FEDHASA sheds light on immigration and labour regulations
A recent media briefing, after a meeting between Malusi Gigaba, South Africa’s Minister of Home Affairs, and industry stakeholders including the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA) has raised some concerns in the hospitality and tourism industry.
There has been reference to a requirement for all businesses in the South Africa to employ a minimum of 60% South African citizens. However, this requirement, a provision in the Immigration Act and Regulations, only applies when a foreigner makes application to the Department of Home Affairs for a business visa with the intention of starting or investing in a business in the country.
One of the conditions attached to the business visa is that the applicant undertakes to employ not less than 60% South Africans including permanent residents within a period of 12 months from the date of issue of the visa. There is currently no provision in South African labour legislation that makes reference to the employment of a minimum of 60% South Africans.
Work Visas and Expanding Your Business Family
How difficult is it really to obtain a work visa for a foreign skilled employee? Like many things in life, very easy when you know what you need and how to go about it, but near impossible where you are inexperienced and make school-boy errors. We share some expert tips in getting visas for foreign […]
Transferring of Valid Visas into Expired Passports to be Restricted
Effective immediately, the Department of Home Affairs has announced that Temporary Residence visas will no longer be transferred to a new passport if the validity of the visa exceeds the validity of the passport in which the visa was originally endorsed.
Up to date, the Department had been issuing visas for the full validity and not taking the expiry of the passports into consideration. This practice has now been suspended and visas not be issued for periods past the expiry date of the visa.
Chinese SAQA Pre-verification
The South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) now require all Chinese qualifications to be pre-verified by the CADGEEC before submitting same for evaluation. The China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Evaluation Committee (CADGEEC), a special committee subordinate to the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Association, is a social academic organization nationwide consisting of the unit […]
All businesses to prioritise the hiring of a minimum of 60% South Africans citizens
Cape Town – All businesses – not just those in the hospitality or construction sectors – were required to prioritise the hiring of South African citizens and have a workforce of at least 60 percent South African citizens in their employ, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba has clarified.
Gigaba said his department was preparing for a “mass inspection” of businesses countrywide to ensure they complied.
“This has nothing to do with xenophobia, in fact xenophobic violence is what we want to prevent,” Gigaba said in an interview with the Cape Argus. “We must prioritise the employment of South Africans, and businesses across the board have to comply.”
Gigaba added: “The risk of not employing South Africans is that it endangers the lives of foreigners and the property of companies. If you look at the [xenophobic] violence that erupted in 2015, it started precisely because of a company at Isiphingo in Durban that employed non-South Africans, and South Africans attacked the company.”
90 Visa Exempt Countries for South Africans in 2017
Those who wish to cross the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Ireland or Thailand off their travel bucket lists, are in luck, as the Passport Index of 2017 has declared the aforementioned countries along with an additional 87 countries to be visa-exempt.
The Passport Index edition of 2017 has been launched by the residency and citizenship solutions provider Arton Capital, which ranks the number of countries that can be visited without applying for a visa, by the measure of travel documents (passports).
Over 20 000 investors seek second residency or citizenship around the globe which had led for this specific investment to become a $US2 billion industry.
INTERNATIONAL IMMIGRATION NEWS
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.
Russian Nationals Not Yet Visa-Exempt From South Africa
Russian nationals have been warned that the introduction of the visa-free travel between South Africa and Russia of 90 days has not yet come into effect. This is due to South Africa still being busy with internal processes and the Department of Home Affairs will issue a directive once they are ready for the implementation.
There has been no official time-frame given, but the Russian Embassy expects the process to become effective by end of February 2017.
INTERNATIONAL IMMIGRATION NEWS
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.
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