FOREIGN TAX BUYING TO BE LIFTED – BRITISH COLUMBIA

Following President Donald Trump’s newly instated immigration bans, British Columbia in Canada announced that they will be lifting 15% foreign buyers tax for anyone who will be living in Metro Vancouver with a work permit.

This follows after the foreign buyers tax was implemented in July 2016, which had a skyrocketing effect on the market due to the decrease in residential real-estate sales and prices.

This seems to be an effort to encourage and welcome those who seek refuge around the world to work, stay, and pay taxes in B.C.  They believe that the ‘best and the brightest’ should be able to stay in B.C and this change in tax law aims to attract these individuals.

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TRUMP FOLLOWS THROUGH ON CAMPAIGN PLEDGES

On Wednesday, 25 January 2017, The US President, Donald Trump took his first step to enact his pledge(s) by signing the executive orders to ‘Build a Wall’ on the Mexican border and to prevent sanctuary cities from offering protection to undocumented immigrants.

On 18 October 2016, the Department of Home Affairs launched a new and integrated contact centre to ensure that enquiries and complaints are dealt with efficiently and effectively.

Prior to the new system being implemented, there were a lot of public concerns on how queries were being managed and with many complaints of the telephone lines not being answered. The new system aims to improve the following items as identified –

• Inadequate tracking and record keeping
• Weak coordination and handling of queries among officials
• Inconsistency with applying the standard operating procedures
• Low compliance with service delivery standards

The Department of Home Affairs’ new contact centre will be operated by highly skilled officials and consultants with the necessary knowledge. The Contact Centre will enable the people of the public to lodge their complaints at a central point. All cases will be registered on a central case management system. The Department also endeavours that there will be consistent feedback as all the customer related services will be offered centrally at one branch.

It should be noted that the Department of Home Affairs are in the process of loading additional components of the National Population Register to enable maximum access to information of all the Home Affairs services. The National Identification System, The National Immigration System and the Movement Control System will be integrated within the upcoming months.

The Department of Home Affairs are set on measuring the complaints and compliments to improve the services that are being rendered to the public of South Africa.

You may contact the Contact Centre on 0800 60 11 90 or email hacc@dha.gov.za for any enquiries/complaints or compliments.

The Department of Home Affairs introduced visa-handling service VFS in 2014 to streamline administration. But for foreigners – many of whom bring rare skills and investment into the country, applying to live and work in South Africa and complying with immigration regulations is still a nightmare experience. They report an expensive and cumbersome process in which the Department of Home Affairs allegedly rejects 40 percent of applications out of hand.

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On 27 September 2016, the DHA announced that Lesotho nationals may now apply for the Lesotho Special Permits (LSP) at the VFS application centres without their passports.

Lesotho nationals are still able to apply for the Lesotho Special Permit physically at the DHA offices till 31 December 2016, as the online applications have closed 30 September 2016. However, it is being considered that the online applications might get an extended time frame.

Prior to this new announcement, Lesotho nationals were required to have a valid passport that had to be valid for four years, or a travel document with a Lesotho ID number in order to get permission to stay in South Africa legally.

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