Andrew Stegmann

SOUTH AFRICA | Major Changes on Visa Validity, Transfers, Rectifications, and Appeals

What’s Changed?

Effective immediately, The South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has issued a new policy circular making significant changes to the validity period of all visas, the rules for visa transfers and rectifications, and the appeals process for rejected applications. Some of these changes represent significant departures from past practice and have immediate impact – particularly for current visa holders already in South Africa.

Visa Validities May Not Exceed Passport Validity

In a change of potentially immediate concern for companies, foreign employees, and their families, the DHA will no longer accept applications for the transfer of a visa if the applicant’s passport is already expired. Going forward, new visas will not be issued for a validity period exceeding the applicant’s passport expiration date. However, if a visa is issued with a validity that exceeds the passport’s validity, the DHA will now consider it as issued in error and withdraw the visa entirely.

As the rules already require that foreign nationals’ passports be valid for at least 30 days after the time of departure from South Africa, the maximum possible validity period for any visa is now the validity period of the passport minus 30 days. Under these new rules, if foreign nationals are in South Africa within 30 days of their passport expiring, their visa will be considered withdrawn or expired, and they will be liable for an overstay, resulting in a one-year entry bar.

In addition, foreign national visa holders currently outside of South Africa should take note that the previous practice of entering South Africa with two passports – the expired passport containing the valid visa, and a new passport without a visa – is no longer permitted. Therefore, they should renew their passport before applying for their visa if the expected visa validity period will extend beyond 30 days before their current passport expires.

New Restrictions for Transfer of Valid Visas

As visas cannot outlive the validity of the passport, the DHA has also issued new regulations regarding the transfer of visas to a new passport. Thus, the DHA will now only accept applications to transfer visas from an old passport to a new passport under one of the two following conditions: (1) the passport containing the valid visa is lost, stolen, or damaged, or (2) the passport containing the visa is full and there are no blank pages available for the holder to travel. Again, under these new rules, the visa cannot be transferred if the passport has expired. While there is no government fee, a VFS service fee of ZAR 1350 will be charged for all visa transfers.

Rectification of Visa Errors

The DHA will now only accept applications for visa rectifications under one of the following conditions:

  • The name of the applicant is spelled incorrectly or not captured correctly from the application form;
  • The visa category is captured incorrectly and is not the same as that applied for in the application;
  • The visa reference number is incorrect and does not correspond to the reference number given when the application was accepted; or
  • The visa issue date or expiry date do not correspond to the correct validity period for the visa type for which the holder applied.

For visas issued by South African overseas consular posts, rectification can only be made after receiving an email from the consular post confirming the visa’s authenticity. There are no government or VFS fee for applications for visa rectification.

Appeals of Rejected Applications

The DHA will now only accept appeals from decisions rejecting visa applications if submitted in-person within 10 business days at a VFS office after payment of a ZAR 1350 service fee. Acceptable grounds for appeal include:

  • Mistakes by the adjudicator;
  • The application was rejected based on the wrong category;
  • The adjudicator claimed that required documents were missing from the application, but the applicant believes all required documents were provided;
  • The application was rejected based on grounds the applicant believes to be wrongful; and
  • “Any other negative reason not mentioned above.”

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Andrew Stegmann

Malusi Gigaba: Hire At Least 60% South Africans

Cape Town – All businesses, not just those in the hospitality or construction sectors, were required to have a workforce of at least 60 percent South African citizens in their employ, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has clarified.

Gigaba said his department was preparing for a “mass inspection” of businesses countrywide, to ensure they complied.

“This has nothing to do with xenophobia, in fact xenophobic violence is what we want to prevent,” Gigaba said in an interview with the Cape Argus. “We must prioritise the employment of South Africans, and businesses across the board have to comply.”

Gigaba added: “The risk of not employing South Africans is that it endangers the lives of foreigners and the property of companies. If you look at the [xenophobic] violence that erupted in 2015, it started precisely because of a company at Isiphingo in Durban that employed non-South Africans, and South Africans attacked the company.”

He said the regulation was not new, but had been tightened to flush out companies that were flouting the law.

“What happened was that we changed a regulation, which in the past said that only a minimum of five South Africans needed to be employed by a company for it to obtain work visas.

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Andrew Stegmann

5 Top Workforce Trends for 2017

There is no doubt 2016 saw some dynamic change to how work is done, and things are set to evolve even more in 2017. Remote workers, the gig economy, the Internet of Things – all these workforce trends and developments will be influencing how employees are recruited and managed this year.

Here are five of the top workforce trends for 2017:

1. Agility will be paramount
If 2016 was the year flexible working arrangements started to become normalized, 2017 is the year they’re really going to take off. The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated named the need for agility as one of the top workplace trends of the new year. With political and economic upheavals happening around the world and labor laws going through transformation, organizations and their HR departments will have to be quick on their feet as well as flexible to accommodate these changes to prevent their bottom line taking a hit or their employee engagement and productivity suffering.

2. Data will lead to more informed management decisions
Advancements in big data and the Internet of Things mean that employers will have more information at their fingertips to make decisions in 2017 than ever before. These insights will be particularly helpful for managing a remote workforce with employees dotted around the globe, as IBM noted. The company gave the example of easily accessible, real-time traffic and weather data which can be used by organizations to better plan meetings and conferences and improve scheduling for a more productive mobile workforce.

3. Virtual reality will be used in recruitment 
Virtual reality is already being used in video games – and it will also be used in recruitment and training. IDC estimated that worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality market will increase from $5.2 billion in 2016 to upward of $162 billion in 2020, according to Dynasource. The technology can be used to not only develop a more exciting recruitment process, as companies like Deloitte and Google have done, but could also be used to build a stronger, more dynamic brand connection with job applicants and remote workers overseas.

4. Traditional benefits will make a comeback

Everyone’s heard of how Silicon Valley companies boast perks like free fruit, ping pong tables and nap stations. But experts are anticipating that 2017 will be the year traditional benefits make a comeback. Researchers at Glassdoor found that these trendy perks don’t increase employee satisfaction as much as traditional ones like health insurance, Fast Company reported. 

5. Remote and flexible work becomes even more popular
Though nontraditional working arrangements received a lot of attention in 2016, remote working is only set to become even more prevalent. EnterpriseAppsTech estimates that there will be a record number of organizations permitting flexible work arrangements in 2017, accounting for more than 50 percent of companies. More than 70 percent of companies are anticipated to offer flexible working options in 2020. The site attributes a large part of this shift to an influx of mobile tech-savvy Generation Z millennials expected to join the workforce in the coming year.

Source

Andrew Stegmann

About our team: Rene Stegmann, Director, MBA, MIM, GMS

Thesis on Hurdles and Costs Relating to Expats in Africa (2000); qualified as a Global Mobility Specialist (GMS).Rene-Stegman-Profile15

Rene has been running Relocation Africa since and has delivered a diverse portfolio of programs and services regarding migration to the African continent. Relocation Africa’s services now include Research (surveys) and International Payroll/payment management services for African countries. Rene also provides HR consultation services to Corporates investing into Africa. As a SARA member, Rene contributes to the local remuneration industry as well as infusing the ERC with some African exposure.  Relocation Africa is a proud member of TIRA and she was elected Vice President of the association (2016).  Her company holds many prestigious awards and Rene was recognized for her valuable contribution to the MI Group’s Worldwide Partner Network International Advisory Council (2014/’15).  Rene and her family live in Cape Town where she and her husband, Andrew, work together.   Her undying love for what she does can be seen in every aspect of how Relocation Africa conducts business.