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South Africa Working Visas

South Africa seeks highly skilled individuals to live and work in SA.

SA Migration Services will provide professional assistance to arrange your work visa for you if you qualify.

Work Visas are regulated in terms of Section 19, Regulation 18 and items 18 (1), 19(2), 20, 21 and 22, of Schedule A.

There are three common types of Work Visas:

• General Work Visa
• Inter Company Transfer Visa
• Critical Skills Visa

General Work Visa

Under the General Work Visa there are very strict requirements. The South African government, although trying to promote work and trade in South Africa, recognize the need to give South Africans the chance to obtain employment ahead of any foreigner.

You will have to prove that you are the only person who can fill that position and that no other South African can play that role. This is done by placing an advert in a national newspaper advertising the position.

A Department of Labour report would need to be obtained.

You will also need to have a job offer/contract from your future employer.

The most important part of the process is skills assessment by SAQA (South African Qualifications Authority) in SA which evaluates your formal qualifications and compares them to a SA qualification. This process is mandatory and for this we would need your academic transcripts and award diplomas. Note under the regulations provision is made for the recognition of work experience in the absence of formal qualifications and this therefore makes provision recognition of prior work experience (RPL).

This is a paper based system which merely compares the foreign qualifications and arrives at an equivalent qualification in SA, and if qualified in SA then no SAQA needed.

Next your employer has to prove that you are the only person that can fill the position and no other South African can fill that role. This is done by placing an advert in a national newspaper advertising the position.

Please note the work Visa is issued in the name of the employer so the person is tied to the employer. If they change the job they will require a new work Visa.

There is some good news for people who are qualified through work experience only and they can qualify if they don’t require formal qualifications, ie SAQA.

Inter Company Transfer Visa

An intra-company transfer work Visa may be issued by the Department to a foreigner who is employed abroad by a business operating in the Republic in a branch, subsidiary or affiliate relationship and who by reason of his or her employment is required to conduct work in the Republic.

An important factor is that the applicant has to have been employed with the company abroad for a period of not less than 6 months.

The Intra company transfer is not designed to be a long term visa. The idea is to bring in foreign workers employed by the company abroad with a branch or subsidiary branch here in South Africa; they work or conduct training for four years, and then return home.

This Visa does not require the hassle of proving the company could not find suitable applicants and it does not require the hassle of verifying an applicant’s formal qualifications. It is based purely on employment. If you are a company that needs to transfer in foreign employers, please contact us and we will make this go as smoothly as possible.

It is important to note that this category of work Visa cannot be granted for more than four (4) years and this type of Visa is not extendable.

Critical Skills Work Visa

The Critical Skills Visa South Africa is for skilled workers whose occupation is on the Critical Skills Visa List for South Africa. This list reflects the occupations that are in demand in South Africa.

The newly published "Skills or qualifications determined to be critical for the Republic of South Africa in relation to an application for a Critical Skills Visa or Permanent Residence Visa"

This category of work visa may be issued to an applicant who falls within a specific professional category or specific occupational class determined by the Minister by notice in the Government Gazette. This is done after consultation with the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Trade and Industry.

If an applicant falls within one of the professional categories listed on the critical skills list and also has the appropriate post qualification working experience in that profession then such applicant may qualify to apply for this category of work Visa.

The applicant also needs to where applicable register with the relevant South African professional accreditation body regulating that industry as stipulated by Minister of Home Affairs. Such body must also confirm the applicant’s skills, qualifications and working experience.

Furthermore, such applicant’s qualifications need to be evaluated relevant to a South African level. An applicant for a Critical Skills Visa may enter South Africa on such visa without having secured a job offer first. It is, however, required of the applicant to confirm employment with the Department of Home Affairs within a period of one (1) year upon arrival in South Africa, failing which, the Visa would automatically lapse.

The Critical Skills Work Visa is tied to an individual and not to an employer so under this Visa a person can leave from one employer to the next without obtaining a new work Visa.

New Home Affairs system to be introduced in South Africa – what you should know

28 May 2022 – Businesstech

 

Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced a complete revamp of his department’s systems in a move to cut down on long queues.

Presenting his departmental budget speech on Tuesday (24 May), Motsoaledi said that much of the work and resources are focused on the ‘original sin’ of his department – system downtime.

“It is painful and generates a lot of anger to visit a Home Affairs office very early in the morning and just stand there and wait for hours on end because all systems are down. It is very frustrating to say the least.

“Many members of the public simply believe Department of Home Affairs computers don’t work, and they keep asking us, why don’t you just fix your computers or even buy new once? We can’t blame them. They don’t know that the problem of systems that continuously down go beyond just fixing a computer.”

To address these and other issues, Motsoaledi said his department would be making the following changes:

Revamping the old network

The State Information Technology Agency will spend R400 million revamping its entire network, with the process expected to be concluded in the third quarter of this financial year. This is expected to significantly increase bandwidth at Home affairs offices.

The agency has also doubled its internet capacity and introduced three failovers located in three cities:  Tshwane, Cape Town and eThekwini.  This will ensure that if any of the network is down, there will be two to support Home Affairs’ services, Motsoaledi said.

Bringing in engineers from the banks

To address system downtime, Motsoaledi said Home Affairs has hired eight IT engineers from a leading bank to assist in stabilising the network as well as with the installation of some key IT infrastructure.

“All eight IT specialists have been through the vetting process and have completed it. They will soon join us. We believe that the partnerships with the banks will rapidly reduce the skills deficit and assist the Department to improve and maintain system uptime.”

While banks are prepared to offer some of the Home Affairs services at some of their branches, Motsoaledi noted that they are worried about the reputational damage that system downtime would cause them.

“Remember that for them to offer Home Affairs services, they need to verify the details of the client by using our system.  If there is downtime the banks also get stuck.

“We believe that as soon as their own engineers have helped us to increase system uptime, the banks will cheerfully open their doors for Home Affairs services.”

Branches in malls

The introduction of Home Affairs outlets inside shopping malls will provide ‘immediate relief’ in areas which already have high footfall, said Motsoaledi.

“Operating Home Affairs offices at malls will obviate the problem of queuing in the sun or rain. Malls will also provide convenient and safe parking for clients. We shall start with Menlyn mall in Pretoria, Cresta mall and Southgate mall in Johannesburg, the Pavillion in eThekwini and Tygervalley mall in Cape Town.

“Since the malls still have to move some tenants around to make way for Home Affairs, we will install our equipment there around September this year. We shall start with the Menlyn Mall in Pretoria and then roll out to the rest.”

Branch Appointment Booking System (BABS)

Motsoaledi also confirmed that his department was expanding its new online booking system called BABS (Branch Appointment Booking System).

The system, which is presently being piloted in 24 of the busiest offices,  will be rolling out this system to more outlets in the coming months, he said.

“The pilot started in December last year at the Byron and Akasia offices in a hybrid model allowing booked and walk-in clients. A total of 33,463 people have used the system between December 2021 and 13 May 2022.

“Apart from making sure that there are no queues in the Home Affairs offices where it is implemented, the BABS system will help eradicate corruption by making sure that those who practice the obnoxious behaviour of selling queue spaces have no clients because clients book straight online and come at the appropriate time, and hence they have no need to buy space from anybody in the queue.”

Generators 

Apart from downtime due to SITA networks and Home Affairs, load shedding has added another burden on the shoulders of Home Affairs.

“We have installed generators in all our 197 modernised offices but our remaining 215 non-modernised offices will be out of operation for the duration of load shedding in a particular area, further increasing the queues,” he said.

Digitisation of paper records

Motsoaledi confirmed his department plans to digitise 300 million paper records from as far back as 1895.

“Once done, digitisation will relieve the long queues because it makes it unnecessary for people who need services such as rectification and name changes not to come to Home Affairs and queue many times as they are doing now.”

www.samigration.com

Bill embassies for treatment of foreign nationals at Gauteng hospitals, says DA

IOL – 28 May 2022

The DA in Gauteng has asked government to bill embassies and high commissions for their citizens who are treated at public health institutions in Gauteng.

Pretoria – Foreign embassies in South Africa must be billed for the treatment patients from their countries in Gauteng province, the DA said on Monday.

“This is a practical way to deal with the issue of foreign patients overburdening Gauteng hospitals that has recently been highlighted by a video of pregnant women sleeping on the floor at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg,” said DA’s Gauteng health spokesperson, Jack Bloom.

“Some years ago the Gauteng health department claimed that they were going to bill foreign embassies but nothing seems to have come from this.”

The discourse around overcrowding at public health facilities, and the influx of foreign nationals to the government-run institutions was reignited over the weekend by a trending video of pregnant women lying on the floor at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg.

Amid the furore caused by the video, City of Joburg’s MMC for Health and Social Development, Ashley Sauls, said the hospital is burdened by undocumented migrants, who often live far away.

The DA highlighted that the legal position is that pregnant women who are in labour cannot be refused access to care as it is an emergency condition.

“While most foreign patients live in South Africa, there are many cases where pregnant women from surrounding countries come to a South African hospital specifically to give birth,” said Bloom.

“The proportion of foreign births at some Gauteng hospitals is more than 25% of total births, so it’s a significant burden on our public health system.”

Bloom, a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, said he would be asking questions on whether embassies are being billed for foreign patients, “and if not, why not”.

Earlier, the SA Medical Association (Sama) decried the treatment of patients at the Rahima Moosa hospital, following the trending video.

On Monday, Sama chairperson Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa said hospitals in South Africa cannot be expected to treat patients based on nationalities.

“Government cannot expect clinicians to be chasing away foreign nationals. It is not our domain. All we do as clinicians, if we see a patient who needs medical attention in a hospital premises, we just offer that service without asking any questions. We are not the Department of Home Affairs,” Mzukwa told IOL.

“We do not deal with immigration or whatever. We do not even want to know whether a patient is an asylum-seeker or whatever. Once you are in hospital premises and you are sick, all we do is to give you medical attention.”

Mzukwa said the issues of immigration and the influx of undocumented immigrants clogging the system at public health facilities is not for hospitals to fix, but for the government to engage the nations where the people are coming from.

He said even though lying on the floor may not put the unborn children in danger, the situation seen at the Rahima Moosa hospital was “inhumane”.

“Nobody deserves to be treated in that inhumane way. We always encourage patients to complain if such things happen to them. Nobody wants their wife or sister or other relative to be treated like that. Government needs to change the way it treats people, not to come with excuses and say that is because the system is flooded by foreigners. That is not a new thing,” said Mzukwa.

“Once people are in an institution, they need to be treated with dignity, and that is all we are saying.”

www.samigration.com

Life Partner Visa

Life Partner visa is issued to someone in a long term relationship.

This type of South Africa life partner visa is available to people in either heterosexual or same-sex relationships and can apply for a life partner temporary residence visa or a permanent residence depending on the length of the relationship in question.

An application for temporary residence life partner visa requires that the partners are in a proven relationship for 2 years. Foreigners who are life partners of South African citizens or permanent resident holders may apply for permanent residence if they have been together for 5 years or more in terms the Immigration Act.

To obtain permanent residence, you would have to have been living with your partner for more than 5 years. This came about with the new regulations.

The life partner visa is very similar to the spousal visa but accommodates same sex partnerships. You will have to prove financial and emotional support and may be called upon to be interviewed by the department.

SA Migration Intl will guide you through the entire process and make sure that your application is fully compliant with the immigration law to ensure a successful outcome. Once your application has been submitted we ensure you will be able to track the progress of said application either directly via VFS or via our followup processes via our application tracking system and be kept fully up to date with the progress of your application.

Once we confirm that you will qualify for the visa we will ensure you have a successful application.

If you need a life partner or spouse visa for South Africa please contact us now!