Immigration to South Africa

The Department of Home Affairs deals with work permits applications for South Africa. South African authorities have delegated intra company transfer applications (where the worker is moving within the same international group) and secondment (where a foreign firm sends an employee to a client’s site in South African in accordance with a service contract) to their High Commissions and Embassies.

How long does it take to get on-site with a South African Work Permit?

Properly presented applications can be processed in a short time. It could take a little over a week. Once the application is approved, the candidate is permitted to travel immediately to South Africa to start work.

Can a Company apply for a Work Permit to second an employee to South Africa?

The High Commission issues two types of permits:

1. Intra Company Transfer

In this criterion, a company requires to fulfil the following needs -

• It needs to have an established presence in India and South Africa

• It is imperative that these two companies must be part of the same international group

• The candidate is deputed from the Indian office to be employed at the South African office.

2. Secondments

In this case, a company from India could send a consultant to its South African client to install a product or as part of a contract to provide services to them.

Does the Candidate Qualify to be seconded to South Africa?

There are no explicit criteria relating to the candidate, however the following items are good rules of thumb by which to judge whether a candidate would be suitable:

• They must be able to do the job

• They should have worked for the company for a minimum of six months at least. This is essential as most applications are made on the premise of the candidate having specialist knowledge of the companies operations

How does one apply for a South African Work Permit?

These applications are quite extensive and it generally involves producing original signed documents form both the South African and Indian offices. These applications should be submitted in the South African High Commission in the country where the candidate is normally resident.

What is the difference between "body shopping" and providing a service?

It is not possible to obtain a work permit for a candidate who is being body shopped, but it is possible for a candidate under a contract to provide services. The differences are:

• The sponsor must not be a recruitment agency

• The staff should be on the payroll and line management of the service provider.

• The services are above and beyond that of just a contractor

What elements need to be included in a service contract to ensure that it is apt for a work permit application?

A provision of service contract needs to include the following elements:

• A day to day line management of the consultants remains with the service provider

• Warranted deliverables.

• The service contact should cover the entire period for which the permit is required.

• It is imperative that the contract be signed by both the parties on the client headed paper.