By law, any applicant may, for good cause, request to have a legal requirement as stipulated in the Immigration Regulations waived. A waiver is an exemption of some sort, of which application must be submitted directly to the Minister of Home Affairs and usually in person at a South African mission abroad or a VFS office within South Africa.
There are many examples of waiver applications, and we will include two (2) below -
1. Letter of Recommendation from the Department of Labour:
General work visa applications require a positive letter of recommendation from the Department of Labour. This process includes the advertising of the position in a national newspaper and the Department will also do a search for suitable candidates on their own database. The company must (then) submit an application for the recommendation to the Department of which a site inspection will be conducted upon receipt of the application and after careful consideration they will issue a yay or a nay.
Most companies, and because they most likely already identified their suitable candidate after their own advertising and recruitment processes, opt to have the requirement of the labour recommendation waived. This means, the suitable potential employee must submit an application for the waiver. The application will be forwarded to the Department of Home Affairs for processing and will be scrutinized accordingly.
2. Place of submission:
If you, as an applicant, is not able to lodge an application within South Africa but cannot travel to your home country due to unforeseen circumstances, war or dangerous circumstances, you may ask the Department of Home Affairs to waive the place of submission. This application, too, must be lodged in person at the VFS office in South Africa.
Conclusion:
It is important to note though that -
The waiver application will be adjudicated on merit and that you must submit substantial proof that good cause for this request exists;
That the answer to these applications is not an automatic yes; and
In the event of a yes, there will most likely be a condition or two attached to the waiver
For more information on the waiver process, please reach out to us via our Contact Form on www.movingsouthimmigration.com. Alternatively, we are available on +2773 5357 534 or sue@movingsouthimmigration.com