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Cape Town - Fin24 has been inundated with emails from users describing their experiences with South Africa's stringent new visa regulations. We've published a selected few.
The regulations introduced on 1 October 2014 require foreign tourists who need a visa to visit South Africa to appear ‘in person’ and submit biometric data when applying for a visa.
In addition, the rules require all children travelling into or out of South Africa to travel with an “unabridged” birth certificate as well as an applicable letter of consent from absent parent/s. This came into effect in June 2015 as part of a drive to clampdown on child trafficking.
But for Fin24 user Royhsu, a foreigner who regularly visits South Africa, the regulations have made it very difficult for foreigners.
He remembers a simpler time when home affairs handled visa applications.
He writes: "The new visa regulations are worse now compared when home affairs handled visa applications by themselves in the past.
The process of applying for a visa takes much longer. After Visa & Permit Facilitation Centres (VFS) started taking responsibility for visas, the fees increased incredibly high and the staff who work there are totally uncertain what the requirements are. This caused the denying of visas to be more frequent.
Being a foreigner, the most serious problem in SA or overseas with visas is that there is nobody that could assist us. If we contacted VFS, they would tell us they only delivery files and referred us to home affairs. When we phoned home affairs they would say they don't deal with visa applications and would refer us back to VFS.
Both institutions are passing the responsibility to each other and making the situation so much difficult for foreigners.
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Disclaimer: All letters and comments published in MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
