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.

Download the list / government gazette here (Updated: 03 June 2014)

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Allowing asylum seekers the right to work after six months is common-sense

The House – 23 April 2022

Today, the Nationality and Borders Bill will return to the House of Commons, where MPs will vote yes or no on amendments added in the House of Lords.

One of these amendments was tabled by me and supported by peers across the Lords. If passed, it will give people seeking asylum the right to work after they have waited six months or more for a decision on their claim.

It’s a common-sense change. It would be a boost for the Treasury, recruiters and not least asylum seekers themselves, who often wait years for a decision on their claim while battling poverty, isolation and mental ill health.

This 'pull factor' argument is simply not supported by the facts

The government maintains a ban on employment for asylum seekers – introduced by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2002 – because it says that giving people the right to work will encourage more people to come to the UK.

But this “pull factor” argument is simply not supported by the facts.

Evidence for it remains unclear, unshared or – as many suspect – non-existent. A challenge to minsters from the government’s own Migration Advisory Committee to show proof of a link between the employment ban and a pull factor has so far gone unanswered.

Publicly available and up-to-date figures show no correlation. If there was, asylum migration would look very different to how it does.

Certainly, 28,300 refugees wouldn’t have risked their lives crossing the Channel in boats in 2021 to come to the UK where they cannot work. They would have headed to Sweden, which received just 10,000 applications for refugee status, where they can work after one day.

The 62,000 people who claimed asylum in Spain last year, where they must wait six months to work, would have simply hopped across the border to Portugal, whose 1,350 asylum applicants can get a job after one week.

And the people who applied for asylum in France (103,000) where they must wait six months to work, could have just stopped in – or headed to – Italy (44,000), where they can work after two months.

That some countries with stricter labour access often receive more asylum seekers – while in many cases fewer refugees go to countries with more relaxed rules around work – shows the lack of any link between application numbers and employment rules.

What the overwhelming evidence does point to as “pull factors” are those things that make almost all of us feel safe: our families, our friends, our communities, language, a sense of shared history, a country with a stable government and a respect for human rights.

The government’s argument, however unfounded, is powerful. At a time when Channel crossings dominate headlines, the “pull factor” plays on fears that any perceived loosening of policy around asylum will lead to all the world’s refugees arriving in the UK.

We have an environment in which ministers are so nervous of appearing soft that even a widely beneficial, evidence-based, common-sense policy such as the right to work is rejected because it might make Britain a magnet. Politically, the government feels it’s far less risky to be wrong.

But this is wrong – and while the negative and costly effects of this ban may not seem obvious, they are real.

The ban costs the taxpayer an estimated £210m a year, it leaves asylum seekers in poverty and institutionally dependent, it leaves businesses up and down the country without extra hands at a time of record job vacancies, it takes a terrible toll on people’s mental health and hobbles any attempt at integration and future employment success.

To alleviate ministers’ fears around increased numbers of asylum seekers arriving in the UK, baked in to the amendment is a clause that after three years the government can investigate whether the right to work has encouraged more applications.

Good policy making must be based on robust evidence and be transparent so it can be properly and comprehensively scrutinised.

I hope MPs voting on the right to work amendment are guided by the evidence to bring into law a common-sense change that will benefit not only refugees, but our economy and society

www.samigration.com

 

S

Study Visa

South Africa is emerging as one of the world's most exciting study destinations. This is demonstrated in the rapidly increasing number of international students. Because of international exchange rates, South Africa offers real educational value for money.

A Study Visa may be issued to a foreigner intending to study in South Africa for longer than three months. For the purpose of the Act, study shall mean study at a primary, secondary or tertiary educational institution or any bona fide institution of learning, including but not limited to professional training, cultural, technical, research, vocational, sportive, language and entertainment institutions of learning.

SA Migration Services will professionally help you to get the necessary study Visas to study in South Africa.

South Africa's entire educational system, from primary schools to tertiary institution, is in the process of being redesigned for the post-apartheid future. The result of this process will be a better, more efficient educational infrastructure. South Africa is a nation at the cutting edge of change. This is why it is one of the world's most exciting places to be a student.

You will need a letter of acceptance from the college/uni you will be attending.

Students are allowed to work for 20 hours a week in a casual position.

I will resign once all foreign ‘rascals’ are locked up and keys thrown away: Aaron Motsoaledi

Times Live – 23 April 2022

SA’s ubuntu being abused by individuals who are pariahs in their own countries, says home affairs minister

Earlier this month home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi was brutally honest about he felt about illegal foreign immigrants in the country.
Image: Screengrab

A video of home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi launching a stinging attack on illegal foreign nationals is spreading on the internet.

The occasion was his address at an ANC regional conference in the Eastern Cape where the minister pledged that “unlike other coward ANC leaders”, his views on the scourge of undocumented foreign nationals running amok in the country will never be censored.

Motsoaledi said SA is the only sovereign country in the world where it is open season for “rascals” who have committed serious crimes in their countries of birth. With him as political boss at the department of home affairs, this would come to an end with sting operations he has planned to arrest all illegal foreigners, with the priority those engaged in criminality.

The minister called on ANC branch members to sponsor a firm policy position by the governing party on immigration at the party’s national policy conference in June.

Motsoaledi suggested the time for diplomacy was long gone as SA’s ubuntu was being abused by individuals who are pariahs in their own countries.

“One of the things that is contemporary in SA which is a big elephant in the room, and we are trying to run away from that elephant by keeping quiet, is the issue of immigration,” said Motsoaledi.

“Why is the ANC keeping quiet and believing [this problem] will go away? It is not going to go away.

“We must not be scared or embarrassed to mention the truth. I am in home affairs. I know what I am talking about.”

The minister said it cannot be that foreign nationals were engaged in all sorts of crimes in SA with impunity while hiding behind the label “xenophobic” when South Africans call them out for their criminal acts.

“Something is going wrong in our continent and SA is on the receiving end. When you talk, they take a big word and throw it at you and South Africans blink and run away. There is a word called xenophobia. Every time you try to show something is wrong, ‘xenophobia’,” he said.

We are the only country that accepts rascals

Aaron Motsoaledi, minister of home affairs 

“We are the only country that accepts rascals. Even the UN is angry with us that SA has a tendency, because of something called democracy, to accept all the rascals of the world.

“When people do wrong things in their countries, they run here. There is that guy from [Czech Republic] named Radovan Krejcir. He ran all the way to come and do nonsense here.”

Motsoaledi said the UN was closing in on a Rwandan national who sought refuge in SA after committing crimes against humanity in his own country.

He said the country should be ashamed of itself for having granted the wanted Rwandan criminal refugee status.

“And we must keep on keeping quiet for fear about the word xenophobia. This must change, comrades. We can no longer allow our country to be the stomping ground for all the rascals and low-lives of the world running here and using our democracy.

“That is not the meaning of democracy. We are not going to allow that.”

The minister said he was aware his hardline stance on illegal foreigners has created enemies who are calling for his head, most of whom are the people he is pursuing.

He gave a message to all undocumented foreign nationals in SA: “I am coming for them.

“When all of them are in jail, locked in and the keys have been thrown away, then I will step down — only then.”

Motsoaledi’s spirited campaign against illegal foreigners was in full steam over the Easter weekend when he visited the Beit Bridge border separating SA and Zimbabwe.  

www.samigration.com

Undocumented migrants – The myths, realities, and what we know and don’t know

Groundup – 22 April 2022

The fact that we don’t actually know how many ‘undocumented’ migrants there are is, in part, attributable to a systemic problem of state administration with the Department of Home Affairs.

Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia had planned a demonstration on Human Rights Day 2022 across South Africa, but alas it was banned by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD). The aim of the ban was to avoid conflict since those involved in Operation Dudula had threatened to attack the anti-xenophobia march.

The JMPD could not guarantee the safety of both sides in a possible confrontation fueled by a concoction of mistruths and misperceptions about non-nationals being responsible for unemployment, crime and poverty in South Africa.

This approach by the JMPD further exposed how under-resourced they are and how incapable they have been in dealing with xenophobic violence in South Africa. This appears to back up the view that the police, given substantial media attention for its harassment of non-nationals, has indeed taken a xenophobic stance.

Xenophobic attacks and harassment of refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants and other locally defined “outsiders” are often fueled by politicians’ populist rhetoric and influential people in the news media in South Africa. 

Politicians are riding deep-seated anti-“foreigner” sentiment instead of presenting workable solutions to the real problems in South Africa, such as the provision of water, housing, toilets, sanitation and waste management, jobs, electricity, and the combating of corruption, poverty and unemployment.

But what do we know, or not know about the issues? This article takes a look at some claims made by ActionSA and other populist movements targeting non-nationals and weighs them against research evidence.

Last week on social media, Herman Mashaba, who is known for his controversial anti-“foreign national” rhetoric, reshared ActionSA’s “immigration blueprint” first released by his party in 2020.

In the document, ActionSA states “it is estimated that 10% of all people living in South Africa are undocumented migrants”. ActionSA doesn’t cite its source for that figure and media reportage in 2021 made claims of this number sitting at four million undocumented migrants, citing Stats SA as a source.

But the truth is, we don’t know how many “undocumented” migrants there are in the country. In response to claims made in media reports citing the figure at four million, Stats SA states that these reports were “erroneous” and that “Stats SA wishes to categorically indicate that it has at no point made any estimation or comment on undocumented migrants”.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said that “if one uses the output of foreign-born persons enumerated in Census 2011 and adds to it the net international migrants for the period 2011-2016, as well as the period 2016-2021 from the 2021 midyear population estimates, one would get an estimation of 3.95 million persons”, but “this includes migrants of all types and is collated regardless of legal status”.

The fact that we don’t actually know how many “undocumented” migrants there are, is in part attributable to a systemic problem of state administration with the Department of Home Affairs, and in part to the geographical landscape of Africa, where definitive boundaries between “mine” and “yours” in communities that live close to borders are non-existent.

So, what do we know?

1. Administrative violence is a reality

Both migrants and South Africans face “administrative violence” by the Department of Home Affairs regarding documentation, the Brenthurst Foundation heard from multiple sources in its ongoing research on migrant experiences with Covid-19 in South Africa.

ActionSA says in its “immigration blueprint” that “the problem is not that citizens of other countries have chosen our country as their home, but rather that too many foreigners enter South Africa without following the legal process of immigration”. But, as an NGO that works with migrants points out, “nobody wants to be undocumented… the pathways to documentations are limited and those that are available are skewed”.

We also know that refugee centres of the Department of Home Affairs are closed in some provinces, in some cases since the inception of Covid and in other provinces since 2012. So, any asylum seeker or refugee whose documents expired during this period has been unable to renew their documents, rendering them “undocumented” – not because they are not willing to renew their documentation, but because Home Affairs’ centres are not available to enable them to do so.

The Africa Integration Agenda, as well as Agenda 2063, seeks to enhance free movement of persons, right of establishment and right of abode for African citizens among African countries. This includes the elimination of visa requirements for travel by Africans within Africa, and makes redundant the issue of whether an African in Africa is documented or not documented.

Consequently, progressive African states in several other regional economic communities have already instituted visa-free travel for up to 90 days, and visas on arrival have been implemented by other African countries. Some have even signed bilateral and multilateral visa-free arrangements between their respective countries, aimed at bolstering trade, job creation and inclusive growth.

The recently signed African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will not work if people cannot move freely within the continent and have to go through extremely stringent procedures, most of which do not work. If we cannot move, we cannot trade. Cross-border trade accounts for almost 60% of intra-African trade.   

2. Headhunting of locals hampering the country and the potential of skilled non-nationals is not being explored

As South Africa is doing its best to discourage skilled Africans from entering the country, other more developed economies are headhunting the best and brightest from South Africa, leading to an exodus of many critical skills from the country. Canada, US, New Zealand, UK and Australia are among those who are headhunting.

As these developed countries continue to headhunt skills from South Africa and illustrate to people their clearly laid out pathways to documentation, it will get to a point where many of the skills that South Africa needs will have left, rendering the Critical Skills List futile. 

The efforts and resources being used to keep Africans from entering the country would be more usefully directed at preserving the best and brightest we currently have, and attracting skilled people from across the continent.

Among undocumented migrants are some highly educated and skilled people who are worth paying attention to. As one respondent said to us in our migrant survey, “my gardener has a degree in teaching, while my barber is a chartered accountant”. A skills audit could yield a massive skills harvest for South Africa’s critical skills deficit.

A rational approach would be based on a skills audit of South Africa’s 13 million unemployed people. The skilled among them should be used to meet South Africa’s critical skills shortages, with the shortfall being addressed by skills from elsewhere. To achieve this, non-nationals would have to be properly and efficiently documented by the Department of Home Affairs.

3. Statelessness of children born in South Africa to non-nationals causes serious problems

Migration has both stock and flow dimensions. In addition to the challenges of flows, there are also challenges with the stock of migrants in South Africa that exacerbates in the long term the issue of undocumented migrants.

A typical example is the issue of statelessness. A baby born in South Africa to non-national parents is not issued with a birth certificate. We heard this from multiple sources in an ongoing study undertaken by the Brenthurst Foundation. 

A baby born to non-national parents in South Africa is rendered “stateless” with no national identity, and is issued only with a hand-written note from the Department of Home Affairs. This note serves as proof of the date of birth, the parents they were born to and the place they were born in.

But this hand-written note is not captured on the national database, the Brenthurst Foundation heard. When the child turns 16, they are barred from applying for an identity document that is needed to write matric. But this problem is not unique to only children of migrant parents. There are stateless children of South African parents too, as a result of the dysfunctionality of the Department of Home Affairs.

As one of our key NGO informants in the study explained, “There is a huge gap in understanding [on the part of the state] when an undocumented child becomes an irregular migrant liable for deportation, and all protection from the Children’s Act falls away because the child is now 18 years… So those are many of the issues we still need to tackle.”

Mothers (South African or otherwise) who give birth far away from a Home Affairs office face the struggle of attempting to document a child later after birth. Mothers are faced with obstacle after obstacle to register their child late. This is not necessarily the fault of a mother, but is rather an issue of access.

Our research shows that the root of the problem lies with documentation. The Department of Home Affairs must allow its policy decisions to be informed by good research and real data. 

Right now, populist campaigns against foreigners are using the absence of real statistics to place exaggerated numbers and inaccurate reasons in the public domain to justify their xenophobic actions.

www.samigration.com