We had many queries and phone calls from worried people that are here in South Africa and have extended their current visa expiry date, and in so doing track the risk of being affirmed an unwanted person.
As with most nations, South Africa wishes to make sure that people do not extend the authority period of the permit they have been settled. There is nothing irregular about this and every nation will have in place ‘preventions and punishments’ where someone does deviate.
The concept of declaring someone an unwanted person if they extend their permit is therefore right. The penalty of declaring people may be measured harsh but many other nations impose similar concerns.
Undesirable person
An unwanted person perhaps needs no further description than simply saying you are not unwanted in South Africa. The result of being professed unwanted is of course of most worry. In this case being barred from South Africa for between 1 and 5 years.
When would someone be declared undesirable?
Every visa has an expiry date on it. Where the holder of the visa stays longer in South Africa than the expiry date lets, they they have broken a section of the visa or permit. This section is that you will leave South Africa before to the expiry date.
In most examples being acknowledged unwanted occurs when you try to leave the country. Your exit will mean a passport and visa check and this will discover that you having been waiting in South Africa without a legal visa or permit.
What can you do?
In reality if you have overstayed your visa through merely not applying for delay or imprecision you can do nothing. If you have completed a visa or permit application and are expecting the outcome our guidance is do not travel. If you do, and we stress do not, then confirm you bring all relevant paperwork to permit control and the airport. They will still appeal the penalty but at least you will have on record that you revealed your rank.