What Are the Consequences of Overstaying a South African Permit?
Foreign citizens are required to apply for the South African visa when preparing to visit South Africa. The visa procurement usually involves a lengthy and tedious visa application process, where the help of a South African visa agent is often required.
The South African tourist permit enables eligible foreign nationals to visit and remain in South Africa for up to 90 days. However, those tourists who overstay their permit in South Africa are exposed to certain consequences.
Before the change in SA visa regulations in 2014, any tourist that overstayed his or her permit would have to pay fine depending on the amount of time overstayed and payable upon departure. However, with the new amendment, any tourist who overstays his or her South Africa permit would now face more severe sanctions.
Irrespective of the reason why tourists would overstay their South African visa, tourists, during the visa application, would be sanctioned with a declaration of undesirability. According to the Immigration Amendment Act No. 13 of 2011, this declaration is stated as:
“A person that overstays within the Republic after the expiry of their visa will be declared as undesirable.”
This declaration does not only term an overstayed tourist “undesirable” but it also prohibits the tourist from visiting South Africa for a specific period, which is decided according to the amount of time overstayed.
South African Visa Overstaying Penalty Ban Periods
As stated above, the period of ban from visiting South Africa for overstaying South Africa visa depends on the amount of time the visa is overstayed. For instance, overstaying the visa by the length of days fewer than 30 days bans the tourist for 12 months. More so, the overstayed tourist would be tagged “undesirable person.”
Overstaying the visa by the length of days more than 30 days bans the tourist for at least 5 years. The overstayed tourist would also be tagged “undesirable person.”
What If I Need To Overstay My Visa?
Although, overstaying your visa in South Africa is severely sanctioned, there are ways you can avoid overstaying your visa and one of them is applying for an extension of visa. You can easily apply for an extension of your visa by visiting the South African consulate or embassy.
Currently, you can extend your visa by 60 days. Though the process is not currently easy for tourists, the process is believed to be easier in the future as the South African new electronic Visa would be in operation by November 1, 2019. By then tourists would be able to complete their whole visa application and extension process online.
South Africa understands that several factors may cause overstaying a visa that is why it allows tourists to appeal in some circumstances.
How to Appeal for Overstaying your South African Visa
Have you been sanctioned for overstaying your South African visa and you would like to appeal, then read on.
Remember overstaying your South African visa tags you an “undesirable person” in South Africa and bans you from re-visiting the country for a certain period. However, you have the right to appeal. Irrespective of your nationality, you can appeal to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). This process is referred to as “Appeal for Overstay.”
If you would like to appeal, then you need to do so within 10 days of being tagged “undesirable person” and receiving the ban. The DHS would attend to your appeal within about 48 hours of filing it. Note that immigration-related matters can take a longer time to be processed. Hence, there is no guarantee on the timeframe of the appeal process.
During the appeal process, the overstayed tourist would be required to provide reasonable reasons why the “undesirable person” status should be removed. The reasons must be considerable enough to persuade the DHA to remove the “undesirable person” status from the person in question.
Here are some considerable factors that may be considered to support an appeal, especially in written representation:
Some factors may negatively affect your appeal. These include having a previous record of South African visa overstay and having a serious medical condition. Nevertheless, appealing the visa overstay is still possible.
Please note that any tourist who applies for an extension of an existing visa that expires while the visa extension or renewal is in process will be given the “undesirable person” status and would not be able to appeal.
For more information or assistance as regards the South African visa overstaying consequences, kindly contact us today and our friendly consultants will promptly respond to you. Contact Else Mart now on +27 (0) 61 578 0000 or email at info@elsemart.com.
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