News / Africa
SA backdates issuing of ZSP permits, specifies water-tight conditions
16 Feb 2015 at 09:49hrs | Views
Dept. of Home Affairs (SA) backdates issuing of ZSP permits, specifies water-tight conditions.
We can indeed confirm that collections of permit decision outcomes under the Zimbabwe Special Permit Dispensation (ZSP) officially launched on the 1st October 2014 have been rolled out at all VFS Applications Centres throughout South Africa, just in case some eligible applicants were still not aware. The permits being collected at the moment have an issue date of November and December of 2014, starting from about two (2) weeks after submissions on the 1st November 2014.
To illustrate, we as ZSP Permits Forum have it on good fresh record of an applicant who was called on 13 February 2015 by VFS Officials to come collect their permit whose submissions were made in early November last year and the issue date of the permit is also in November 2014.The process is such that an SMS/Email is sent to the applicant informing them their permit outcome is ready for collection, but it also indicates that a VFS official will give them a voice call to arrange for the release day of the decision outcome or procedure thereof if any.
However, the issued ZSP permit also specifies about four water-tight conditions effective before and after the permit expiry date of 31 December 2017. These include not being able to seek permanent residence status in South Africa irrespective of length of stay in South Africa wherein the criteria is usually at least five (5) years for any non-resident, or three (3)years proof of marriage to a South African citizen. Also, the other specified condition is that the permit is not renewable or extendable, and that the holder cannot change the permit status while still in South Africa.
It is still not yet clear as to why a permit whose adjudication process is finalised about two (2) weeks after submission can only be released after about two (2) months after its official issue date. We hope to get the desirable answers soon as most applicants have experienced a number of inconveniences and faced other challenges yet someone is sitting on a pile of already issued permits.
As an organised and recognised structure we shall remain the watchdogs of this dispensation process at all times and keep engaging the responsible authorities at any government level. We still hope most of the decision outcomes will be favourable for most eligible applicants besides the stringent conditions applicable to these types of permits at least for now.
This press publication statement has been issued by the ZSP Permits Forum in association with ZIM-ID (SA) Team Diaspora. We can be contacted on zim.id263@gmail.com or on the following numbers: +27 71 210 9685/ +27 73 812 5463. For other instant fresh updates we make other regular posts on our Facebook page "ZSP Permits Forum".
We can indeed confirm that collections of permit decision outcomes under the Zimbabwe Special Permit Dispensation (ZSP) officially launched on the 1st October 2014 have been rolled out at all VFS Applications Centres throughout South Africa, just in case some eligible applicants were still not aware. The permits being collected at the moment have an issue date of November and December of 2014, starting from about two (2) weeks after submissions on the 1st November 2014.
To illustrate, we as ZSP Permits Forum have it on good fresh record of an applicant who was called on 13 February 2015 by VFS Officials to come collect their permit whose submissions were made in early November last year and the issue date of the permit is also in November 2014.The process is such that an SMS/Email is sent to the applicant informing them their permit outcome is ready for collection, but it also indicates that a VFS official will give them a voice call to arrange for the release day of the decision outcome or procedure thereof if any.
However, the issued ZSP permit also specifies about four water-tight conditions effective before and after the permit expiry date of 31 December 2017. These include not being able to seek permanent residence status in South Africa irrespective of length of stay in South Africa wherein the criteria is usually at least five (5) years for any non-resident, or three (3)years proof of marriage to a South African citizen. Also, the other specified condition is that the permit is not renewable or extendable, and that the holder cannot change the permit status while still in South Africa.
As an organised and recognised structure we shall remain the watchdogs of this dispensation process at all times and keep engaging the responsible authorities at any government level. We still hope most of the decision outcomes will be favourable for most eligible applicants besides the stringent conditions applicable to these types of permits at least for now.
This press publication statement has been issued by the ZSP Permits Forum in association with ZIM-ID (SA) Team Diaspora. We can be contacted on zim.id263@gmail.com or on the following numbers: +27 71 210 9685/ +27 73 812 5463. For other instant fresh updates we make other regular posts on our Facebook page "ZSP Permits Forum".
Source - ZIM-ID
