Legal Articles and Guides

Foreigners have been able to buy their way into SA on fake documents with the help of Home Affairs officials who treated the visa system like an open marketplace, according to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

Law enforcement agencies have arrested nearly 60 000 undocumented foreigners since the beginning of the year as the government steps up operations targeting illegal immigration and other crimes, reports TimesLIVE.

The need to submit medical reports for permanent residency and visa applications has been waived by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) with immediate effect.

Disbarred SA lawyer and alleged shoplifter Peet Viljoen implored a US immigration judge to send him home as soon as possible because his father, Petrus, is reportedly suffering from prostate cancer and is dying.

Fraudulent marriages and life partnerships have emerged as key tools in immigration fraud, frequently involving foreign ‘pastors and prophets’ who enter SA on visitor visas and later form sham unions to obtain Permanent Residence Permits.

Human trafficking could be among the reasons behind the arrival of the Palestinian families in SA as the organisation that handled the departure is unregistered and facilitated the travel irregularly and irresponsibly.

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the 153 Palestinians who ‘mysteriously’ landed at ORT International Airport on Thursday, appear to have been ‘flushed out’, reports News24.

Law clinics are overwhelmed with queries from asylum seekers blocked from accessing SA’s asylum system. Asylum seekers are required to apply for an asylum seeker’s permit (also known as a section 22 permit) in person at a Refugee Reception Office within five days of arriving in SA.

Sixteen-year-old Daniela Rodriguez, born in Cape Town to Cuban parents, cannot complete grade 12 next year due to her lack of legal status in SA.

SA’s fully digital visa system will go live in September, enabling visitors to apply online and store their QR-coded visas on their mobile phones, reports News24.

President Cyril Ramaphosa can take credit for his role for steering SA away from a full-blown race war in the 1990s, but he walked into a Donald Trump trap in the Oval Office yesterday.

Forty-nine Afrikaners granted refugee status by the US departed from SA on a chartered flight last night. The US Embassy earlier informed Pretoria in a diplomatic note that the first batch of members of the Afrikaner community would be admitted into the US, making good on its offer of ‘refugee status’ for those seeking to leave the country.

The Western Cape High Court Judge Constance Nziweni has told Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials to stop acting like gatekeepers by refusing to accept residence and status applications.

The Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) has dismissed an application by the son of the fugitive Ajay Gupta, seeking to compel the Department of Home Affairs to issue a birth certificate and passport for his daughter.

Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, has been refused a visa to visit the UK by the British Government for his alleged support of and for ‘glorying’ Hamas, according to The Citizen.