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Johannesburg - Migration agencies are looking to institute a class action against the Department of Home Affairs about alleged dilly-dallying over documentation for their clients - principally skilled immigrants.
The class action planned currently involves about 500 clients of these agencies applying for permanent residence, who in some cases have waited up to three years for the finalisation of their applications.
Leon Isaacson, general manager of migration agency Global Migration SA is spearheading the action. According to him, court documents are being prepared with a view to a High Court summons within "two to three weeks".
The application backlog could be between 20 000 and 30 000, says Isaacson.
Chris Watters, a Johannesburg immigration attorney however says that the most recent figure that he has seen is about 17 000.
The basis of the action is the fact that the extended waiting periods, and uncertainty in converting from temporary to permanent residential status, saddle immigrants with all sorts of unnecessary costs and inconvenience.
In terms of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, it is illegal to "unreasonably" delay decisions such as the issue of residential permits. The only question is what can be considered "unreasonable", says Watters. "I would think three years is unreasonable."
Having temporary rather than permanent residence complicates various issues for foreigners living here - from their tax status, banking business and school fees to getting a driver's licence - says Isaacson.
Watters says this prejudices people, especially because they can't get ID books. "IDs are central to life in South Africa."
According to Isaacson, it is rumoured that "permanent residence applications do not enjoy priority because of other urgent issues".
Watters says that matters like the domestic refugee crisis after the violence in May should not however affect permanent residence applications.
"It's a totally separate division and any overlap with, say, refugees' applications for permanent residence is probably small.
"Unlike in the case of the refugees, we have had no official explanation for delays with regard to permanent residence applications," says Watters.
This year, while one of his clients received his residential permit within three weeks, he has others that have waited as much as three years.
The department's head of communication, Mantshele Tau, said that he was unable to comment at short notice.
- Sake24