As discussed in our last two blogs all visa applications are presently taking extremely long to be processed. The reason for this was the decision to centralise the processing of all visa applications so that the processing of visa applications was no longer done at the South African Embassies, but rather all applications were processed at Head Office in South Africa.

This change resulted in significant delays to the extent where business groups advised that should it continue then it would prevent foreign investment into South Africa, and possibly also result in disinvestment. Most vocal in their criticism were the French Trade Advisors and Business Leadership South Africa.

Clearly their criticism has hit home and shortly after they voiced their concerns the Department of Home Affairs issued an Internal Directive advising all relevant parties that the original directive providing for the centralisation of visas was withdrawn with immediate effect, and that South African foreign missions would again be responsible for the processing of visa applications.

The directive referenced the fact that visa processing had been centralised in an attempt to prevent corruption, illegal migration and visas being issued to undeserving individuals. However, the delays had started affecting companies that needed to bring in skilled employees and was affecting the growth of the economy.

It will be interesting to see how quickly things return to normal, but the reversal of the decision is without doubt a step in the right direction.