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New visa rules a 'nightmare' for foreign students

Cape Town - Fin24 has received several emails from users describing the negative impact South Africa's stringent new visa rules have had on their lives and businesses.

Fin24 user Thea writes that her life has been affected on multiple levels, both in a personal and professional capacity. Her family uses German au pairs and she found it "an absolute nightmare" to secure a visa for her current nanny.  

She was required to go to the embassy three times, and on top of that, regulations insisted that she must have medical insurance from a South African medical aid - this despite the fact that she already has international medical insurance.

"This had to be paid upfront for a period of one year and I had to pay R4 392 extra for this," tells Thea. There was also some confusion as neither the German nor the South African au pair agencies knew what was required by the new regulations. Thea attempted to find out the details by contacting embassy staff and Home Affairs.

"It took almost three months to obtain this visa. Without going into the ‘gory’ details, due to all the new requirements and embassy staff themselves not sure on how it works, she arrived more than a month later than planned."

The cost was not just financial, as both Thea and her husband had to take time off work to look after their children.

There was also a professional price to pay. Thea, who is a lecturer at a university, says most of their international students arrived two weeks after the classes started. "This was the result of problems in obtaining their visas to study at a South African institution."

After chatting to the students, which she described as an "eye-opener", Thea comments: "Obtaining an international student visa sounds like a bigger nightmare than a cultural exchange visa."

This naturally also had an effect on the students' studies, especially at post-graduate level, as it meant that "we as lecturers had to revisit classes with them, give extensions for assignments and practical work, etc".

She concludes: "Thus, not only is tourism affected by the new visa regulations, but numerous other aspects as well."

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.


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