South Africans travelling to certain European Union (EU) countries may now face stricter requirements when applying for a Schengen visa.
This is according to immigration lawyer Gary Eisenberg who was speaking to Cape Talk’s Kieno Kammies after a number of listeners complained of extra requirements when applying for a Schengen visa to visit Spain.
Some of ways that these requirements have been tightened include an increased turn-a-round time, while certain documents need authorisation by the Spanish police, Eisenberg said.
The immigration expert said that additional requirements have been introduced after BLS International Services replaced VFS Visa & Permit Facilitation Centre as a new visa facilitation company for the country.
He said that BLS has its own proprietary standards when it came to applications, meaning that Spain had tightened its requirements when it comes to offering South Africans a Schengen visa.
When asked how other countries within the Schengen block were affected, Eisenberg said that there were no specific changes but rather an overall tightening of documentation from ‘high-risk’ countries such as South Africa.
“I think countries are becoming far more careful on documentation emanating from countries like South Africa which are seen as high risk for fraudulent documentation, and this is why Britain has imposed visa restrictions on South Africa, ” he said.
“We see on a daily basis foreigners living in South Africa with fraudulent visas and fraudulent identity documents, and this seems to be common place.
“So governments I think, are united in their drive to screen documents more carefully,” he said.
The 26 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Visa requirements
While the Department of Home Affairs confirmed, at the end of January 2018, that visa-free travel to the EU was still being discussed for South Africa, the majority of European Union countries will not allow South Africans to enter without a Schengen or similar visa.
According to Arton Capital’s latest Passport Index, South Africans can currently apply for visa-free travel to 95 countries.
However, only Ireland forms part of mainland Europe, while several other countries such as Russia, Kosovo, Georgia and Armenia are given status as being part of “Eurasia”.
You can find the complete of list of countries for which South Africans do not require a visa, or only require a visa on entry here.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, and Remuneration needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Source: BusinessTech. Image source: [1].
Tourism Minister Puts Visas Back on the Agenda
Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom is to meet with Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba to put South Africa’s unresolved problematic visa regime back on the national agenda.
Speaking at a Wesgro briefing in Cape Town today (Tuesday), he said dealing with the visa issues would be top priority in coming months. He already had a date for “a robust engagement” with Home Affairs and he was “quite hopeful that we will be able to address some of the visa issues”.
“We think the situation has changed, because we have a President who really sees the importance of tourism and who is going to be supportive.” He also suggested that Minister Gigaba might have gained a different perspective during his tenure as Finance Minister.
“While being the Minister of Finance, he was able to look at the economy very seriously, knowing very well that unless we do all sorts of smart things, we are not going to get economic growth. So I think things have changed somewhat. He has already indicated a real interest in expanding online visa applications and also (to increase) more visas on arrivals. So that will all form part of the discussions.”
Minister Hanekom criticised as “national stupidity” and “retrogressive” the Department of Home Affairs’ decision in December 2016 to impose reciprocal visas on New Zealand visitors. This was done during Minister Gigaba’s first tenure as Minister of Home Affairs. It was in response to New Zealand’s announcement in October 2016 to impose visas on South Africans travelling to that country.
“The notion of reciprocal visa requirements is unwise to say the least. It’s not very smart to retaliate.” He cited as an example that Russian arrivals to South Africa had increased by more than 50% last year after Russia was granted a visa waiver to South Africa, whereas arrivals from New Zealand declined by 17% during the same time “for no other reason than the visa requirement”.
Minister Hanekom said he would also again table South Africa’s requirement for unabridged birth certificates, which he said, was “costing South Africa heavily”. “Even the little bit of advance that we have made in China and India by not requiring people to go in person to collect their visas, is not enough. We need to do a lot more. It is still too difficult to get visas for South Africa. We also need to pay attention to the three-month limitation on visas and we need to pay attention to the long (immigration) queues at airports.”
He said addressing all these issues would make a huge difference in bringing more tourism to the country.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, and Remuneration needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Source: Hilka Birns, Tourism Update.
Expect Stricter Requirements When Applying for a Schengen Visa
South Africans travelling to certain European Union (EU) countries may now face stricter requirements when applying for a Schengen visa.
This is according to immigration lawyer Gary Eisenberg who was speaking to Cape Talk’s Kieno Kammies after a number of listeners complained of extra requirements when applying for a Schengen visa to visit Spain.
Some of ways that these requirements have been tightened include an increased turn-a-round time, while certain documents need authorisation by the Spanish police, Eisenberg said.
The immigration expert said that additional requirements have been introduced after BLS International Services replaced VFS Visa & Permit Facilitation Centre as a new visa facilitation company for the country.
He said that BLS has its own proprietary standards when it came to applications, meaning that Spain had tightened its requirements when it comes to offering South Africans a Schengen visa.
When asked how other countries within the Schengen block were affected, Eisenberg said that there were no specific changes but rather an overall tightening of documentation from ‘high-risk’ countries such as South Africa.
“I think countries are becoming far more careful on documentation emanating from countries like South Africa which are seen as high risk for fraudulent documentation, and this is why Britain has imposed visa restrictions on South Africa, ” he said.
“We see on a daily basis foreigners living in South Africa with fraudulent visas and fraudulent identity documents, and this seems to be common place.
“So governments I think, are united in their drive to screen documents more carefully,” he said.
The 26 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Visa requirements
While the Department of Home Affairs confirmed, at the end of January 2018, that visa-free travel to the EU was still being discussed for South Africa, the majority of European Union countries will not allow South Africans to enter without a Schengen or similar visa.
According to Arton Capital’s latest Passport Index, South Africans can currently apply for visa-free travel to 95 countries.
However, only Ireland forms part of mainland Europe, while several other countries such as Russia, Kosovo, Georgia and Armenia are given status as being part of “Eurasia”.
You can find the complete of list of countries for which South Africans do not require a visa, or only require a visa on entry here.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, and Remuneration needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Source: BusinessTech. Image source: [1].
Major Crackdown on Corrupt SA Government Officials
Police Minister Bheki Cele says nine officials from the Departments of Home Affairs and Correctional Services are expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Cele says the officials were arrested in Soweto and Johannesburg on Friday on charges of corruption after they released thirty-six parolees without following due process.
The minister says the officials allegedly did so for financial gain.
“The officials were allegedly involved in illegally releasing at least 36 parolees, all of whom were women, over a period of more than a year without following proper procedures for financial gain. The foreign parolees, most of whom were drug smugglers or drug mules, had to be released and deported to their country of origin through Lindela Deportation Centre. Instead they were sent directly to the Johannesburg Department of Home Affairs regional office for an unprocedural and illegal early release,” says Cele. “Some remained in South Africa, of which six of them have been rearrested, and it emerged that these six had no intention of leaving South Africa.”
The rest left the country of their own accord.
Cele says the parolees hail from Guyana in South America, Congo, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho.
Cele says since the start of the investigation in 2016, at least twenty-six corrupt officials were identified.
“However after extensive consultations with the Directorate for Public Prosecutions, it was decided that 11 officials should be indicted given the level of evidence against them,” says Cele. “Nine of the suspects were arrested and detained in Johannesburg central. The 10th suspect is still being sought and the 11th suspect died in a motor vehicle collision last month.”
Cele says the investigation revealed that the officials were either paid in cash or the money was transferred into their bank accounts by families or friends of the parolees.
“Officials would demand bribes of the amount of R3000 for those from African countries and R6000 for those from outside Africa, like South American countries.”
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, and Remuneration needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Source: Neo Motloung, Jacaranda FM. Image source: [1].
South African eVisa Roll-out Set To Commence
The roll-out programme for eVisas in South Africa will commence in the last quarter of the next financial year, by March 31, 2019, according to a written statement by the Department of Home Affairs, to Shadow Minister of Tourism, James Vos.
The statement indicated that “the roll-out programme will be gradual starting with Phase 1, Release 1, which entails applications for temporary residence visas, adjudication of temporary residence visas, applications for waivers, notifications to the applicant via email and biometrics captured at the Mission. The ePermit will be piloted at one Mission or local office in the last quarter of the next financial year by 31st March 2019. This is to ensure system stability. Once stable, more offices locally and abroad can then be gradually brought online.”
Vos says he had been calling for an eVisa system to facilitate easier access for tourists to South Africa, as well as the scrapping of the unabridged birth certificate requirement, which have both hampered tourist access to the country and seen a resultant decline in international tourist arrivals. “South Africa’s tourism industry is still recovering from the disastrous visa regulations debacle which, according to the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association, resulted in an estimated R7.5bn (€506.5m) loss to the tourism economy and a decrease of about 600 000 tourists.”
With the rand being at its lowest point in 14 years, South Africa should be thriving as a tourist destination for foreign travellers, says Vos. “But in spite of this, the government’s visa regulations continue to make it difficult for tourists to select South Africa as a destination due its cumbersome visa application processes.”
An eVisa system could mean a greater tourist influx, as well as local job creation. Vos concludes: “We need to streamline tourist facilitation to our country to make it easier for travellers to select South Africa as a country of choice when it comes to travel and trade. Ultimately government should cut the red tape and roll out the red carpet.”
The eVisa system will operate as follows, according to the written statement by the Department of Home Affairs:
“eVisa introduces online capture of visa and permit applications and capturing of applicant’s biometrics in South Africa and abroad. An application will be captured and submitted online together with the required supporting documents that will be scanned and attached to the application. The applicant will then present himself/herself before a DHA Official for biometric enrolment and verification of the submitted supporting documents is conducted at this stage”.
“The application form together with supporting documents and biometrics are then electronically routed to DHA Head Office in Pretoria for adjudication. The applicant is electronically notified of the outcome via email as well as via the application portal. For an approved visa/permit, a secure QR-Code is generated for print on the notification notice/letter sent to the applicant. This QR-Code contains the approved visa/permit detail and is maintained and managed by DHA at a secure web-storage facility”.
“The same QR-Code will be scanned to view and validate the issued virtual visa/permit upon arrival of the applicant within the Republic. The same QR-Code is also pre-loaded into Biometric Movement Control System upon approval of the application and the virtual visa/permit (eVisa/ePermit) will be further validated at the Port of Entry upon arrival of the applicant”.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, and Remuneration needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Source: Kerry Hayes, Tourism Update. Image source: [1].