A new Directive has been issued by The Department of Home Affairs.
This new directive confirms that with immediate effect, radiological reports are no longer required to support temporary residence visa applications and permanent residence permit applications, and criminal records checks are only required from countries where the applicant has resided for 12 months or longer, during the 5 years immediately preceding the date of the visa or permit application.
As a proud member of EuRA, I am excited by the inclusion of a Global representative to the EuRA Executive Group, and since 1993 I’ve been running a business providing mobility services across Africa and have been chipping away at including the voice from developing destinations into the industry.
Our footprint is Africa – the entire continent – where we’ve been overcoming challenges and providing award-winning services to the global mobility industry for nearly 30 years. Relocating between 1st world locations is almost administrative – tossing an African city into the mix brings exciting challenges that we’ve been dealing with daily and I believe this gives me a unique set of skills and experience EuRA’s new global focus would benefit from.
I’m honored to have been nominated for the position as the first global representative of the EuRA executive group – historically all positions have been held by European representatives.
Having served as the President of TIRA (The International Relocation Association) for a number of years, I understand the value that diversity brings to an organisation and I’ll make sure that the voice of the Global members is brought to the table, especially bringing diverse ideas and experiences into the discussions for the benefit of all EuRA members.
I believe that having the opportunity to bring in diverse and unique perspectives from outside the standard “gene-pool”, allows for a more robust and resilient outcome.
The ‘developing world’ has so much to bring to the table but seldom has the opportunity.
For example…
Do you know that the richest man ever to have lived (equalising to current values) is Emperor Mansa Musa from Mali in west Africa – he ruled in the 1300’s and traded in salt & gold and he is credited for funding and encouraging literature, education, architecture, and the arts.
His wealth was valued at $400bil – more than double the current richest man’s wealth.
It may be because I’m a child of Africa, being born in what is now Zimbabwe, but I feel deeply rooted in nature, and during COVID, I immersed myself in my greatest passion – sustainability.
I currently proudly sit on the sustainability advisory board for Worldwide ERC.
This allows me to be a vocal proponent of entrenching sustainability within the global mobility industry at all levels. And yes, I am fully aware that this is not a sprint but rather a marathon, however I believe it is important to bring these conversations into the board discussions.
During my time I have helped develop and facilitate a sustainability course which guides members of the mobility industry on incorporating sustainability across their businesses.
I have also experienced the benefits of how radical collaboration accelerates sustainability from a trip I took to Rwanda on 2021. You can view the full story on our YouTube page.
As Africans we’re facing challenges daily – from reliable electricity or safety & security issues , right through to educating expatriates on transitioning seamlessly into our environment – and I therefor believe that I would bring a unique skill-set to the board in this new global board position.
All full member’s of Eura have one vote for each of the 5 regions. They are:
Voting is between the 2nd and 9th of January 2023, and even if you are on holiday, please exercise your vote by clicking below:
If you would like to hear more on this, please don’t hesitate to contact me at rene@relocationafrica.com.
Wishing you all a great start to 2023.
Kind regards
René Stegmann
We live in a fast-changing world of technology and in the global mobility space our clients are looking for solutions that support their assignee population alongside the hand holding support of destination service providers like Relocation Africa. We have partnered with a technology partner that offers an intuitive, centralised platform offering real-time insights and host location information at the assignee’s finger tips. Moving away from emails back and forth and PDF documents. Having all this centralised improves efficiencies and streamlines communication between Global Mobility, HR, Assignee, and the provider. The tool is user friendly that liberates our teams from manual and repetitive data handling.
The tool is a partnership which means that the technology continues to evolve with the multitude of other clients who utilise the same technology but due to its customisable attributes to each country, city, client, and assignee’s profile it feels like a bespoke tool just designed us.
Relocating talent to all parts of the globe requires a new sense of providing solutions that allow 24/7 access online
– we cover that!
The technology solution brings an elevated user experience to its clients and their relocating employees, helping them to access information at their fingertips, whenever they want it, helping them to settle into their new location with less hassle and more efficiency.
The digital environment offers high-tech service through a mobile-friendly, digital friendly digital platform connecting the assignee, the internal account management team, and the client seamlessly.
It empowers the assignee to experience real-time insights into the status of each service.
The tool offers a single, organised solution to access essential host location information that is customised to the Country, City, CompanyCompany, and Assignee’s unique requirements such as city guides, tours, home searches, schooling requirements, and local knowledge and processes. It also safeguards all the communications and personal information in a secure and compliant environment.
With our expert guidance from a dedicated team both at the office and on the ground the support of the high-tech tool brings the collaboration together seamlessly allowing each contributor to monitor milestones throughout the entire delivery of services. It also provides for seamless communication.
The tool is available to assignees in Africa through Relocation Africa. We can offer services which include:
If you have assignees in other parts of the world there are other businesses who support this tool contact marketing@relocationafrica.com for more information.
The Department of Home Affairs has a huge backlog with regards to most temporary residence visa applications submitted in South Africa and many applications have been pending for more than six months. The Department of Home Affairs has not provided any reasons for the backlog, but we can only assume that it is a result of staff shortages, staff shuffling, new adjudication procedures, investigations, etc.
The Department of Home Affairs has issued a new Circular with concessions, described as follows.
All long term temporary residence visa holders, have an automatic extension until 31 March 2023, provided that they have a long term temporary residence visa application pending and their existing visa has subsequently expired. They are also allowed to travel out of South Africa with the visa application receipt, until 31 March 2023, without being penalized. However, in instances where one is not visa exempt, one would require a visa in order to return to South Africa.
The backlog continues to increase and no information is being offered, with regards to what measures will be implemented to alleviate same.