They would like to invest millions in SA, but some have
been waiting more than six years for permanent residence permits.
The delays in the processing of permanent residence
applications is costing the economy up to R15bn a year.
No fewer than 180 would-be immigrants and their immigration services
providers have hauled the Department of Home Affairs to court for delays of six
years and more in attempting to secure permanent residence permits.
The court documents say the applicants have several million US dollars
to invest and possess critical skills that are sorely needed in the SA economy.
Some have been waiting more than six years for
permanent residence as Home Affairs “has all but collapsed,” according to court
papers.
The delays in processing permanent residence applications is costing the
economy R10-R15 billion a year.
The respondents in the case are the minister of Home Affairs, the
president, the director-general of Home Affairs, and VFS Global South Africa,
which processes permanent residence permits on behalf of Home Affairs.
It didn’t used to be this way
Deposing for the applications, Leon Isaacson, director of Global
Migration Services, says he has been an immigration practitioner since 2007, at
which time permanent residence applications were handled in no more than six
months.
This was because regional Home Affairs offices handled the applications.
“There was sporadic corruption in the granting and refusal of permanent
residence applications, mostly isolated to Germiston and Durban,”
says Isaacson.
Then came a change …
In 2010, then home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma centralised
permanent residence applications in the Pretoria national office, and that
prolonged the process from six months to three years.
In 2015, VFS Global was brought on board and – though it did not make
decisions as to who got permanent residence or not – the application process
prolonged from three to six years.
This is far in excess of the Department of Home Affairs’s indicated
processing time of eight to 10 months.
Then a decision
“The inordinate delay in processing permanent residence applications has
led to a decision, being made by the Department of Home Affairs, not to accept
any further permanent residence applications,” deposes Isaacson.
“This decision effectively deletes Section 25 of the Immigration Act,
which provides for permanent residents permits. It has blocked millions of
United States dollars, together with essential skills, from being invested into
the South African economy.”
The Department of Home Affairs is all but collapsed, adds Isaacson.
It gets worse …
“Not only is it not receiving any more permanent residents applications,
and not capable of processing the existing permanent residence applications it
has received, it has decided to make its job even more impossible by reviewing
every permanent residence permit it issued from 2004 to date,” says Isaacson.
“An impossible undertaking under the circumstances.”
Intervention needed
As a result of these delays, the Department of Home Affairs has failed
to deliver on its legislative mandate and the applicants are asking the court
to intervene on their behalf.
Isaacson told Moneyweb that the Covid-19 pandemic has also aggravated
delays in the issuing of temporary residence visas inside South Africa for up
to six months. “Clearly Covid has taken its toll on staffing numbers and staff
health, so Home Affairs has been extending visas for 3-6 months at time to
allow people to stay legal.”
The permanent residence permit backlog has been building for a while,
and Global Migration Services, one of several immigration services providers
bringing the case on behalf of the would-be immigrants, says it felt compelled
to take the matter to court on behalf of 180 applicants who have been waiting
for up to six years for their applications.
‘Highly prejudicial’
“It is highly prejudicial for long term residents to be without
permanent residence, as banking facilities, education, employment and related
issues are dependent on this status,” says Isaacson, whose company represents
about 70 of the applicants, half of whom are from Africa, the rest mainly from
Europe.
Isaacson adds that Home Affairs is likely to settle rather than argue
the case in court, as it has indicated that it does not want more litigation.
While a settlement in this case might benefit the 180 applicants, it may
do little to settle the status of thousands more applicants who have been
waiting years for both permanent residence and work visas based on the
department’s critical skills list.
Politics
There appears to be a growing cleave between the Office of the
Presidency – which is openly in favour of opening SA’s economy to skilled
immigrants – and the Department of Labour, which appears less than enthusiastic
about hiring foreigners over South Africans.
Isaacson suggests that Home Affairs is caught in the middle of this rift
and paralysed into inaction.
He cites one example of a nearly R1 billion foreign investment deal in
the energy sector that was nearly snuffed out by the department’s refusal or
inability to issue 30 critical skills visas to German specialists who applied
for visas to enter the country and train South Africans in a specific gas
technology.
“This was a R1 billion investment that required nothing from
government,” says Isaacson.
“All it had to do was issue the visas, and it was only after pressure
was brought to bear from multiple quarters that the visas were actually issued
and the deal was saved.”
www.samigration.com