Applying for Visa’s in South Africa

Relatives Visa (South Africa)

For people who are biological relatives of a South African citizen or a foreigner with a South African permanent residence permit. Youngsters who are legally adopted also qualify. Applicants on this visa do not have the right to work in South Africa.

Spousal Visa (South Africa)

For people who are married to or in a lifelong relationship with a South African citizen or a foreigner with a South African permanent residence permit. This applies to those in both heterosexual relationships and homosexual relationships. Applicants on this visa do not have the right to work or run their own businesses, but this right can be applied for individually. To lodge an application under the life partner visa classification it is necessary to show two years cohabitation, and both partners must engage in separate, synchronized interviews at a South African consulate or embassy in the home country of the foreign significant other.

General Work Visa (South Africa)

For people who have a job opportunity from a South African Business that’s willing to participate in the process. The business will need to rationalize why you should be awarded a place over and above a South African and will be required to prove that they advertised the potential job in print media for a specific period of time. People in this category are subject to approval by the South African Department of Labour, a unit that will further inspect the necessity of hiring a foreigner for the provided job, before they can be considered by Home Affairs. Note that, contrary to its name, this visa only allows people to work for the specified business.

Business Visa (South Africa)

For people who are preparing to start a business in South Africa. In order to apply for this permit, the South African Department of Trade & Industry must consider your business in the country’s national interest and you must be able to prove that 60% of your team is made up of either South Africans or permanent residence permit holders. It’s also necessary to invest at least of R5 million into the book value of the business.

PM Immigration Pty Ltd is a robust immigration practitioners firm with over 9 years’ experience in Immigration law, immigration application and immigration assessments.

No Evidence of a Relationship between the Applicants

The first reason is lack of evidence to prove your marital relationship a genuine one in the eyes of immigration. For instance, you don’t have any pictures together, no joined bank accounts, no records of previous text messages or phone calls, you didn’t travel together or the sponsor never even came to see you in the country you stay in. You cannot provide solid details of the relationship, or the details do not match up. All are clear reasons for a refused visa.

Inconsistency in information provided to the Department

If you give Immigration a dishonest or bogus documentation, this will result in you being qualified for the public interest criteria. An example of this would be, when you try to create a fraudulent divorce certificate from your previous marriage, fake marriage certificate from your country, or fake information and documents to show the evidence of your relationship and thought that Immigration might not be aware of or verify it. You would be entirely wrong, mainly because every little bit of information you provide, and all documents you submit will go through their legitimate and honesty check.

Inability to show the commitment to each other due to significant, age, cultural and social differences

Abnormal differences between partners may encourage suspicion of the immigration about your matrimonial relationship. Significant differences in linguistic, age, cultural and social differences between the parties would lead immigration to assume the applicant and sponsor are not in an authentic relationship, as they may not even know each other.

At PM Immigration our team combines unique core capabilities and strengths with years of experience in various fields and industries and we’ve put them together to create a trustworthy, dependable group of representatives working for you and allow the specialists to help you.

There is a belief that foreign nationals who give birth on South African soil automatically receive citizenship for their offspring, this is not true.

In a situation whereby both the parents are not citizens of South Africa, the child is issued with a “unabridged birth certificate”. This document is not acknowledged as an identity document and cannot be used to register kids for school or to receive social grants. This documentation can be used however, to obtain a passport on behalf of the child at the relevant embassy within South Africa, to register the child for a passport, in order for the parents to acquire the correct visa to match their own child.

If one of the parent’s is a South African citizen/resident, the parent will be able to apply for citizenship on that footing, they will then need to firstly submit an application for an unabridged birth certificate. The unabridged birth certificate lists both of the parents name’s on it. The foreign national of the child is not stated on the unabridged birth certificate and as one can imagine this has caused much chaos.

These adverse circumstances also affect the millions of adopted kids too. There are abandoned kids who have possible parents, willing and able to take them into their homes and take those in as part of their families yet legally the kids are required to have a name, identity number or country of origin. These children who are abandoned by their foreign parents are literally left and neglected.

The Department of Social Development ensures us that they will take care of the kids that are in need of supervision and protection. They state that all Kids must have birth certificates!

On the positive side the SA Human Rights Commission are going to asses why kids born in South Africa to foreign parents are not being given birth certificates as well as why they are not automatically granted citizenship.

As said by the deputy chairperson of SAHR she was not aware that unabridged birth certificates were not being granted to kids of foreign parents and that they will be looking into this matter very thoroughly.

Immigration is a big deal for anyone planning on doing it. Besides the personal challenges of starting a new life in another country, adapting to that culture and making a living, there are a lot of prerequisite processes that need to be handled with the utmost care before you can even start thinking of setting down roots and flourishing in a new place.

Immigration laws differ from country to country, and since the average person who is thinking of immigrating is not specialist in immigration law, these decisions are often best made with the assistance of an agency that can provide one.

For those looking to move to South Africa, there are a number of excellent opportunities to make the most of, making our country a popular choice for those looking to do the move.

Particularly where applications are made for working or studying permits, it is essential to first complete a South African immigration assessment form to determine the viability of doing so.

Here we will discuss what these forms are, why they are important and what they include. Additionally, we will also look at a few reasons why people choose to immigrate to South Africa, give an overview of what is required to work here as a foreign national, as well as how to select an immigration agency that you can trust to ensure that the application process goes as smoothly as possible.

What is an Immigration Assessment?

An immigration assessment form allows you and embassies to determine how viable an application for working or studying permits are, and whether or not you can benefit from the actual act of immigration.

These forms are fairly simple, requiring fairly basic information about you and your dependencies that can illuminate whether or not you will likely find success through the immigration process.

These assessment forms may well vary from country to country, depending on the criteria they have set out for accepting immigrants into their borders; particularly where working and studying therein is concerned.

These forms can be filled out at embassies or through assisting immigration agencies, and should be done before the application process commences, to ensure that you don’t waste any time or money on possibly fruitless efforts.

What Questions Does It Include?

As stated above, these forms require the applicant to fill out some basic information as clearly and as honestly as possible. They include details pertaining to personal details, work experience, reasons for immigration and any dependencies that might travel with the person immigrating.

Personal Details

The personal details required by a standard South African immigration assessment form include what you would expect.

Your name and surname, your date of birth and gender and any important contact information such as work numbers, mobile phone numbers and email addresses should be included, so that you can be conducted by the person overseeing the assessment.

Origin & Nationality

As is the case with any form of immigration, these forms require as much detailed information about the applicant’s nationality, the country they were born in, as well as what city or town they are currently living in, even if that city or town is not within their country of birth.

Since different countries have different agreements in place as to how immigration works between them, these details form a crucial part of outlining the rest of the application process.

Occupation and Professional Experience

This is particularly important for those looking to apply for working permits for South Africa, and should be answered honestly and in great detail. In some instances, you may even need to supply supporting documents to back up your claims.

Basically, you need to give as much detail as possible about your current or previous occupation, your education and qualifications, motivations for pursuing a career abroad, as well as your total working experience.

This will help to determine whether or not there are any viable working opportunities after immigration.

What is Financial Emigration

You may recently have read our article about a new South African tax law affecting South Africans living abroad. According to it, any South African living and working abroad for an extended amount of time, is liable to pay tax on their foreign income, to SARS. In addition to this, South Africa has a standing double taxation agreement with many other countries, meaning that immigrants in these places will pay a percentage of their income not only to SARS, but also to the country in question.

This, understandably, brings about a number of concerns to South Africans living and working abroad, and if you have found yourself begrudgingly in this bracket of earners, there are a few things you can do. You can either tie your money up in elaborate investment funds that offer tax benefits, or you can file for financial emigration with SARS and the South African Reserve Bank. But what does this mean?

Financial Emigration in a Nutshell

Financial emigration involves informing SARS and the South African Federal Reserve Bank that you no longer pay tax to the South African government. When informing them of it, you should know that there will be some degree of investigation involved in their part, and so it needs to be done thoroughly and properly. Bare in minds, however, that you need to have no financial assets in South Africa, and should have been working and living abroad for a period in excess of 5 years.

The process is as follows:

1. Complete an MP336 form
2. Obtain an emigration tax clearance certificate from SARS.
3. Submit your application to the SARB.
4. Once financial emigration is confirmed, you will need to pay a once-off capital gains tax on certain assets, both locally and abroad.

Contact PM Immigration for Assistance

The procedure isn’t always as clear cut as this, and is largely dependent on your unique situation. For assistance with all things related to immigration, be sure to contact a representative from PM Immigration today, or visit our website for details on our services.

Stand Out

Having a qualification from a foreign country ensures you’ll have a step above the rest when companies are going through cvs as many people who apply to jobs in South Africa have studied in South Africa and there’s not much that differentiates them from the res. An international qualification can also help you with international migration in the future.

Cultural Expansion

You are guaranteed to learn a thing or two about new cultures, languages and religions. You will also experience what it’s like being part of a new society because studying or working in a foreign country are completely different experiences therefore you’ll have more to work with if you ever consider immigrating to that country. Along your journey you will meet a diverse group of people who could develop into lifelong friends or turn into business associates through the power of networking.

Tuition

International Immigration with the intent of studding may seem costly however in some cases you may find it more affordable to study in a foreign country than in South Africa and the quality of education will almost always outrank that of South African tertiary education. This is possible because some foreign universities offer international bursaries to a lucky few.

The Process

As Immigration specialists, PM Immigration can help you with the entire process. The Study Visa is a temporary residence visa which can be applied for by any applicant who has been accepted as a full time student at any recognised University, college or school in South Africa.

Contact PM Immigration to make your Immigration process a smooth one.

 

Skip what you ask? A boring landscape, the same routine every day, high costs of living and few exciting animals to marvel at. Here’s why you should consider relocation to South Africa.

 

Multicultural and Very Tolerant

Whilst English is one of the most predominantly spoken languages in our country, we actually have eleven official languages. The controversy surrounding our past has lead us to become a Nation that celebrates cultural diversity and differences in religion, race, ethnic groups and sexuality. We are proudly known as ‘The Rainbow Nation’ – so no matter who you are, you will fit in and be loved here.

 

Great Weather and Landscape

South Africa has a beautiful landscape that will have you enjoying visual splendours that range from rainforest to desert and bushveld to mountainous. Of course, we have beautiful coastlines as well! Our Winter’s stay warm in comparison with cotenants like Europe, and many of our provinces enjoy lovely, warm summers that are cooled down by passing and aesthetically pleasing afternoon thunder showers.

 

Great Animals (and Great People)

We are home to the glorious Big Five; elephant, Leopard, Lion, Rhino and Buffalo (they even feature on our Rands), and some beautifully exotic animals like the giraffe, cheetah and zebra. As if our stunning wildlife wasn’t enough, sources have said that almost ninety percent of visitors who came to South Africa during the 2010 Fifa World Cup found South Africans to be “very friendly”

 

We are Economical

Our cost of living is exceptionally fair, and so, inspired by the infamous saying “Pack for Perth”, we did a comparison between Johannesburg and Perth living costs via Numbeo:

 

• Consumer Prices in Perth are 61.29% higher than in Johannesburg
• Rent Prices in Perth are 66.57% higher than in Johannesburg
• Restaurant Prices in Perth are 77.47% higher than in Johannesburg
• Groceries Prices in Perth are 80.00% higher than in Johannesburg
• Local Purchasing Power in Perth is 52.28% higher than in Johannesburg

 

Migrate to South Africa

With an economical cost of living, friendly people, beautiful landscapes, animals and weather (not to mention very few natural disasters or terrorist attacks), living in South Africa is a viable option for many. If you are one of the people who thinks so, contact immigration specialists at PM Immigration Johannesburg or visit their website for further information.

 

Immigration is a complicated enough affair, however a recent amendment to the South African Income Tax Act will target those who are living and earning abroad. This will have fairly wide-reaching implications for those who have already immigrated, or are planning to do so. But you do have options to help protect your standard of living in the face of this questionable amendment.

What is Expat Tax?

The amendment is due to be enforced in 2020 and will subject all South Africans living abroad to pay tax on foreign earnings should they continue to work outside of the country for more than 183 days, with 60 of them being consecutive.

Wherever annual income exceeds over R1 million (which is surprisingly easily done), that individual will be liable for income tax of up to 45% of their earnings.

That sounds like quite a threshold to hit, but this amount won’t only include earnings, but also housing allowance, retirement benefits and other expenses afforded to international employees such as travel allowance.

Considering the difference in exchange rates in countries like the USA and the United Kingdom, this threshold will be all too easily hit for many South Africans working abroad.

Still, the law is the law and must be complied with, but you do have options, albeit some of them unpleasant.

You Could Repatriate Yourself

The clearest answer to this conundrum, for many, is the simplest one. Come back to South Africa and earn a living here. Of course, for many, that isn’t even an option. If you have spent years building up a life abroad, you can attest to how difficult it is to dump everything and come back.

Set up Funds to Cover Your Assets

With the right approach (and of course subject to the laws of the country) you may be in a position to set up financial structures that limit the liability you face while protecting your foreign income. This shouldn’t be done without care however, and should be done alongside a financial adviser and an immigration law specialist.

Consider Financial Immigration

Financial immigration is also a step that should be taken with absolute care, and should only be considered if you are wholly settled in a foreign country, and have been for a long time. It basically involves informing SARS and the Reserve Bank that you are no longer an ordinary South African citizen. This will, however, class you as a non-resident to South Africa, so it should be carefully considered before you commit to it.

Looking for Assistance with Immigration?

There is a lot involved in the process of immigration. With the right assistance, however, there is no reason why the process should move slowly. For assistance from a team of experienced immigration specialists, be sure to get into contact with a representative from PM Immigration today.

A visa is an endorsement on a passport stating that the holder is permitted to enter, leave, or stay in a country for a specified period of time. Visas are issued to a person depending on the purpose of their visit to the specific country and each country has their own specific visa classifications. The country whose visa classifications we will be focusing on today is the United States of America.

B-1/B-2
B-1/B-2 are visa types that are granted to people visiting the U.S. as tourists or for vacations. People who will be receiving medical treatment in the United States, are also granted this type of visa. This visa also allows someone to stay in the United States for 90 days with the possibility of an extension.

K-1
Foreign nationals planning on marrying a U.S. citizen are granted K-1 visas. This visa allows the fiancée for the American citizen to be in the country for a period of 90 days before they are a married. The wedding must take place within the given 90 days.

H-1B
H-1B visas are work visas given to individuals who plan to work in the country, these individuals must have legitimate job offers from a U.S.company to be considered for such a visa.

H-2B
This type of work visa is granted to individuals in a job field that the U.S. is in need of. Non-agricultural workers can be issued this type of visa.

TN-NAFTA
The TN-NAFTA visa is made specifically for Canadian and Mexican nationals seeking employment within the U.S., the individuals who apply for this visa must also be in an eligible job category.

F-1
The F-1 visa is a student visa given to individuals who plan to study in the U.S.. Generally issued to persons going to tertiary institutions and is only valid for the duration of the applicant’s studies.

J-1
This visa is mostly used to grant individuals participating in programs offered by schools, businesses and other organizations.

Acquiring a U.S. visa is no easy task that is why if it is best to hire a team of experienced immigration practitioners to handle the job for you. And with over 9 years’ experience in immigration law, immigration application, and immigration assessments, PM Immigration is certainly the right team for the job.

Living and working (or studying) in the USA is a dream for many people. Having grown up on Hollywood movies we’ve taken in the sites before even getting there, wondering what it must be like to visit the Big Apple, the Grand Canyon or to try our luck in some of Vegas’ most prestigious casinos. The States has a whole lot to offer those looking to immigrate there, but  getting there can be a little complicated, especially where applying for the visa is concerned. Here is a guide on where to start when applying for a visa to visit or live in the USA, to make the process a little easier for you.

To Begin With

Before starting your visa application, you will need to be accepted to the Student and Exchange Visitor Programme, and this is done by enrolling into, and being accepted to the accredited school of your choice. Once that has been completed, you will need to pay a Student and Exchange Visitor Information System fee. Once you have done that, you can start applying for you visa.

Applying for the Visa

Next you will need to apply for a study visa. These are issued by the U.S Department of State at any US consulate (such as the one in Sandhurst). This appointment will include an interview with a department representative, where you will be expected to inform them of your plans while visiting the United States, and what you will be doing once your studies are over.

In order to apply for the visa, you will need proof of your acceptance into an SEVP certified school, which will come in the form of their acceptance letter. You will also need to prove your ability to pay for the studies, as well as for living expenses while living abroad. As such, you will want to take bank statements along with you. You will also need to bring a receipt to prove that you paid the Student and Exchange Visitor Information fee.

When applying for a F-1 visa to study in the USA, you will need to show that you are prepared to enrol. So bring any academic transcripts, degrees, diplomas, certificates or test scores that apply to this, along with you to the consulate.

Contact PM Immigration Today

If you are planning on immigrating to the US, either to work or to study, we can help the process go more smoothly for you. For assistance with everything from applying for the visa to getting you settled, contact a representative from PM Immigration today, or visit our website for additional information.