SA.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X