{"id":843738,"date":"2025-11-19T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=843738"},"modified":"2025-11-19T13:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T11:29:20","slug":"home-affairs-shooting-south-africa-in-the-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business-opinion\/843738\/home-affairs-shooting-south-africa-in-the-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Affairs shooting South Africa in the foot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Delays and administrative setbacks to accommodate spousal visas at Home Affairs are driving critical skills South Africa needs away from the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb, which noted a recent incident involving two international scientists recruited for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both were ready to move to South Africa, but one of their spouses, a respected scientist herself, was denied direct work access under her partner\u2019s critical skills visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She applied separately for another work visa. However, delays and administrative problems forced her to return home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her husband soon followed. Within weeks, Australia hired both scientists and gave them immediate work rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior Home Affairs official revealed this case during a session on the Trusted Employer Scheme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It highlighted a problem that employers, global mobility specialists, and researchers have warned about for years, which is that if a partner cannot work, highly skilled professionals simply will not relocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Frew, Executive Director at the Permits Foundation, said their latest global survey shows this clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past three years, 44% of organisations saw highly skilled international employees cut their foreign assignments short because their partners could not work in the host country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frew added that professionals now judge relocation offers not just on salary but on whether their partners can build lives and careers of their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb, noted that South African companies report the same trend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2025 Xpatweb Critical Skills Survey, 84% of respondents said partner career concerns are becoming a major factor when hiring skilled foreigners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said South Africa is making it harder for itself by refusing to offer automatic partner work rights, even when the primary applicant holds a critical skills visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers reinforce the scale of the problem. The Permits Foundation found that almost all global mobility professionals (94%) believe partners should automatically receive work authorisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massive opportunity lost for the economy <\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/a>
Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb, with Leon Schreibe, the Minister of Home Affairs<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

A growing number of employees also want to know whether partners can work remotely from the host country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For partners who are blocked from working, 56% report negative mental-health effects, and 26% consider leaving the host country altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses agree that this is harming South Africa\u2019s competitiveness. Frew said 91% of employers believe partner work access is a major advantage in attracting global talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, South Africa continues to ignore a pool of skilled people already willing to relocate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe found that 88% of partners have a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher. However, more than half are unemployed in the host country, despite most wanting to work. South Africa is wasting this talent,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Xpatweb survey also showed that 68% of international professionals ask whether their partners can work before accepting a job in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

62% of companies added that foreign employees also ask whether partners can at least work virtually while living here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacobs added that even when partners qualify for their own Critical Skills Work Visa, the process is complicated. They must secure a job offer and then apply through a system known for slow processing and uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacobs argued that giving partners direct work access would immediately benefit the economy. It would allow them to earn an income, start businesses, and support job creation in areas like childcare, transport, and household services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Permits Foundation has made South Africa a priority and says recent policy discussions are encouraging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft National Labour Migration Policy proposes giving spouses of critical skills visa holders\u2014and possibly inter-company transferees\u2014automatic work rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Employment and Labour supports this idea, describing it as essential for retaining skilled migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other countries have already moved forward. Over 40 countries now allow partners to work under their dependent visa status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ireland is one of the most recent to reform its laws in 2024. Its Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Peter Burke, said the change was necessary because skilled workers will not move to a country where their partners cannot work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delays and administrative setbacks to accommodate spousal visas at Home Affairs are driving critical skills South Africa needs away from the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":797613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20610,24169,853,12739],"class_list":["post-843738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-opinion","tag-department-of-home-affairs-dha","tag-permits-foundation","tag-south-africa","tag-xpatweb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":843757,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843738\/revisions\/843757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}