IMMIGRATION UPDATE : Be the First to Know!!
Newsletter to clients on proposed changes to the Immigration Act - 22 June 2011
Following our March 22 Newsletter on changes to the Immigration Act we have updated information, as below.
The revised Bill has been approved by the Portfolio Committee and has now been referred back to the National Assembly for final approval. Once approved, the Regulations must be drafted and finalised and based on this, it is expected that full implementation will take place within 3-6 months' time.
For ease of reference, the proposed changes, which are expected to be approved, are as below:
1. Right of representation and role of Professional Immigration Advisors
One of the changes in the new Bill is that Section 46, which defines which professions may legally assist applicants - namely, registered practitioners, advocates and attorneys - has been repealed. This will mean that Home Affairs will no longer regulate Immigration Practitioners or the Immigration services industry. This may result in an unregulated industry in which anyone would be able to advise applicants, causing confusion among potential applicants, who should seek out the advice of regulated practitioners.
Immigration Practitioners have an established professional association, FIPSA, which will verify whether a practitioner is registered or not.
Our services to you as our clients will continue as normal while we take up these issues at the highest level of Government through our professional association.
2. Personal applications
The Bill also requires that all permit applications should be submitted in person at a Home Affairs office or an embassy overseas, although couriered applications have been acceptable in the past. The details of how this will work and what exceptions may be allowed are not yet known.
3. Business visas
The Draft Bill seeks to prescribe the investment categories for which business visas may be issued. The Minister will be required, from time to time to publish a list of which sectors have been identified for investment.
4.Critical skills
Another proposal is to replace the existing Exceptional Skills and Quota Work permits with a new permit called the Critical Skills permit. The Minster will be required to publish a list of skills which the economy requires, but there is no indication at this stage of which skills will be selected.
5. Changes to Conditions and Status of an existing permit:
The draft Bill proposes that this process of changing WITHIN South Africa for holders of visitor and medical permits will only be permitted under "special circumstances". It is our view that forcing applicants, especially family members, to apply for special permission to stay with their parent/spouse or to leave the country and apply from abroad would cause unnecessary costs and inconvenience.
Please note that no other permits, other than the visitor and medical permits, will be affected by this amendment.
6. Corporate work permits
Intra-company and corporate work permits will be subject to a prescribed list of requirements which has not yet been made public.
The department will require new and different resources to implement these proposals, such as a dynamic system with research capacity and properly researched information to make timeous and informed decisions. None of these systems and resources are currently in place, so we are anticipating some delays with full implementation of the new amendments and regulations.
Pending and proposed applications under the current Immigration Legislation:
- We urge all current applicants to ensure that they send us the required documentation as a matter of urgency so that applications can be submitted under the current requirements. If there are changes to the requirements in the near future, we will automatically convert your application to one which meets these requirements and inform you of other or additional documents which may be required;
- We will continue to act as your representative and ask that you continue to refer any enquiries regarding you application, which may be received from Home Affairs officials directly, to us to enable to us to answer any queries directly. We expect that there may be a transition period with some confusion being created by Home Affairs and we are taking this up as a profession with our Legal Advisers and the Public Protector.
Backlogs and processing times: Please note that many applications, particularly those submitted within South Africa, are taking longer than 30 days at the moment as the Home Affairs Hub in Pretoria is still in the process of being set up and capacitated.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any enquires about this or any other issues.
Yours faithfully
Leon Isaacson
Managing Director
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