News / Africa
SA permits for Zimbabweans, latest news
03 Mar 2014 at 06:51hrs | Views
South Africa Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor says she will make recommendations to the Cabinet on how to proceed with the management of Zimbabweans, who received a special dispensation two years ago to allow them to become documented work seekers. This expires at the end of this year, and a decision will be made before the election, she says.
Pandor says the latest round of SA regulations, which will bring the Immigration Amendment Acts of 2007 and 2011 into force, and on which she will now consider comments, are not the end of the story. Immigration needs a complete "rethink", she says, and the regulations will in the interim "address some inefficiency and fill some gaps".
At the top of the list of the conundrums to be addressed in future is the flow of unskilled migrants from neighbouring countries into South Africa. This needs to be managed, she says, through allowing some but not all work seekers from the region access to South Africa's labour market.
"Countries like ours whose neighbours rely on it need to make bilateral treaties, instead of what we have, which is a loose arrangement. People come in, they use the asylum-seeking provisions, and they stay and work in low-skilled jobs. Migration needs to be managed. Some economic migrants can work here but not all," she says.
The idea is that the treaties - to be pursued by the next administration - would specify the number of economic migrants to be accommodated under a new Southern African Development Community work-seeker permit.
What the regulations do deal with is tightening up on abuses - such as marriages of convenience - and making it riskier to break visa conditions. They also make changes to the regime for allowing in skilled people - which has sparked a great deal of commentary among immigration attorneys. Ms Pandor says: "The intention is to ease the access. We wouldn't want to have people the country needs being unable to come here. Those people should be able to get visas more easily."
There are four visa types that will apply to skilled people wanting to work in South Africa. The first is the intra-company visa, most commonly used by multinationals and large corporations to rotate management around the world and to import specialised skills. Lino de Ponte, director of tax and legal at Deloitte, says this visa has been made more attractive as it will now be valid for four years rather than two.
The second is the corporate visa, most commonly used to import skilled people for large infrastructure projects as well as to import migrant labour for the mining industry. The conditions for this visa - as well as for the general work visa, the third type of work visa outlined in the regulations - include that a company must first show it has performed "a diligent search" and has been unable to fill the positions concerned with South Africans.
To prove "a diligent search" has occurred, an employer must obtain certification by the Department of Labour to this effect. This, many immigration attorneys complain, is the most undesirable dimension to the regulations. The department, immigration consultant Julia Willand says, has been "historically low in capacity", leading to long delays in the work visa application process.
Practitioners also complain that the procedures compel them to approach regional offices of the department, where efficiency can be particularly poor.
Ms Pandor says she is aware of the complaints and hopes to persuade her Department of Labour counterpart, Mildred Oliphant, to establish a special unit to deal with immigration processing. This is what she has done in her own department to expedite applications. "I really think we need to improve if we are serious about skills," she says.
To qualify to bring in employees on a corporate work visa, a company will need to show that 60% of its employees are local - which stakeholders broadly agree is not terribly onerous.
The fourth permit available to skilled people will be a "critical skills visa" largely similar to what is presently known as the exceptional skills permit. In this case, an individual would not need an offer of employment to seek work in South Africa as long as their skills were on a list compiled by the home affairs minister. Their qualification would also need to be vetted and approved by the South African Qualifications Authority.
Ms Pandor says while the "exceptional skills" list was previously compiled by the Department of Labour, which arguably has better expertise in the area, she has commissioned researchers to advise her on it, and it will be revised from time to time.
Most difficult of all the permits to obtain remains the general work visa. As people in this category are usually not as skilled as those in the intra-company or critical skills categories, it is here where the competition over jobs between locals and foreigners is greatest. "These visas will be difficult to get, but they are intentionally difficult, not just in South Africa but all over the world," says Mr de Ponte.
The requirement for "a diligent search" by an employer is to ensure an individual on a general work permit genuinely has skills and experience not obtainable elsewhere. Says Ms Pandor: "You will have to show this (was someone you needed) and wasn't just a job for a friend who you like very much, who is living overseas."
The regulations also make exceptions for individuals coming into South Africa to fulfil short-term contracts in the fields of entertainment, journalism and film production, which Ms Pandor says is another area in which the government has tried to make skills migration easier.
Pandor says the latest round of SA regulations, which will bring the Immigration Amendment Acts of 2007 and 2011 into force, and on which she will now consider comments, are not the end of the story. Immigration needs a complete "rethink", she says, and the regulations will in the interim "address some inefficiency and fill some gaps".
At the top of the list of the conundrums to be addressed in future is the flow of unskilled migrants from neighbouring countries into South Africa. This needs to be managed, she says, through allowing some but not all work seekers from the region access to South Africa's labour market.
"Countries like ours whose neighbours rely on it need to make bilateral treaties, instead of what we have, which is a loose arrangement. People come in, they use the asylum-seeking provisions, and they stay and work in low-skilled jobs. Migration needs to be managed. Some economic migrants can work here but not all," she says.
The idea is that the treaties - to be pursued by the next administration - would specify the number of economic migrants to be accommodated under a new Southern African Development Community work-seeker permit.
What the regulations do deal with is tightening up on abuses - such as marriages of convenience - and making it riskier to break visa conditions. They also make changes to the regime for allowing in skilled people - which has sparked a great deal of commentary among immigration attorneys. Ms Pandor says: "The intention is to ease the access. We wouldn't want to have people the country needs being unable to come here. Those people should be able to get visas more easily."
There are four visa types that will apply to skilled people wanting to work in South Africa. The first is the intra-company visa, most commonly used by multinationals and large corporations to rotate management around the world and to import specialised skills. Lino de Ponte, director of tax and legal at Deloitte, says this visa has been made more attractive as it will now be valid for four years rather than two.
The second is the corporate visa, most commonly used to import skilled people for large infrastructure projects as well as to import migrant labour for the mining industry. The conditions for this visa - as well as for the general work visa, the third type of work visa outlined in the regulations - include that a company must first show it has performed "a diligent search" and has been unable to fill the positions concerned with South Africans.
To prove "a diligent search" has occurred, an employer must obtain certification by the Department of Labour to this effect. This, many immigration attorneys complain, is the most undesirable dimension to the regulations. The department, immigration consultant Julia Willand says, has been "historically low in capacity", leading to long delays in the work visa application process.
Practitioners also complain that the procedures compel them to approach regional offices of the department, where efficiency can be particularly poor.
Ms Pandor says she is aware of the complaints and hopes to persuade her Department of Labour counterpart, Mildred Oliphant, to establish a special unit to deal with immigration processing. This is what she has done in her own department to expedite applications. "I really think we need to improve if we are serious about skills," she says.
To qualify to bring in employees on a corporate work visa, a company will need to show that 60% of its employees are local - which stakeholders broadly agree is not terribly onerous.
The fourth permit available to skilled people will be a "critical skills visa" largely similar to what is presently known as the exceptional skills permit. In this case, an individual would not need an offer of employment to seek work in South Africa as long as their skills were on a list compiled by the home affairs minister. Their qualification would also need to be vetted and approved by the South African Qualifications Authority.
Ms Pandor says while the "exceptional skills" list was previously compiled by the Department of Labour, which arguably has better expertise in the area, she has commissioned researchers to advise her on it, and it will be revised from time to time.
Most difficult of all the permits to obtain remains the general work visa. As people in this category are usually not as skilled as those in the intra-company or critical skills categories, it is here where the competition over jobs between locals and foreigners is greatest. "These visas will be difficult to get, but they are intentionally difficult, not just in South Africa but all over the world," says Mr de Ponte.
The requirement for "a diligent search" by an employer is to ensure an individual on a general work permit genuinely has skills and experience not obtainable elsewhere. Says Ms Pandor: "You will have to show this (was someone you needed) and wasn't just a job for a friend who you like very much, who is living overseas."
The regulations also make exceptions for individuals coming into South Africa to fulfil short-term contracts in the fields of entertainment, journalism and film production, which Ms Pandor says is another area in which the government has tried to make skills migration easier.
Source - BDLive
