Post
by Dawie » Fri May 11, 2007 8:16 pm
Siggi, I just had to go through all of this with the South African embassy myself when I applied for British naturalisation.
The main way that the South African government can bust you is when you reapply for an expired or lost South African passport at the South African embassy. If you have been living in the UK for longer than 5 years (or 3 years if you are married to a British citizen) they will require a letter from the British Nationality Division in Liverpool stating you do not hold British citizenship. If you cannot produce this, or proof that you got the required permission from them to obtain British citizenship, they will not renew your South African passport because you would have automatically ceased to be a South African citizen from the date you became a British citizen.
There are a few ways to get around not telling them, but ultimately if you slip up one day at an airport or other border point they will confiscate your South African passport.
I got the required permission from the South African embassy in London and it was a mere formality. You can download the application forms from the South African embassy's website. I posted the forms to them and it took a week to process. Bear in mind to allow time to get a letter from the British Nationality Division stating that you are not a British citizen to include with your application.
In a few years time we'll look back on immigration control like we look back on American prohibition in the thirties - futile and counter-productive.
