January 2016 - Relocation Africa

Extended Visitor Visa – South African Immigration

The new long-term Port of Entry Visa may be issued valid for any period up to two or three years to allow for multiple stays of up to 90 consecutive days at a time or any lesser period as determined by the issuing South African Mission, at its discretion. This implies that frequent business visitors will now only be required to apply for a visas once every two or three years, as the case may be.

This does, however, not apply to first-time visa applicants. A foreign national must first establish themselves as a bona-fide traveller (by complying with the conditions of the first visa issued to them). In addition, South African Missions have been instructed to check the foreign national’s passport to determine whether they are, in fact, a frequent traveller (by checking for visas for other countries). The extended visa will not be issued in all instances. This visa will also not provide for short-term work activities for which an authorization in terms of Section 11(2) of the Immigration Act is required. For more information please contact tracy@relocationafrica.com or call us on 021 7634240.

Uncategorized

10 things you need to know about registering as an overseas voter

UK nationals who have been registered to vote in the UK within the last 15 years can register as an overseas elector, to be able to vote in UK Parliamentary General Elections, UK-wide referendums, and European Parliamentary elections.

At the 2015 General Election there were almost 106,000 overseas electors on the register, three times the number that were on the register ahead of the previous general election in 2010 and the highest number of overseas voters registered ever!

Overseas Voter Registration Day is on Thursday 4 February 2016 – take five minutes to visit the online registration site, and let others know too. This is a day of activity to encourage voter registration amongst UK nationals living overseas, led by the UK Electoral Commission and supported by expat community hubs and embassies and consulates from around the world.

You can apply to register to vote in five minutes at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

With the date of the referendum as yet unknown, it’s best to register sooner rather than later so you can be sure you’re registered in time. It is important to remember if you are not registered you can’t vote in the referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union when it takes place.

You will need to know your National Insurance number and date of birth, and have your passport to hand if you have one. If you don’t have a National Insurance number you can still register, but you may have to supply more information to show who you are.

If you can’t or don’t want to register online, you can still download and post back paper forms. But remember to return your completed form as far in advance of the deadline as possible. The actual deadlines for registering to vote and applying for an absent vote will be set once the date of the referendum is known.

You have to sign an annual declaration once you are registered to renew your registration every year. So if you were registered to vote for the 2015 General Election you will have to renew your registration with your local Electoral Registration Officer in the UK or register again.

You can choose how you wish to vote. You can vote by post, by proxy (voting by appointing someone you trust to vote on your behalf), or even in person at your polling station.

Lots of UK citizens who live overseas might not know that they are still eligible to vote. Pass the message on that your vote matters! #passthemessageon #expat #yourvotematters

Namibia

Namibia’s president has made his ministers’ performance agreements public If you haven’t already fallen in love with Nam’s no-nonsense ‘new’ president, here’s one more reason you should… he’s making all his ministers’ performance expectations public for all Namibians to see. By Gerhard Jacobs – January 25, 2016

As part of president Geingob’s relentless efforts to root out corruption and create a culture of transparent governance in Namibia; his prime minister recently announced that anyone will be able to have a look at all cabinet minsters’ performance agreements at his office.

Last year we reported that in his first few weeks of being president, Geingob told his parliament that it certainly won’t be business as usual and that anyone who wanted to serve in his government would have to choose between serving the people and serving themselves. Geingob warned his government that no-one will be allowed to have any businesses on the side and that he’d come down on corrupt officials like a tonne of bricks.

Now it looks like he really is taking them to task. Every one of Geingob’s ministers have committed themselves to performance based outcomes that the Namibian public can now hold them to; these include:

Eradication of poverty
Industrialisation
Reduction of income disparities and
Employment creation

Permanent secretaries are expected to submit quarterly reports on the progress of their respective ministry and the relevant ministers will then send their progress reports to Geingob a month before the year ends.

Geingob will then hold an evaluation session with each minister after two months.

According to The Namibian, some of the agreements are a bit vague, but most of themclearly set out what is expected of the ministers:

Minister of environmental affairs Pohamba Shifeta is committed to training 20 people each year in a selected field in tourism and to create 199 jobs in his attempt to eradicate poverty.
Finance minister Calle Schlettwein must improve foreign reserves with an annual target of three months’ import cover.
Land reform minister Utoni Nuyoma expects to have acquired 188 000 hectares of land for resettlement in his bid for distribution of land.
Gender minister Doreen Sioka will have around 37 000 children enrolled at early childhood development centres in an attempt to improve opportunities for better living standards of children.

These agreements were signed off by Geingob with Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa as witness, last year October.

Imagine if we could do this here in South Africa… just imagine.

Image Credits:Getty

http://www.thesouthafrican.com/namibias-president-has-made-his-ministers-performance-agreements-public/

South Africa

Southern Africa lags in global visa openness – report 21 Jan 2016

Southern Africa’s visa openness registered 29%, compared with a global average of 39%, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Visa Openness Report. The figure indicates the percentage of the world’s population that can travel to a destination without obtaining a traditional visa prior to departure. At present, 71% of the world’s population require a visa prior to travelling to Southern Africa.

The UNWTO report stated that emerging economies continued to be more open compared with advanced economies: South-East Asia recorded an openness score of 51%; East Africa, 48%; and the Caribbean and Oceania recorded 43%. The most restrictive sub-regions include Central Africa at 5%; North Africa at 16%; and North America 15%. The Americas recorded an openness score of 37%, while Europe recorded 24%.

David Frost, SATSA CEO, said South Africa should improve its visa regime and look to develop reciprocal relationships with countries. “South Africa must also credit travellers who have been through more rigorous visa processes, such as applying for and receiving a US or Schengen visa, and allow those travellers in more easily.”

Ross Kennedy, Chief Executive at Africa Albida Tourism, and Onne Vegter, Director at Wild Wings Safaris, said there was huge potential for African countries to advance travel facilitation as a means to promote tourism. Vegter said South Africa especially could benefit greatly from visa openness. He argues that an open visa policy would allow more economic growth and job creation as a result of increased tourism from key source markets.

UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, argued that security challenges should not be a deterrent to advancing visa facilitation. “On the contrary, enhancing security and facilitating tourism travel should always go hand in hand.” Vegter echoed this sentiment. “Even though security is important and illegal immigration remains a valid concern, a rigid or unnecessarily harsh visa policy does far more harm than good,” he said.

Frost agreed and said visas were an impediment to tourists and the more South Africa could do to reduce this, the better. He added that South Africa could learn from India. Even though the country had fallen victim to terror attacks, India had opened its borders by implementing an eVisa programme and was creating visas on arrival for about 32 countries.

Other Southern African countries appear to be making strides towards visa openness. Kennedy said the arrival of the KAZA UniVisa, which could later become an SADC UniVisa, would create positive, user-friendly engagement with travellers to Southern Africa.

“In Zimbabwe, we are aware that government is reviewing its visa regime, whereby it is hoped that a number of countries requiring a visa on arrival will be reviewed to ‘no visa required’ and further countries requiring a visa prior to travel will be moved to ‘visas on arrival’,” said Kennedy.

– See more at: http://www.tourismupdate.co.za/Home/Detail?articleId=105640#sthash.0jPm8soN.tMwZbfqU.dpuf