Immigration South Africa - Julian Pokroy Immigration Law Attorneys

Moratorium granted to South African citizens who hold foreign passports in respect of the requirement to travel on their South African passports and to avoid prosecution for not doing so.

In our most recent update of the 28 October 2004 we updated subscribers and alerted them to the provisions of section 26 (b) of the South African Citizenship Amendment Act (number 17 of 2004). A copy of the South African Citizenship Amendment Act number 17 of 2004 can be downloaded by clicking here 108kb

Section 9 of the South African citizenship act of 1995 was repealed thereby doing away with the necessity to apply for dual nationality exemption letters, the so-called "permission" letters, thereby paving the way for South African citizens who hold passports of other countries to be able to do so with impunity. This also represented a relaxation of the law surrounding these aspects.

It now became incumbent on a South African citizen holding a passport of another country to enter and leave South Africa on their South African passport and imposes a section on anyone not doing so. The imposition of a fine or imprisonment not exceeding 12 months is referred to in section 26 (b).

A practical problem then arose in respect of persons who are South African citizens and holders of foreign passports and but who for whatever reason that not have a current and valid South African passport and were now seeking to either enter or leave South Africa. Many persons were prevented last week from leaving the country on their foreign passports purely because they did not have a South African passport with them at all. This precipitated a crisis and travel agents were advising clients to obtain a South African passport in such instances. This unfortunately could not help in situations where the person was about to embark an aircraft for an overseas destination. To do so would have constituted an offence in terms of the South African citizenship Amendment act. By preventing such person from leaving the country would, in my opinion, have reached several international conventions and bilateral agreements between countries regarding the use of their passports.

The Law Society of the Northern Provinces made a written submission to The Director-General of Home Affairs with a view to granting a moratorium in order to enable such persons to apply for a South African passport.

It would appear that the representation of the Law Society was successful and in a press release on Friday afternoon the 12th of November 2004 it was announced that their will be a three-month moratorium in this regard. Dual passport holders will be advised upon leaving or entering the country, by way of a written warning, calling upon such persons to apply for and obtain a South African passport within a period of three months from date of the moratorium. This would then allowed ample time for obtaining of a South African passport.

Our office can be of assistance in obtaining emergency, temporary and "permanent" passports.

It is our advice to dual passport holders to present both of their passports to immigration control upon leaving the country. If possible also ask the immigration officer to stamp both passports.

If you do have a foreign passport and have never applied for retention of your South African citizenship or have not applied for exemption from the loss of South African citizenship it is suggested that you contact our office in order to do a free assessment of the situation with the view to bringing the correct application so as not to prejudice your South African citizenship in terms of the way forward. Our office is one of the very few that has a specialist immigration and nationality law practice in South Africa.

Julian Pokroy is a leading immigration and nationality Law attorney, a member of the Immigration Advisory Board to the Minister of Home Affairs, chairperson of the Immigration Law Specialist Committee of the Law Society of the Northern provinces and was last month appointed to head up the Law Society of South Africa's National Immigration, Nationality and Refugee Law Standing Committee and a regular contributor to various publications in South Africa and abroad on immigration and nationality Law issues.
JULIAN POKROY
IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY LAW SPECIALIST ATTORNEY

IMMIGRATION SA

Tel : (012) 460-3410 / 072 372 6007
Fax : (012) 346-1434
Cell : 082 558 5002
Web : www.immigration-sa.com

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