• The concession protects long-term visa applicants from adverse effects that may be created by delays in the assessment of applications.
• The department has made substantial progress in addressing the delays in recent months, but some delays persist.
For the third time since Minister Leon Schreiber took office, the Home Affairs Department has extended a temporary concession to protect foreign tourists, students, and workers from delays while they await the outcome of their visa applications.
The concession was introduced in 2022 to protect long-term visa applicants from adverse effects if their status expired while they are awaiting the outcome of an application.
This concession was set to expire at the end of March, but a notice published by the department on Friday said it had been extended for six more months until the end of September 2025.
Home affairs has justified the concessions by acknowledging that processing delays for some visa and permit categories have meant that people may be left with an expired document through no fault of their own, while trying to go through the legal application process.
Schreiber extended the concession in July last year in his first official act as home affairs minister. The concession had expired a few days prior, leaving people at risk of adverse consequences, including being declared "undesirable", which can result in a ban from the country when someone overstays their visa term.
"Without this concession, international tourists and workers who contribute to our economy would have been punished if their documentation expired while they awaited the outcome of home affairs processes.
"This would not only be unfair and irrational but would also discourage investment, tourism and skills transfer," Schreiber said in a post at the time.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has further extended a temporary concession to protect foreign tourists, students, and workers from delays while they await the outcome of their visa applications. (Amanda Khoza/News24)
The extension meant that the concession was supposed to last until the end of 2024, but it was extended again before the new year to the end of March 2025.
In its notice this week, home affairs said that while it had "addressed the backlog in its visa and permitting regime" between the December extension and the further extension announced this week, the system still had deficiencies.
"Many outcomes of applications will not be ready for collection prior to the deadline of 31 March 2025 on the previous concession, primarily due to delays in the printing process.
"Furthermore, the processing of the resultant appeals, as well as some manual category applications, will not be completed by the expiry of the current concession and is now the focus of the department's work," the notice said.
Jaco Brits, the head of immigration at Xpatweb, a South African immigration and work permit provider, welcomed the concession extension in a blog post.
Brits said that the work done to eliminate the visa application backlog has been "commendable", although an increase in rejected applications and appeals seems to have created a new set of challenges.
Schreiber has previously said that visa application turnaround times have improved significantly as the department has tackled the backlog.
He said some of the applications in the backlog were 10 years old.
Who does the concession apply to?
According to the home affairs notice, the three categories of applicants who will benefit from the concession are:
• Applicants whose waiver application outcomes are still pending;
• Applicants whose visa applications are still pending;
• Applicants whose waiver application outcomes are still pending.
The concession does not apply to people waiting for a permanent residence permit outcome.
The concession only applies to people who have been legally admitted to the country and who have submitted an application through VFS Global, the department's official partner.
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