Big changes for visa applications in South Africa
The Minister of Home Affairs has waived the requirement for foreigners in South Africa to submit visa applications at least 60 days before their visa expires.
Before this, Immigration Regulation rules stipulated that a foreign national in South Africa applying for a change of status or conditions of their visa, including a visa renewal, was required to submit the application at least 60 days before their visa expiry date.
The new waiver follows the minister’s consideration after the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) presented him with representations based on the unintended consequences of applying two sub-regulations.
Future applicants can now submit their visa extension or status-change applications at any time before their visa’s expiry date, without needing a specific waiver for missing the 60-day window.
Appeals made against visa rejections based solely on missing the 60-day deadline will be overturned, which will allow the original visa applications to be adjudicated.
In cases where the primary applicants’ rejections have resulted in secondary rejections for family members, the applicants’ dependents can now have their visas processed with the primary applicants’.
The waiver does not allow foreign nationals to apply for visa changes after their visa has already expired, and applications should still be submitted on or before the current visa expiration date.
Usually, waivers apply from the date on which they are granted, but this waiver is unique as it will be applied retrospectively, which includes the applications currently under appeal as well as past applications.
Xpatweb Head of Immigration, Jaco Brits, said that the retrospective nature of the 60-day rule waiver could provide the DHA with a tool to resolve the number of pending applications and appeals awaiting adjudication.
Brits said that this retrospective waiver could create opportunities to address cases already affected and bring greater clarity to future applications.
Processing relief for the Department of Home Affairs
Brits explained that this new waiver on the 60-day visa deadline for foreign nationals is expected to provide relief for the DHA in processing applications.
This change means that the DHA can adjudicate new visa renewals on first review, without checking whether the applications were submitted at least 60 days prior to the request.
Requiring additional waiver requests or formal appeals for every application submitted within the 60-day window created a significant administrative burden.
The new waiver means the DHA no longer needs to sort through thousands of appeal files and waiver requests, which can help eliminate the visa processing backlog.
“The retrospective application of the waiver is important given the scale of the impact experienced by applicants,” said Brits.
“While it may take several months for the affected cases to work through the system, we are encouraged by the feedback received from the Department and are confident that we are on track towards resolving these matters.”
Although the 60-day deadline has been in place for many years, Brits explained that visa applications have increasingly been denied specifically over the last year, solely because they were submitted within the 60-day period.
Brits said that Xpatweb has seen a significant influx of visa refusals, where the 60-day requirement was the sole reason for the rejection, causing an additional backlog in appeal applications.
According to Xpatweb, the immediate priority for employers and foreign nationals will be to identify affected cases and ensure that the matters are handled in line with the DHA’s updated rules.
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