Campbells

Greetings all,

Some news that folk may not be aware of and is extremely serious for ANYONE considering to move to South Africa.

In Nov last year I found out that I would have to take up a SA passport for traveling in & out of the country and when I looked into the reasons why I was told that SA is no longer going to accept SA Citizenship (green ID book) for entry to SA. I was told by the dept of home affairs that I would HAVE TO apply for a SA passport, being who I am have never enjoyed being told I HAVE TO so I did some research before submitting the application.

It turns out that as of Oct this year SA will no longer allow dual citizenship and needless to say that I have since submitted a form to renege my SA citizenship which was actually automatically given to me in the eighties as in these days they may just have needed me on the Angolan border so in fact it was something that I never requested. Needless to say and at the absolute horror of the staff at the home affairs I have now reneged my SA citizenship as there is ZERO question of choice between UK & SA passports.
Although I’m not a gambling man I would put a good sum on how many Brit (& other nations) are not going to give up their passport for an SA one. This sounds like a course of events that happened in other countries in Africa.

I have also heard that there has been a whole lot of land seizure in the Northern Province so if this is the case the *%$## has already started to hit the fan here. We are so very happy to be getting out of here and it seems as if it is just in time.


Hakunamatata.

Campbell

JAJ

Can you provide any official reference for this?



Jeremy

Stuart James

I would love to see it if he can, unfortunatley he he is wrong.

Pablo

The only thing that has happened with the change to the SA passport rules is to bring the legislation into line with the SA Constitution, which forbids the depriving of citizenship to an SA national.

Dual citizenship is *not* forbidden. All that is required is that, if you are an SA citizen, you use your SA passport and not the passport of another country, to enter and leave SA.

In the past you were required to have a letter from the Dept of Home Affairs if you wanted to also hold the passport of a 2nd country. This rule has now been dropped. If you are an SA citizen, you can now use, e.g., your UK passport as you wish, the only restriction being that you must use your SA passport to leave/enter SA.

What has happened is actually an *improvement* on the previous situation.

You'll find full details in various places, but you can try askharry.co.za or homecomingrevolution.co.za

And, before anyone says anything, I am not one of the naive starry eyed people who think all is fine and dandy in SA. It isn't.

But there is a lot of confusion going about about this new passport regulation, and really there's nothing to worry about.

Manc

If South Africa did take your British passport. Then just apply for a new one from the UK High Commission.

bruce67

I left SA in 1995, SA citizen by same means as original poster(national service), never had a South African passport only British.
Any idea of the state of my citezenship?

Bruce(just curious)

Pablo

If you were a SA citizen then, you still are now, unless you have formally renounced it.

Sunlover

Still Spouting your usual busllshit I see Campbell.

Why is it that whenever people decide to leave South Africa they have to make themselves feel better about it and justify their decision by trashing the country ?

Under the new legislation you don't have to give up your South African passport. You just have to use your SA passport to travel in and out of South Africa.

When you are asked if you have a visa for Australia (or wherever you are going ) you just have to show the passport for the other country.

Anyway good luck with life in NZ - you will find it boring, cold, wet and isolated.

Campbells

Yeah mate, G'day or is it? Morể for you?

Good one there matey. Accusing me of bullshit is good when you are sitting in Australia.
If South Africa is just so cool why you there mate?

I rest my case.

Now before you try running NZ down please tell me what authority you have on NZ? How long did you stay here mate?

Lekker dag Mnr as you are obviously an Afrikaner.

Cheers

Campbell.

sa2oz

No need to trade. Keep both.
I went to the South African Dept of home affairs website
http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/
typed dual citizenship and found the following.
http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/sa_ci...%20citizenship

About 2/3 down the page it clearly says you can have dual citizenship, but cannot enter RSA with a foreign passport to evade duty.

I am interested because I want another passport, thats why I left South Africa.
Where do you get this info?
Where are you living?

DarrenD

I have a query about this amendment act.

From what I can see from the link, it came in 15 Sept 04. Is this correct or has it not been implemented yet ?

I am also in the process of getting PR visa for Australia. Under old rules to keep SA passport his had to be on the SA passport (dual nationality).

Does this mean under new rules the visa could be put in the UK passport ?

Also, if in future look to gain Aus citizenship, can we keep UK citizenship and SA, or would we have to renounce one ?

sorry for so many questions, but you can see the effect of the changes (!)

G'Day

You can keep both passports but have to request to keep your SA one when you become a UK citizen.

BUT..and here's the sh*t part, IF you have a SA passport you cannot travel to SA with any other passport. I am not a fan of the SA government and find this requirement highly suspect given the political climate of the place and the desperation of the country to prevent skilled workers and tax-payers (read "milk-cows") from leaving the country. I do not know of a single other democratic country that has such a restriction. Furthermore I do not think there's much your new country of residence can do to help you, politically, if the you-know-what hits the fan while you are inside the country and the SA gov decides to suspend all international travel of it's citizens (don't laugh, it happens). If you are in SA as a SA citizen I do not think many adoptive countries will stick their necks out to get you out of that situation. Once in SA on a SA passport you are a SA citizen who is at the mercy of the SA government and that doesn't sit too well with me.....In fact it downright stinks to high heaven as far as I am concerned.

CPW

The USA and Australia are two countries that spring to mind - the US insists that US citizens enter the country using a US passport and, similarly, Australians must use an Australian passport to enter and leave Australia. They can of course have any other passport(s) that they legally possess with them, and they can use any such passport abroad. I don't think that this is such an unusual requirement, although it's certainly not a universal one. (The UK does not have it, for example.)

G'Day

Mmmm, I still don't trust the blighters. At least in the US & Australia your chances of getting caught up in a national uprising or hostile "takeover bid" by an opposing party is not so high :-)

JAJ

If you don't want to be a South African citizen then just take a foreign citizenship without permission and you will lose that status, as far as I know. Or go through the hoops of renouncing your South African citizenship.

You would need to check what immigration/residence rights you might still have in South Africa as a foreigner, but that may not be important.

The UK advises new citizens who no longer have their 'old' nationality to get a letter from the other country confirming that, and sent a copy to the Foreign Office as evidence of their right to British consular protection in that country.

In response to a question further up the thread, *naturalised* British citizens will not lose citizenship on becoming Australian citizens. On top of that, children born in Australia to naturalised Britons will generally be British citizens by descent, or eligible for registration as British.

Jeremy