Big Alf

Hi All

I am looking to attend University in Cape town in Feb and need to apply for a temporary residence permit for the year I am there.

Does anyone here have any experience of applying for one of these?

I already have my Police Subject Access report and University acceptance letter, I am having my medical and x-ray this friday. I dont yet have my accomodation sorted out but that shouldnt be too much of an issue (I hope!) but there a few things I am unclear on.

Insurance: Do I need a full medical plan or will an annual travel insurance be acceptable? Do I need to get this before applying?

Application: Can I visit SA house with all my documents and walk out with a visa the same day, or do I have to submit them and keep my fingers crossed for 30 days!?

Repatriation Deposit of £600: Do I have to pay this if I have a return ticket? On the consulate website it states you do not need to buy your ticket before applying, so how does this work!? 'Honest guv, gizza visa and I promise to buy a return ticket'


I have trawled the web for months but can find little indepth info, and have had no joy finding someone to speak to at SA House.

So if anyone has any experience in this and wishes to share it I would be very grateful!

Thanks

Daxk

"I have trawled the web for months but can find little indepth info, and have had no joy finding someone to speak to at SA House."
Google Toy-Toying za, practice your Dance steps, do it in the Foyer at SA House, someone approaches you say "Kunjani" or "Domela"
they will then help you.
PS: if this elicits a response:
The reply to Kunjani will be Sikona and then "Ewena Phuza Black Label" is your response.
If response is "Domela Hokaai" your response would be "Kieteng Hokaai?"
"Eeee Black label??"
if neither works speak English and slip them some £
If the respondent is White and wearing a Safari Suit with Shorts in the middle of Winter leave and find the time machine,wrong year on the dial

Tegwyn

Homecoming Revolution would be only too delighted to help you.

TooFastTim

By February...

Backinafrica

The official govt site seems to be down (re visa apps) - but there's loads of good info on SA Tourism site - so I'm sure you'll find some good answers there:
http://www.southafrica.info/travel/documents/visas.htm

Hope that helps!

ededed

Hi Alf

As you will have noted, not all the posters are going to give you the valuable information that you are looking for. Unfortunately, your only option is going to be dragging yourself up to Whitehall and seeing someone - and sadly Daxk's description of how to get yourself a visa is going to be pretty much on the button. Unless you marry a South African - which is what I did - and me and Mpho are very happy thank you very much, although I haven't seen her or my car in months which is odd.

The shining beacon of shit that is SA House now requires you to phone (at a quid a minute) and make an appointment - when you get there they will tell you what to do, what forms to complete and send you away to gather the info - you then need to phone again (ker-ching, the meter's running folks!), make another appointment and hand the forms in - (at which point they will almost certainly spring a new form / certificate / letter on you), so you have to phone again to make another appointment (hey - JZ needs more shower foam) and go back. Repeat steps 1-3 until you either come right, or lie down in a darkened room at the insanity of it all.

If it were me, I'd come on holiday and stay - they will never find out. They couldn't find their arse in the bath with both hands and a torch.

Apologies for slipping into sarcasm mode. It's a coping mechanism when dealing with home affairs.

Good luck. Just remember "Big" Alf - everyone else took the piss, I gave you reasonable and useful info. If you are looking for someone to punch, that is...

Cheers

Ed

Pablo

Glad to see you've cottoned on to the way things are done. Sad, ain't it. But don't worry, it's nothing that yet another dollop of aid money snatched from my pocket won't solve -- not!

Incidentally, the South African High Commission's pound-a-minute phone scam is an absolute disgrace. And I agree on your advice too about just going in as a tourist. But the Brits are so downtrodden by regulation that they just can't grasp the chaos and contempt for the law you find in Africa. (No offence to the original poster, BTW, it's just frustration at the chaos, corruption, crass moneymaking, and general ineptitude.)

Daxk

"and me and Mpho are very happy thank you very much, although I haven't seen her or my car in months which is odd."

I warned you to rather chuck in another 10 head of cattle and two sheep as the Lobola (Bride Price)
Mpho was muuch too cheap,they saw you coming.

ededed

I gave her 10 cattle and 2 sheep. She just said "thanks - now what's for pudding?". She's probably now the size of a small village, or a JMPD police officer...

uk_vette

As mentioned before,

Buy your return, and enter as a simple tourist.
Then cash in your return, and enjoy your 12 months.
When your ready to return, simply head for 'The flight Center' on St Georges Street.
Say your a student and get 20% off your single back to UK.

I really wouldn't give a second thought about overstaying the three months standard issue on arrival.

Big Alf

Thanks for the comments, both serious, and non-so.


The problem is I am unable to enrol at University without a study permit so getting around it is a moot point i'm afraid.

Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!

TIGGERRAF

And as always a Big Thank You to Ededed , for that reasonable and useful and obviously up to date info. I would like to add my experience hopefully of some use....well if things haven't changed in the last 17 years!

1: Don't drive your car to SA house like I did,the meters cost one pound for 15 minutes....with inflation they have probably given up and use credit cards now.
[1 pound for 15 minutes parking, one-pound per minute phone call, smacks of animal Farm if you asked me].
Just a case of"Monkey See Monkey Do".

2:If you have time to kill and are thirsty, Do Not go to the pub next to SA house and tell the bouncer to "f off" when he asks you if you're gay! It was a knee-jerk reaction , I couldn't see any signs and not a pink teddy bear insight!Narrowly missed another flat face!

TIGGERRAF

I would take it one step further as well. Things are so stuffed up just turn up at the University ,don't enroll ,study for three years and go home. They give everyone a degree at the end of the day . I hear the bog cleaner has a degree in molecular engineering

Pablo

Then I suggest you stick to the rules and just bite the bullet with SA House. You can also read up exactly what the rules are on the Dept. of Home Affairs web site (or you could last time I checked). It's pretty clear that the various bureaucrats intend to milk you for money one way or another (the same applies to those who try to get a Permanent Residence permit) so you may as well accept it.

Have you been told that medical cover is a requirement?

As for the £600 repatriation deposit, I think you'll end up having to pay this.

I do wonder why you need to go to a SA university when there are good ones in the UK.

shiftdelete

..new and improved gay flat face...you crack me up!....