U.S. Department Of State Expands Interview Waivers For Certain Non-Immigrant Visa Classifications

09 February 2022 – Sa Migration

On December 23, 2021, the U.S. Department of State announced that it will temporarily suspend in-person interviews for some non-immigrant visa classifications in order to expedite visa issuance as the pandemic heads into its third year. The Department announced that individuals applying for L-1, H-1, H-3, P-1, O-1, and Q visas (and their dependents) will not be required to appear for in-person interviews at U.S. consular posts abroad. This policy is effective until the end of 2022.

Consular officers have the discretion to waive the interview requirement for individuals applying for these visa types who were previously issued any type of visa. Notably, the E visa category is not exempt from interview waivers, whether for first-time applicants or for E visa renewals. The non-immigrant visa application process and in-person interview are the last steps in a lengthy process after U.S. petitioning companies have secured non-immigrant petition approvals from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. F-1 student visas and visas for other temporary seasonal workers as well as M and J academic visa applicants have already been exempted from the in-person interview requirement.

Globally, U.S. consulates have been affected with reduced staffing capacity and further, due to varying country conditions have been unable to process most work visas in the volume and speed as they had in pre-pandemic times. This causes stress for U.S. companies seeking to employ foreign talent and for the foreign worker anxious to commence employment here in the U.S. H-1B and L-1 visas, in particular, had reduced incidents of visa issuance due to consular closures and unpredictable processing times. The suspension of the waiver of in-person interviews will be extended to the end of 2022, according to the U.S. Department of State.

Foreign visa applicants must apply for a visa in their country of nationality or residence and consular officials will have the discretion to waive the in-person requirement for any visa applicant who was previously issued any type of visa, never been refused a visa in the past unless such visa refusal was overcome or waived and who have no other ineligibility or potential ineligibility. The U.S. Department of State has extended the waiver of the in-person interview until the end of 2022.

www.samigration.com

 

 



Hospitality blitz: departments of labour, home affairs and SAPS announce Western Cape mega blitz

IOL -  02 Feb  2022

Pretoria - The Department of Employment and Labour’s inspection and enforcement services, accompanied by the Department of Home Affairs and the SAPS in the Western Cape, has announced week-long mega blitz inspections targeting the hospitality sector including hotels, bed and breakfast facilities, and restaurants.

Government’s announcement of the labour law enforcement blitz comes a day after leader of the EFF Julius Malema hogged the public discourse after visiting restaurants in Gauteng to “inspect” the ratio of local and non-South African employees.

The Department of Employment and Labour’s said its “mega blitz” inspections would commence from January 24 to 28 in the Metropole, Cape Winelands and Overberg regions.

The inspectorate will be checking compliance on the National Minimum Wage Act (NMWA); Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA); Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) Unemployment Insurance Act (UIA) and Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA).

The Department of Employment and Labour said not only would inspectors be testing compliance and addressing non-compliance, but it would also serve to advise, educate and provide technical information and support to both workers and employers about the services offered by the inspectorate.

The mega blitz inspections will be led by the inspector general Aggy Moiloa, chief inspector Tibor Szana and the Western Cape provincial chief inspector David Esau.

“The Department of Home Affairs and the South African Police Services (SAPS) will also form part of the blitz inspections to ensure that all institutions like hotels, bed and breakfast facilities, restaurants and backpackers are fully inspected,” the department said in a statement.

Chief inspector Esau said that considering the impact that Covid-19 has had on the sector in the last two years, it was important to reinforce compliance to labour laws and ensure that employers still uphold the basic conditions in the workplace, while also maintaining the health and safety of workers at all times.

He said employers can in the meantime ensure that their house is in order before inspectors visit.

“We are changing how we do things by informing employers on the necessary documents that we need when we arrive. With this approach, employers have no reason to tell us they did not prepare the necessary papers for us. We are leaving no gaps for excuses.

“Books that are in order should be able to save both the employer and the inspector time to do the necessary inspection,” Esau said.

During the blitz, the law enforcement teams will inspect:

• Attendance Register. (Last 2 months)

• Signed employment contracts / letter of appointments of an employee.

• Information about remuneration (pay slips/envelopes), overtime, leave pay (Last 2 months)

• Unemployment Insurance, registration number, as well as proof of last payments.

• Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) registration number as well as proof of last payments.

• A copy of the CIPRO Certificate.

A list containing the names and ID numbers of all employees are some of the records inspectors will be expecting employers to produce.

Esau said the Department of Employment and Labour did not want employers to exploit employees.

“Many businesses are up and running now following the impact that Covid-19 had, particularly on the hospitality industry. While we support the economic recovery, we also don’t want workers to be exploited. It’s imperative that we get on the ground to evaluate if conditions of work are still adhered to,” said Esau.

On Thursday, the Human Science Research Council’s Dr Steven Gordon said the much-publicised visits by Malema to inspect restaurants’ compliance with labour laws was a campaign to drum up support for the EFF, which may fuel animosity and anti-immigrant sentiments.

“Obviously the EFF’s actions over the recent period show a party trying to push the anti-immigrant button, despite their rhetoric to the contrary. This, I assume is an attempt to show up support within certain constituencies following a disappointing performance in the recent local government elections,” Gordon told TV channel Newzroom Afrika.

He said politicians should avoid sowing inter-group animosity to drive political support.

“South Africa has a very long history in which politicians used divisive rhetoric around inter-group relations to obtain power, and that divisive and tragic history is still borne in the legacy of South Africa today,” said Gordon, who is a public opinion scientist.

He said debates about economic opportunity and immigration in South Africa should acknowledge that a significant minority in South Africa holds very strong anti-immigrant views, and when activated, these views can cause violent anti-immigrant activity.

Samigration.com

Americans have become SA’s biggest overseas tourists – overtaking Brits and Germans

Business Insider SA – 31 Jan  2022

 

• Visitors from the United Kingdom accounted for 30% of all overseas tourists in South Africa prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
• But travel restrictions, including the controversial red list, dropped the number of incoming UK tourists by around 90%.
• The same is true for tourists from Germany, which has traditionally been South Africa’s second-highest source market for overseas tourists, behind the UK.
• South Africa’s primary source market for tourists in 2021 was the United States, with almost 72,000 Americans having arrived by December.

South Africa welcomed more tourists from the United States in 2021 than from anywhere else overseas, with American visitors being far more common than those from the United Kingdom and Germany.

Prior to the global Covid-19 pandemic, European visitors accounted for roughly 60% of overseas tourists entering South Africa annually. Tourists from North America – the US and Canada combined – accounted for just 17%.

But the pandemic turned international travel on its head, with border closures, flight suspensions, and fear driving down tourism.

The number of overseas tourists visiting South Africa dropped by almost 80% in 2020, as the world entered hard lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19. The following year was even worse, with overseas tourists dropping by a further 50%, as new Covid-19 variants and waves of infections led to further travel restrictions.

Just under 330,000 overseas tourists came to South Africa between January and November in 2021, according to Stats SA’s latest report on tourism and migration. Before the pandemic, roughly 2.4 million tourists arrived during the same period.

This major upset to global travel also saw major changes to South Africa’s key tourism source markets.

The UK has traditionally been South Africa’s main source market, with more visitors arriving from here than from anywhere else in the world. Of all European tourists to South Africa, those from the UK have consistently accounted for around 30%.

This all changed during the pandemic, with the UK imposing some of the strictest restrictions on travellers from South Africa. Being on the UK’s red list meant that travellers from South Africa needed to endure a ten-day quarantine in a state-managed hotel at their own cost of £2,285 (around R47,000).

South Africa was removed from the UK’s red list in early October. The number of UK tourists arriving in South Africa in November increased by more than 60% compared to the month prior, with travel agents reporting a surge in bookings. But the discovery of the Omicron variant at the end of November saw South Africa relegated back to the UK’s red list.

The UK’s proportion of European tourists travelling to South Africa in 2021 dropped to 18% and to under 10% of pre-pandemic levels.

Travellers from Germany, which has traditionally wrangled with the US for second spot on South Africa’s list of key source tourism markets, outnumbered UK visitors in 2021. But due to its own harsh travel restrictions imposed for much of the year, the number of German tourists arriving in South Africa dropped by around 85% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

South Africa’s primary source market for tourists in 2021 was the US. The number of American arrivals almost equalled the combined total of UK and German tourists.

Almost 72,000 Americans arrived in South Africa by December 2021, which is just 0.1% down from the year prior, compared to the 50% drop in overall overseas volumes.

The US’ restrictions on travel from South Africa were also in place for most of the year, but unlike those imposed by European countries, was largely targeted at barring entry for foreign nationals. Fully vaccinated American citizens were allowed to return to the US, without having to endure a mandatory quarantine, during the travel ban.

Like the UK and Germany, the US reimposed a ban following the discovery of Omicron, but this has since been rescinded.

www.samigration.co.za

 

Motsoaledi vows to clean up home affairs

City Press – 31 January 2022

 

The minister said he and Makhode were keeping a close eye on all cases of alleged fraud, corruption and maladministration.

 

A full-scale operation targeting senior officials suspected of corruption and gross negligence costing taxpayers millions of rands is under way at the home affairs department.

This was confirmed to City Press by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in an interview following the recent suspension of three senior officials accused of failing to execute court orders, resulting in three warrants of arrest being issued to Motsoaledi and his director-general, Livhuwani Makhode.

“A cleaning up operation in the department has started; this is not the end.” Motsoaledi said: 

We need to clean up the department, where negligence and corruption are in every corner.

The minister said he and Makhode were keeping a close eye on all cases of alleged fraud, corruption and maladministration, with the sole intention of making sure that consequence management was imposed on those officials found guilty of wrongdoing, following disciplinary hearings.

“The message that must get out is that I, as the minister, together with my director-general, am serious about consequence management. There will be consequence management for every action by a public servant, especially those in home affairs.

“I am putting my foot down on this. If anything wrong happens in home affairs because of a public servant, there will be consequences,” said Motsoaledi.

On December 21, Makhode issued suspension letters to deputy director-general of human resources Nkidi Mohoboko, labour relations director Ditsoanelo Mosikili and Sello Malaka, the department’s chief director of employee services.

The three are accused of gross negligence that cost home affairs R11 million in payouts to junior employees who were supposed to be fired from the department.

Insiders who are at close proximity to investigations into the senior officials told City Press that the millions of rands that the department purportedly unduly paid to junior employees – who were facing dismissal – were just the tip of the iceberg.

One insider painted a bleak and worrying picture of the implications of the gross negligence by the suspended senior officials, saying the reputational risk was immense.

The information emerging, said the insider, “shows that government officials have been systematically breaking down the department’s systems”.

“What is most concerning is that, where things were supposed to be fixed in order to keep the department from further operational deterioration, people simply didn’t act.

The insider said: 

We may very well find that what happened was in fact deliberate.

Another department insider with intimate knowledge of the forensic investigation was more direct about what investigations were unearthing regarding Malaka’s modus operandi.

“The chief director is accused of throwing away cases. He is the one who must set up and hand over charges. He prepares the director-general and makes sure everyone concerned, as it relates to a case at hand, is on the same page, especially when dealing with such cases where actual taxpayer money was handed over unduly, without any good reason,” said the insider.

Disciplinary charges are being formulated and will be handed to the three senior officials over the next few weeks.

The investigation of gross negligence, which covers labour relations and governance-related matters, was triggered when three warrants of arrest for Motsoaledi and Makhode were issued for their failure to execute court orders.

“People take us to court and say the department is not implementing [court orders] ... So, for myself and the director-general, in this particular case, the warrant came out three times,” said Motsoaledi.

It has since emerged that the minister and his director-general did not know about the court orders, as the information was never filtered through to them for action from the department officials who are currently on suspension.

“The main thing is that they are charged with gross negligence. The department is losing money because they ignored obvious court orders. The department has lost R11 million and, on top of that, warrants of arrest have been issued against me as the minister and the director-general for being in contempt of court over these cases.

“The warrant is for our arrest because we are the leaders of the department. But can you now imagine an official not doing their job and you getting a warrant of arrest without knowing?

“This happened without myself and the director-general knowing that we were in contempt of court. We were not aware that there was an official here who was sitting and defying a court order by not carrying it out,” Motsoaledi explained.

“For these warrants against the minister and the director-general, someone is going to have to account.”

High-profile suspensions are likely to become a disturbingly common feature in the department over the coming months and years if Motsoaledi and Makhode’s determination to flush out the wanton criminality and gross misconduct by senior officials is anything to go by.

City Press was told that, apart from the recent suspensions, the heat is being turned up on pending disciplinary cases against senior immigration officials believed to have facilitated the illegal issuing of permanent residency permits to fugitive priest Shepherd Bushiri and his family.

The officials, who are believed to have been instrumental in ensuring that Bushiri and his wife unduly received their permits, are facing serious disciplinary charges after home affairs internal investigations revealed a sophisticated network that allegedly went as far as manipulating and altering information contained in immigration application forms.

“These fraudulent documents are so prevalent, where people [such as] the Bushiris of this world don’t do it alone, they do it with home affairs officials.

“The cleaning up of home affairs has started. If it means suspending and arresting the whole department, so be it. A stern Motsoaledi: 

I am not going to concentrate on the small fish, I am going for the big fish in the department.

“Someone apparently once said: ‘If this minister wants to get rid of corruption at home affairs, he will have to get rid of two-thirds of the staff.’

“If that’s what it takes to clean the department, so be it!

“So, if we have to get rid of two-thirds of the department’s officials to clean it up from what it is, then so be it. And that process has started.”

www.samigration.com

 

Corrupt Home Affairs Officials Panick as Police Arrest Lady with 14 New Asylum Papers and R67,000.

Opera – 31-01-2022

Despite the warning issued to corrupt Home Affairs Officials on daily basis with respect to issuing South African documents to unqualified individuals, it seems these scrupulous elements are hell bent on engaging in criminal activities. View pictures in App save up to 80% data.

In an emerging report, Police in Pretoria West have successfully arrested a lady who was in possession of 14 ready-to-be-issued asylum documents gotten directly from Home Affairs on Thursday.

The suspect was apprehended in Maltzan Street near Luttig Street.

Constable Sibongile Vuma who is the police spokesperson, during his statement said that when the woman was interrogated on what she was doing with the documents and blank home affairs papers, she allegedly admitted that they were fraudulent.

Vuma added that the lady said that foreign nationals, who are already on the home affairs database, pay the sum of R600 to get the documents,while those who are not yet on the database pay R1, 200 or more to get theirs.

Vuma further stated that the police could not confirm whether the documents were authentic as at the time of gathering this information.

“Home affairs will have to confirm their authenticity. The suspect was also found in possession of R67 700, which was also confiscated as evidence. The money was booked for further investigation."

Vuma said the suspect will be arraigned in Pretoria magistrate court on one count charge of fraud.

Police appealed to the community to inform them of any illegal dealings in their policing area.

“There is no place for criminals to do their criminal activities in our precinct. We will no stone unturned.”

www.samigration.com