Permits Foundation Responds to South Africa White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection

31 January 2024

Permits Foundation has today responded to a call for feedback issued by the Department of Home Affairs. South Africa is viewed by the Permits Foundation network as a priority country. More than one third of our sponsors operate in South Africa. They include companies that are participating in the Trusted Employer Scheme.

In responding to the White Paper, Permits Foundation, highlighted the following:

Our key recommendation: that government departments work together to enable direct work access, incident to dependent status, for accompanying spouses/partners of critical skills and intra-company transferee (ICT) visa holders.
Our prior submissions responding to the draft National Labour Migration Policy (2022), draft Critical Skills list (2021) and to the White Paper on International Migration for South Africa (2018).
That our recommendation aligns with the immigration policy proposals outlined in point 93.1 of the White Paper. Experience from other countries shows that such partner work authorisation:
- simplifies the administrative process and provides added certainty for accompanying family members (93.1 (a))
- contributes to countries being able to attract needed skills (93.1 (h))
- does not negatively impact the local labour market (93.1 (i))
That the countries cited in point 34.2 of the White Paper’s explanatory note (Canada, the US, the UK and Switzerland) have all legislated to enable direct work authorisation for partners and/or spouses of highly-skilled international employees.
The clear distinction between accompanying spouses/partners of highly-skilled international employees i.e. on a temporary ICT or critical skills visa, and the category of spouses cited in footnote 56 of the White Paper.