South Africa Tourist Visa - Volunteer Project

Jack

All I can say is that I hope you are NOT paying for your volunteer experience

Firstly volunteer placements should be just that, volunteering & not contributing to the administration coffers elsewhere

Secondly, your volunteer placement should be assisting you on this issue - you shouldn't be needing to use a forum to sort this out

I realise the 2nd situation isn't your case, but I'm hoping the first isn't either!!!

Beware of RSA Immigration!

Kira

What is the NGO doing for you ? What has been their advice to you ? Too often here, the obvious place to start is not addressed by the OP.
Is this NGO just giving stuff away, which simply perpetuates the situation, or do they actually expect the recipient to help themselves to some degree?

Hi Jack,

I am in the same predicament as you and unfortunately am non the wiser. The immigration laws changed in May this year and there is a lot of confusion about what we can and can't do.

I entered the country in Cape Town beginning of July and have a return flight to the UK in January, out of Cape Town. I plan a trip of 3/4 weeks in Namibia, leaving the country 2 days before my visitor's permit expires at the end of September.

Unfortunately for us, the immigration laws changed in May this year. Before you could apply for a visa extension for an additional 90-days. Apparently now, it's not so easy. At the same time, leaving the country before your initial 90-day permit expires and then re-entering RSA after a few days might not work either. Some say (not official sources) that when you return to RSA you must be coming back from your home country. Others say that you need to be out of RSA a minimum amount of time before you come back; so if you plan to go to Namibia, Botswana or Swaziland it'll have to be for quite some time.

Also, until the immigration laws changed a few months ago, you could overstay your permit and just pay a fine. It's been scraped unfortunately. Now, if you overstay your visa you get a ban. Two friends have recently been banned for 5 years despite the fact that they applied for a visa extension (before the laws changed!)! Even if you don't plan to return here for 5 years after you return to the USA, I think it's just not worth it! I know a couple of more people through friends who have also been banned. On a side note, these new rules are ridiculous (although I understand and appreciate why the immigration laws had to change- protecting the job market for South Africans) for tourists who want to be legal in the country and have $, £ and euros to spend and invest in the country. If we get banned, that's 5 years' worth of money that we're willing to spend here. And RSA does depend and earn hugely on tourism. But like I said, it's a side note.

I called Home Affairs today to find out whether I can return to RSA after a few weeks in Namibia. Unfortunately the help wasn't great and I'm not even sure the lady I spoke with fully understood my situation. This is what I sense... nobody really knows what's going on. I'm hopefully going to get some advice from a lawyer friend here in RSA. If/when I find anything out I'll let you know. Another suggestion is that you call the RSA consulate in the US and ask there. They might know/be more helpful.

Hope this is helpful!

Good luck with everything (hopefully we won't need it).

Dixie

Thanks very much for your response. From what I can tell, it seems as if there are lots of different schools of thought (which may be mainly due to the fact that it is difficult to get a straight/consistent answer from any reputable sources. As far as the "minimum amount of time" I'd have to leave the country for, would you know if this issue is a subjective one? What I mean by this is that I would hope to be able to explain to them that my trip really is not that much longer than the 90-day limit and have them realize that there is no ulterior motive involved (staying in the country for a year to work or something like that). Do you think I will have any window of opportunity to be able to have a rational discussion with them? Or will it be a "sorry but you don't have a visa. goodbye!" type of conversation?

Thanks for any other help you can give me and, as I said, thank you for your prior response.

Jack

Hey guys, just wanted to share from my experience from few days ago:
I used all of my 90 days South Africa tourist visa and crossed out to Botswana for two weeks. Got back to the RSA border knowing I will get only 7 days as the new regulations imply. To my surprise the SA immigration officer gave me new 60 days (two months) instead of the 7 I was expecting to get (September 2014).
As far as I know there is no days-limitation per year (Iv'e read their new regulation paper) for RSA, the new rules say that if you spend 90 days in RSA and go to another country which is not you home country, you will be allowed on return with only 7 days. Only after visiting your home country you may be allowed with new 90 days.
In my case I got 60 days even though Botswana is not my home country, so I guess it's still much depends on the officer on board.

Hope you'll find it helpful, and good luck!

Pompelmo, thank you so much for this information!

I didn't realise that the new rules state you only got a 7 day permit upon entering SA from a country that isn't your home country. This makes me very nervous about my trip to Namibia. I'm planning to be out there for 4 weeks and I hoped the longer I 'd be there the better chances of getting a new 90-day permit, and if not 90-days then at least 30 days.

What was the border like? Some South African friends of mine say that the land borders with SA's neighbouring countries aren't the most sophisticated and that I should be ok. Were you asked many questions when re-entering the country?

I think the more chilled the border post is, the better. The main border posts are more likely to be stricter.
I asked my many questions when I left SA to Bots. The immigration officer told me I will be able to get only 7 days on return since I've spent all of my days inside SA without crossing to neighboring countries in the middle.
When I came back to SA I already changed my flight to fit within the 7 days I was expecting to get. The immigration officer asked me how many days I was intending to stay in South Africa and I told him my flight is leaving in five days time (he didn't ask for the ticket though). When I got my passport back, I looked how many days I got and was shocked to see he gave me 60 days.

As the quote says, "god gives nuts to those with no teeth". I already changed my flight and unable to use this privilege days :-(

Pompelmo, that's such a shame that you weren't able to stay longer. I have my return ticket from Cape Town for January but I won't change it just yet, in case I'm also lucky like you and get a longer visa.
I'm re-entering SA on the Namibian-South African overland border so I'm hoping they'll be quite chilled. I imagine that it's the international airports, as well as overland borders with Zim and Mozambique that are stricter, but I don't know. I'm no specialist.

Like I said I'm very nervous about re-entering the country and being given a few days to stay in the country, especially as I want to spend Christmas and New Year's with friends. I'd be gutted but I have to hope for the best!

Wish me luck!

And again, thanks so much for this info!