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Immigration law

routed to DHA Head Office in Pretoria for and apply afresh for their Visa. If they have a current
Adjudication. The applicant is electronically notified of Visa this would be possible and could be done from
the outcome via e-mail as well as via the application within South Africa but, if a Visa is about to lapse,
portal. For an approved Visa/Permit a secure QR then they technically would have to go back to their
code is generated for print on the notification notice/ country of prior residence and apply there and await
letter sent to the applicant. This QR code contains the outcome in that country.
the approved Visa/Permit detail and is maintained Therefore, based on my more than 40 years of
and managed by DHA at a secure web storage involvement in this area of specialty of law, I would
facility. The same QR code will be scanned to view venture to suggest that perhaps the introduction of
and validate the issued Virtual Visa/Permit upon the above system, even on a pilot basis, would be
arrival of the applicant within the Republic. The same premature and that the resources, as stated above,
QR code is also pre-loaded into biometric Movement should rather be poured into capacitation and
Control System upon approval of the application and training, and then dealing with it along the basis of
the Virtual Visa/Permit (e-Visa/e-Permit will further the e-Visa system.
be validated at the Port of Entry upon arrival of the I will probably be criticised for making the above
applicant).” statements but I deal with realities and practicalities.
In a perfect world, this sounds great and A further point is that the fields of Immigration,
represents a major step forward. Citizenship and Refugee Law remain a minefield of
However, we do not live in a perfect world and law, and it has always been my view that the work
there are countries far more advanced than we are should only be done by persons suitably qualified in
in terms of operation of the e-Visa system that are the areas of Immigration, Nationality, Refugee Law,
still experiencing problems on a regular and on-going Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and even a
basis. knowledge of our Criminal Law and procedure would
Hopefully, the system in South Africa will exceed all be useful. Unfortunately, this suggestion has fallen
expectations and the naysayers will have to eat their very much on deaf ears.
words. Rather than be accused of being negative about
However, practical realities determine that, the issue, I do believe that perhaps we should be
irrespective of how and when and by what means optimistic and not pessimistic and perhaps even in a
an application has been captured, it ultimately will be Utopian world believe that all will be in order.
adjudicated at the Central Adjudication Hub of the Against the background of this, Australia which has
Department of Home Affairs at Pretoria Head Office
of the Department, and that is where the crunch an e-Visa system still experiences problems several
unfortunately lies. years down the line from having introduced the
I have written in this publication on previous process.
occasions about the rather poor adjudication at the Another issue which needs to be dealt with and
Hub with far too many applications being refused which receives much publicity in the media relates to
clearly without the adjudicator having even taken the the eradication of corruption within the Department
time or trouble to peruse the application adequately of Home Affairs. There must be safety mechanisms
or properly, or giving the application and supporting built into the e-Visa system in order to obviate and
documents due consideration, thereby resulting prevent that from happening again, as it has been
in an incorrect decision, generally bad at law and proven that their digitalisation does not necessarily
sometimes even potentially unconstitutional. That is result in the elimination of this evil practice.
the area that should rather have been focused on The heading of this article asks whether the e-Visa
and had resources thrown at, that is, equipping of system introduction will be a progressive step
the Department of Home Affairs and capacitating forward or a potentially regressive step. The answer
relevant personal to deal efficiently and judiciously to that question is a moot one and only time will tell.
and indeed properly in respect of applications.
It appears that it is either a lack of skills or
capacity that causes this aberration. This comment Julian Pokroy is one of South Africa’s leading
is not meant to detract from some really good immigration specialist attorneys, immigration.org.za, and
adjudicators; too few, that do populate the halls of currently heads the Law Society of South Africa’s
the Adjudication Hub. Immigration and Refugee Law Specialist Committee
The sad reality is that, when an incorrect or and the Immigration, Nationality and Refugee Law
improper decision is made, it then forces the Committee of the Law Society of the Northern
applicant to either apply for a Review or Appeal of Provinces. He is a member of the South African Law
the decision or to simply accept the wrong decision Reform Commission Committee.

HR FUTURE · JUNE 2018 47