The department of home affairs has granted relief to applicants of long-term visas or waivers who are awaiting outcomes of their applications by extending the blanket concession to December 31.
The measure is an attempt by the department to address the effect of the backlog in processing waiver and visa applications on foreign nationals. The backlog, which runs into the tens of thousands and extends back to 2016, is due to a lack of personnel in the department and the long processes involved in processing an application.
This extension is a further extension that was issued in September, to March 23.
The decision means that long-term visa or waiver applicants are permitted to legally remain in the country until December 31, pending the finalisation of their applications. Those that are travelling on passports issued by countries that are not visa exempted, are required to apply for a visitor’s visa to return to SA until their applications have been finalised.
This concession is only applicable to applicants who have submitted an application via Visa Facilitation Services (VFS) before or on March 31.
All visitors on short-term visas whose validity was issued for less than 90 days are excluded from the concession, and are required to depart before or on the date of expiry of the validity period of their visas.
The decision relates to applicants whose waiver application outcomes are still pending. These are long-term visa holders (work, business, study, relative and accompany spouse) who have applied for a waiver. The extension will allow the department time to process the applications and for applications to collect their outcomes and submit requests for appropriate visa renewals.
In terms of the extension, applicants whose visa applications are still pending and fall within the backlog will not be allowed to engage in any activity other than what their visa conditions provide for.
For those who wish to abandon their visa or waiver applications and depart from SA when able to do so, they will be allowed to exit at a port of entry before the end of December without being declared undesirable.
“Non-visa-exempted applicants are required to apply for a visitors visa, which will allow them entry into the country,” the department’s director-general, Tommy Makhode, noted in a circular to the department of international relations and co-operation, visa facilitation centres and consular services.
The circular notes that short-term visa holders who visa validity was issued for less than 90 days and who had not received their visa extension outcome by March 31, would be required to make the necessary arrangements to depart on or before April 30 to avoid being declared undesirable.
Earlier in March, departmental officials said they were giving attention to clearing the backlog of applications for permanent and temporary residence permits that dated back to 2016, and which caused immense frustration to people wanting to settle in the country.
But it said it expected to have cleared the backlog only by 15 months’ time.
Acting director of immigration services Yusuf Simons told members of parliament’s home affairs committee that with the use of additional personnel, the backlog would be eliminated by June 2024.
Delays harm investment
Organised business has repeatedly raised concern about the delays in processing visas, which it says harms investment and economic growth.
Deputy home affairs minister Njabulo Nzuza noted that 70% of the backlog of applications for permanent and temporary residence visas were by spouses and family members, which did not affect investment and the economy.
The total backlog for permanent residence permits in the system amounted to 49,529, with 40,340 of those at end-May 2022 being outstanding for more than eight months. Of these, 3,524 date back to 2016, 5,187 to 2017, 7,303 to 2018, 10,621 to 2019, 2,968 to 2020, three to 2021 (when the world was in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic) and 10,759 to 2022.
With regard to temporary residence permits, the backlog of applications totals 75,814, with 23,988 having been received within eight weeks as at March 1.
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