South Africa April 2006 |
|
| Foreign firms want work permit review, (Business Report, 2006-04-18):-The two-year limit on work permits for foreigners is causing concern among multinational companies, which are submitting proposals for reforms to the department of home affairs. Immigration law changed in July 2005, but many embassies were unaware of it until home affairs started to reject applications, said Margot Krekeler of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. British Chamber of Business chief executive Sandra van Lingen said it had identified key problem areas within its membership. They included the limitation of intracompany permits to two years; a mismatch between the categories of skills published for the quota work permit category and the actual skills sets and experiential needs of business; and inordinately long delays in securing general work permits. "The problems experienced seem to arise both out of the manner in which immigration law and regulation is currently formulated and the erratic and confusing nature of its implementation," said Van Lingen. "The British Chamber is querying the impact and extent of these problems with its membership." She said this impacted on the effective running of operations. The German chamber conducted a similar survey at the beginning of the year to find out if its member companies experienced any problems with applications for work permits and it showed that applications for an extension of the two-year period were being turned down. It has 520 member companies in South Africa and many are multinationals with headquarters in Germany. Krekeler said that when a German company opened a subsidiary in South Africa, staff with special skills were needed for the first couple of years to establish the business. "There is also a need for specially trained employees to train their South African colleagues for special projects." According to Krekeler, the general work permit application process now took seven to 12 months due to delayed processing in the office of SA Qualification Agency. She added that a long-expected list of quotas for special professional categories was published recently but it did not include crucial skills such as accounting, engineering and project management, so applications for people in these areas were still not possible. Luanne Grant, the executive director for the American Chamber of Commerce, said it was surveying its members to assess the extent of their problems. Julian Pokroy, an immigration lawyer working for the SA Chamber of Business, said: "We have been approached by several embassies and foreign chambers in the country about the problem. "Another area of concern is service delivery at home affairs offices. The problem arises from undercapacity of human resources at regional offices in the department." Pokroy added that while there were small pockets of dedicated, experienced and professional officials, some immigration officials lacked adequate training. Deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who heads the government's joint initiative for skills acquisition, said last month that professional skills were critically needed. However, most multinational companies said the government's immigration laws made it difficult to bring skilled foreigners into the country to work and transfer skills. Attempts by Business Report to get a response from home affairs were unsuccessful. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |