Help! My boyfriend cant get back from South Africa!

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:30 pm

Hi there
I am hoping you can help me.
My SA boyfriend initally arrived in the UK on a 2yr working holiday visa, which, when it expired, was transfered to a sponsorship visa in Jan/Feb last year (before the law change). He has since travelled in and out of the country to Europe with no problems however, in January, when he went back to SA on holiday, they refused to allow him to leave SA at the airport on the grounds that his sponsorship visa on his passport could not be seen on the computer!

He has been over there ever since (three months!), and has received no news as to the status of his passport /visa and we have been told that it is likely that the sponsorship visa has been rejected (although no reason has been given). He has now asked for his passport back so that he can try to find a way to get back to the UK in order to obtain another sponsor.

So can I ask..
What type of visa should he apply for? (unfortunately, he isn't eligible for the HSMV because he doesnt have a tertiary degree / qualification).

Also, does the fact that his sponsorship visa appears to have been rejected, be a problem, when applying for a new visa?

Would it be better for him to come back on a tourist / visitors or fiance visa? With regard to the finance visa however, I am from New Zealand and am on an ancestry visa extension and cannot apply for settlement until June 2008 - does this make it not possible to apply? There is also a big age gap between us (12 years)..would this be a problem?

Any help that you can provide would be really appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from you.

sakura · Post by **sakura** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:43 pm

Hi,

A few questions...

What is a sponsorship visa? I have not come across that. Do you mean work permit by his employer?

What has happened to his employment, since he has been away for so long?!

How can he come back if they have refused him entry? I mean, will they give his passport back if they know he will try to come back into the UK?

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:40 pm

He has since travelled in and out of the country to Europe with no problems however, in January, when he went back to SA on holiday, they refused to allow him to leave SA at the airport on the grounds that his sponsorship visa on his passport could not be seen on the computer!

Your story doesn't make sense. As far as I know there is no UK immigration control at South African airports, so how could he be stopped for not having the correct visa at a South African airport? Additionally, South African passport holders do not require a visa to enter the UK as tourists, so he could have just said he was going on holiday.

Please be clearer, who denied him entry onto the plane?

He has now asked for his passport back so that he can try to find a way to get back to the UK in order to obtain another sponsor.

Again your story makes no sense. Ask for his passport back? Who on earth took it? Was it South African immigration officers?

olisun · Post by **olisun** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:53 pm

Sound like the person applied for WP and did not apply for FLR...

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:26 pm

olisun wrote:Sound like the person applied for WP and did not apply for FLR...

Still doesn't explain why they were denied boarding in a South African airport though.

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:47 am

Thanks for your feedback. Sorry, I mean that he was on a work permit (where his employer sponsored him). When he went through passport control in SA (just before they xray your bags) he was stopped there and told that they couldnt see the work permit on the computer system and took his passport off him. He has been waiting for his work permit to be cleared by the authorities ever since so that he can get back into the UK. His UK employer suspended him without pay in February until the situation was resolved. It has been three months now, and he has recently been told by his immigration lawyer that it is looking likely that they will not give him his work visa back so he has subsequently asked for his passport back so that he can apply for a holiday visa to get back into the country.

I hope that clarifys.. Any other information you can provide to assist would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Janine

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:54 am

Sorry, I also wanted to clarify, that when he asked for his passport back last week, his immigration lawyer rang the authorities who said that he would get it back within a week.. so there doesnt appear to be any problems in that regard.

Apparently, he has been told to be very careful when applying for any future UK visas however,.. whilst it isnt his fault that the work permit was questioned and likely withdrawn (apparently his employer didnt apply for the work permit properly..?) he still has some form of black mark against his name.. which is why I was wondering what would be the best visa he should apply for which will give him the best chance of getting back into the uk. Also, does anyone know of a good immigration lawyer / visa agency in SA who will be able to help him as the one he was using was completely useless.. (started with B..)
Thanks again,
Janine

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:10 am

I'm sorry Janine, but the story you're presenting does not make any sense at all for the following reasons:

a) There is no UK immigration control at South African airports and therefore it is impossible for anyone at a South African airport to judge whether or not your boyfriend had a work permit or not. Furthermore it is not the business of South African immigration authorities to judge the admissibility of South African citizens into the UK. There is no magical "computer" that they could have just looked up your boyfriend's UK immigration details in.

b) The confiscation of your boyfriend's passport just does not make any sense. Unless your boyfriend had a fake passport or something similar, there is simply no reason why anybody at the airport would have confiscated your boyfriend's passport. The ONLY body that has the authority to confiscate a South African passport at the airport is the South African Department of Home Affairs. Why would they confiscate your boyfriend's passport for something that has nothing to do with them?

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:42 am

Hi Dawie
Apparently, he had his passport taken off him by the South African authorities (the people who check your passport on the system before you get your hand luggage xray'd). He thinks that they took his passport off him because they couldnt see his work permit visa on the system.

Does that not make sense? Im confused now..

Christophe · Post by **Christophe** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:56 am

Janine wrote:Hi Dawie
Apparently, he had his passport taken off him by the South African authorities (the people who check your passport on the system before you get your hand luggage xray'd). He thinks that they took his passport off him because they couldnt see his work permit visa on the system.

Does that not make sense? Im confused now..

The first part that seems odd is the question of the South African authorities looking for (never mind not being able to see) his UK visa/work permit "on the system". What system? As far as I know, UK visas wouldn't appear on any South Afridan "system", but I stand to be corrected on that. Also, South African citizens don't need any sort of prior entry clearance or visa to enter the UK as a visitor. Did he indicate on an embarkation card or by having a single (i.e. one-way) ticket to the UK that he was going to the UK other than as a visitor?

The second part that seems odd is the confiscation of the passport. On what grounds was it taken from him, regardless of the appearance or not of any visa on a computer system? Is this normal practice in South Africa? I should have thought not, but again I stand to be corrected.

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:01 am

Christophe, as a South African citizen and someone who regularly travels between South Africa and the UK I can tell you there is no "system" that South African immigration authorities can look up UK immigration details in. They can barely look up information in their own system.

And it is definitely not normal practise to confiscate passports at airports, regardless of whether or not you have visa.

Janine, I can only imagine that your boyfriend is telling you a few porkies. The story that he has told you just simply isn't possible.

Christophe · Post by **Christophe** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:11 am

Dawie wrote:Christophe, as a South African citizen and someone who regularly travels between South Africa and the UK I can tell you there is no "system" that South African immigration authorities can look up UK immigration details in.

That's what I should have thought. In addition, it is not the business of the South African immigration authorities to be "policing" the UK's borders or to be involved with UK immigration at all.

If the person had a single (i.e. one-way) ticket and no apparent and valid visa, it is possible - indeed quite likely - that the airline might have denied boarding. But this would have happened at the check-in counter, and the airline wouldn't take someone's passport from him (although they might report a forged passport to the authorities).

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 10:38 am

Hi there
He was travelling on the 2nd half of a return ticket so yes it would be viewed as a one way ticket. He never made any secret of the fact that he was returning to the UK to work because he never thought that there would be any problems with his visa..

I visited him in SA last week and recall someone from immigration checking something on the computer when I gave them my passport before letting me go through to baggage xray so surely its possible that they may have been alerted to a problem while he was going through immigration? Are you saying that they couldnt see whether or not he has a work permit on the system?

Assuming that this situation is true, what would be the best visa he should apply for which will give him the best chance of getting back into the UK?
Thanks again
Janine

sakura · Post by **sakura** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:18 am

Janine,

I think the question you need to think about is: why would foreign government authorities be checking the immigration status for the UK government? If SA citizens don't even need a visa to visit the UK, then what purpose would the SA authorities have for stopping him coming on a work permit? How can SA check the work status of people working in the UK!! The UK has that system within its own borders, but it most certainly won't be available to the SA immigration officers (who, really, are more concerned about people coming into SA than leaving). So what is going on?

Also, does anyone know of a good immigration lawyer / visa agency in SA who will be able to help him as the one he was using was completely useless.. (started with B..)

What does the "B" stand for?

I have no idea why he was refused exit, but, did he ever apply for FLR? He was here on a working holiday visa, and changed to a WP, so did he apply for FLR at all? It is he, not his employers, that needs to apply for that. Even so, that isn't the business of the SA authorities, so there might have been something dodgy about him- expired passport?

Christophe · Post by **Christophe** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 11:27 am

Janine wrote:Are you saying that they couldnt see whether or not he has a work permit on the system?

I shouldn't think that they could, and that is obviously the consensus here. I'm not sure why you think that they would be able to - it is a UK work permit that is in question and it was the South African immigration authorities who were looking on their computer, which would contain information that is pertinent to people's status in South Africa, not in other countries.

Are you sure that he wasn't stopped at airline check-in rather than at passport control?

Even if he was stopped at check-in, that still doesn't explain the removal of his passport, which is probably the oddest thing about all of this.

Marco 72 · Post by **Marco 72** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:53 am

One possibility is that they confiscated your boyfriend's passport because they thought it was a fake passport, and he simply assumed it had something to do with his visa. What did they tell him when they took his passport away?

Dawie · Post by **Dawie** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:10 pm

Janine, you need to get back to your boyfriend and ask him what really happened at the airport because his story has more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese.

Janine · Post by **Janine** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:20 pm

Thanks Dawie and everyone for your comments. You have definitely given me something to think about. I really appreciate your feedback.

Kind regards
Janine

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Help! My boyfriend cant get back from South Africa!

Help! My boyfriend cant get back from South Africa!