Home Affairs promises to speed up backlog of temporary residence permits

The Forum of Immigration Practitioners (Fipsa) has welcomed recent statements by the department of home affairs (DHA) about the elimination of the backlog of temporary residence permits (valid up to five years, when permanent residence can be applied for), according to Fipsa chairman, Leon Isaacson, MD of Global Immigration. This would hit any foreign employees of local companies who were applying for temporary permits from SA. Isaacson told FTW that, for these foreign employees, it would be a great time saving if they applied from their home foreign country, where the SA embassies/ consulates have quicker access to the DHA. But if they are in SA already, they would face an extremely lengthy wait. “Our collective experience is that many permits which were submitted during 2009- 2010 are unaccounted for by the department, and despite resubmission of copies together with the submission receipts, many of these permits remain ‘lost’. “We further place on record that there has been a noticeable decline in the standard of adjudication,” he added, “and that a high percentage of permits (40-45%) are issued with erroneous endorsements – mainly incorrect dates, incorrect workplace and in some cases permits are issued to the wrong person.” This places the holder of the permit in an extremely difficult position, as they may be considered to be illegal if the status and conditions differ from the status ascertained by the department’s inspectors or police. Efforts to correct these errors take a long time and cause extreme prejudice to the applicants and their employers. “We note that there has not been a general directive or public announcement regarding the legal status of applicants who have not yet received the permits after the 30-day finalisation period,” Isaacson said. “This would allow them to commence the activities for which they applied while they await the outcome of their application. The result of this state of affairs is that many applicants have lost jobs, had bank accounts closed and have been treated as criminals due to these delays.” Fipsa has called on the DHA to institute an audit to ascertain how many permits have been lost and/ or incorrectly issued, and to allow applicants the opportunity to approach the department to have their erroneously endorsed permits corrected through an expedited process, Isaacson added.