Marion Edmunds
THE Home Affairs Department has raked in more than R14-million since its decision last July to begin charging foreigners for their entry documents.
The department introduced the fees for applications for permanent residents, work, study, holiday and business permits and transit visas last year, arguing that it needed to cover processing costs and that the charges were in line with international practice.
It announced last week that the fee for permanent residence applications will go up on April 1 from R5 580 to R7 130 – a near 30% jump. Fees for work permit applications rose to R460 from R350.
Department figures this week show that between July and January, the department netted R7,74-million from permanent residence applicants, almost R5,9-million from applications for work, study, holiday and business permits, and R561 975 from transit visas.
Paying the fee does not guarantee a right to permanent residence, and if rejected, the money is not reimbursed.
At present, the department’s interpretation of the laws governing immigration make it very difficult for individuals to anticipate whether or not their applications will be rejected.
Victims of the system are mystified as to how the fees were set, and why the processing needed for a permanent residence permit is so much higher than a work permit.
The department denied it had lifted fees for permanent residence applications. “It’s not an increase in the ordinary sense of the word,” a representative said, “but merely an adjustment to keep on par with the exchange rate.”
Applications for permanent residence made abroad remain pegged at $1 550. However, the difference between the rand/dollar exchange rate at the end of last July and this Tuesday was that the South African currency was marginally stronger – $1 550 bought R6 866 on Tuesday, R47 less than it did last July.
The department said the cash raised had gone into the National Revenue Account. The Home Affairs Ministry received a R520,4- million budget for the 1997/98 financial year, up nearly one-third on last year’s allocation.