₦airaland Forum

dexydidi:
This is the response I got after I sent an email about my SA refusal because of my Ghana Yellow Card.

I found the email addresses here

Yes that's expected of them to email you with that appeal process. It's useless and time consuming if you choose that route, SA evisa is yet to assign staff agents to address appeals. If you do appeal you will be met with another email that instructs you to just apply again. Personally I'd suggest you apply again perhaps with this time see if you can use your Ghana yellow card to gain a proper Nigerian yellow card since you already have the vaccines. it should be an easy switch. Although I'm baffled as to why evisa will refuse your Ghana yellow card. I say this because you applied online so it shouldn't have been refused unless they've been told to only accept yellow cards from the applicants home country which means if you are Nigerian, you should have a Nigerian yellow card and not a Ghanaian one. This will seem silly to me honestly but I wouldn't be surprised.

Rachyekong:
Same here.... I applied in VFS, Port Harcourt exactly 3months today.... No response.... I even went there to ask them to be sure, they forwarded the application promptly.

So let me understand this clearly, the entire three months your application was still at VFS until you went there before it was forwarded promptly?

Rachyekong:
Please, in a situation where the Host has been contacted for confirmation and yet, another three weeks have passed without response, is it still normal? The delay is tiring 😫

Sincerely I do feel your urgency, the good thing with your application is that the host has been contacted by South African Home Affairs/embassy, which means your application is actually being processed and has picked up momentum by being looked through by a consular officer. unfortunately you just have to be a bit patient and see if you can give it a bit more time per say a week or two and see the outcome. To answer your question, it is normal unfortunately for this duration but I have a feeling a solution will be rendered shortly

When it comes to time management and fast tracking applicants with temporary stays and permanent residencies, it can be a bit frustrating but kindly hang on. You are almost at the finish line

wilcoxz:
Please who knows how South African visa can be fastracked. It's been more than 2 months I applied via VFS office at port Harcourt, haven't gotten any response since then. My scholarship expires in less than 2 months. What do you guys advise I should do?

You can always email the consulate office or if possible place a call to the embassy to see if you may get any feedback. Your visa I presume is a student visa, unfortunately long stay visas for sometime now have been backlogged when processing. It's unfortunate that they can't figure a way out of this debacle but continue to see if you can get a hold of them stressing the urgency of needing to speak to someone at the embassy. I might even suggest that you pay a visit to the embassy and when asked by the security guard if you have an appointment make him/her aware that you are there to see the consular. If they say do you have an appointment, you may want to say yes you do and insist you've been emailed and directed to come to the office. Reason why I'm saying this is realistically you are allowed to visit a South African consular on issues, they may not publicise it but you always quietly have that option. Since it's a scholarship you may be on a time crunch and I'd suggest you take this route asap. Ensure you have your scholarship letter with the date and all documents to let them know how urgent this matter is.

Most of the times documents/applications are stockpiled at the embassy without having anyone go through them especially when it comes to long stays that require temporary or permanent residencies such as yours.

NOTE: anyone applying for a long stay visa such as student visa, business visa(although recent economic improvements have prioritise this as a fast track), critical skills visa, permanent residency such as retirement visas have all been subjected to a long duration of processing, often at times extending to 6month to year due to the backlog. It has gotten to the point where those in South Africa that need renewals such as student visas have been given a blanket waiver( meaning they are allowed to stay legally in South Africa) while their application is being processed.

Africankel:
I beg to disagree with on the attitude of VFS (South Africa), Abuja Staff. They are the most polite and helpful than their counterparts handling Canada and other Schengen applications. Every single time I've gone there, they've been really helpful. They go through every single document you want to submit, and ask you to get any that may be missing.

When submitting applications at VFS, the applicant should bear in mind that the average processing time in Nigeria is three months. An application submitted earlier this year in March was adjudicated in June. Returning from SA, I submitted another application in October, and I'm not expecting a response till December. The good thing however is, I have my passport with me in case of other travels.

Thanks for bringing my attention to this. It's unfortunate though that South African visa when applied at vfs in Abuja takes such a long time, for just a normal tourist visa is just not normal and ideal. Any tourist visa for that matter shouldn't take more than three months to obtain especially if it's just a tourist visa and not for a longer stay(business visa, or permanent residency visa).

Besides audits which does prolong issuance of visas at the embassies( they normally conduct audits 4 times in a year) or being short staffed often at times I don't see why it should take such a long time to issue a tourist visa to an individual.

bright2003:
It s very nice consideration. Except that one must have over N5million in account for a year. Any other way around this will really be good

Yes you do need to have N5 million in your account for a year but there are ways around it. the N5million doesn't need to be moved from your home country to the bank in Portugal as of yet. what I'd recommend is, if you don't have that amount find family members or those that can trust you to deposit such amount into your account and have it sit in your account for 3-6months. After your application has been approved and you are in Portugal you can obviously give that amount back. Portugal is very affordable as of today, unlike Canada the cost of living is insanely low hence your living cost should be very minimum.

Also what I would recommend if you are interested is to look at the incubation companies for your startup businesses, some of them offer investment of up to. 100,000.00 euro to help fund your startup provided its innovative and shows a promising future.

Poetchi:
Thanks so much for your wisdom. I am here on work visa and inviting my 73 years old mum for 4 months from Nigeria. So you are correct- I applied on her behalf and used my bank statement (South Africa). I think I can reapply and like you suggested add her account statement in addition to mine? She's a few hundred KM away from Lagos so not practical for me to bring her to Lagos VFS- hence e-visa route. Appreciate your feedback, thanks

You are always welcome my friend. Concerning the bank account, yes you should attach your mother's account as well as yours and then, as i stated in the previous message, attach a letter explaining kindly that you will be in charge of all her living expenses. Your mother's application shouldn't be that difficult for any evisa staff member to issue her the visa. Attach your South African id, as well as attach the workers permit visa stamp you have in your passport. These two should solidify your relationship with your mother to the staff agents.

The section that tells you to upload a letter explaining her trip/stay in South Africa, be sure to detail out the relationship between your mother and yourself, elaborating the reasons why she wants to come and see you. Remember you are writing on her behalf thus any warm words will be welcome.

Make sure to also choose multiple entry on the application( due to the relationship between yourself and your mother, often at times South Africa may give a longer visa which goes up to 2 years), the only issue is your mother will have to vacate South Africa every 90 days and come back into the country just to show she didn't overstay. Normally you can have her travel to Lesotho for just a day and come right back. doesn't even have to be a day, she just needs to step into another neighbouring country and travel back into South Africa so her Visa can be renewed for every 90 days. I recommend this because you did explain you want her to visit for 4months.

Finally about your bank statement, since you are using your South African bank statement, you can log online and print out the digital stamp statements which normally comes with a reference code for each month(FNB bank has this option as well as other South African banks), this will solidify to any evisa agent that your accounts are up to date and legitimate as they will be able to use your reference number to check if need be.

Hope this helps and as always cheers!!

dynamicd28:
This is my experience with VFS Abuja. I submitted an application on 8/10/2021, and paid the premium fee, this gives you a faster submission experience at the centre, it does not affect the processing time once the file gets to the RSA mission. At the lounge, I asked the person who attended to me what steps to take if I need my passport for a seven days trip at short notice, She said I should simply write an email containing a request to temporarily withdraw my passport for the trip. Three months, after submission, no decision was made, and a need arose for me to travel to another country, I wrote an email as earlier advised, only to get a response instructing me to request a complete withdrawal of my application and accept to forfeit the fee earlier paid. I had to comply because the trip was important.


I Agree that physical submissions may be easier in other countries, for example, after the experience above, on 30/06/2022 I applied for the RSA visa through the VFS Visa application centre in Dubai, the processing time there is 6 days, professionals in certain fields can withdraw their passport and return it later for the sticker once ready. Unfortunately for me , my application was immediately rejected after two days, because my residence permit for the UAE was less than 3 months old at the time, I was aware of this requirement but took the chance anyway.

I'm beginning to notice that VFS in Abuja-Nigeria's work ethics are a bit on the rude side of things and kindly correct me if I'm wrong with this notion. You see in Ghana the service is a bit different, to be sincere the staff actually goes above and beyond their way to ensure that you are given the best of customer service. When you pay premium service in Ghana they actually ensure that you have all the proper documents, often at times they can even alert you before you exit the premises that you will get your passport back in a few days and ideally your package( is always separated from the rest. They do label your package as premium, I know this because I know one of the managers at that location and it's always a calm and fast approach to all your needs. I do apologise if this isn't the service being given at the abuja location.

Also food for thought, anytime you apply physically at vfs branch with regards to a South African visa, always try to find out the status of the South African embassy issuing visas at that time. You see every now and then they tend to pause issuing visas for various reasons, sometimes short staff or going through an audit. each time this is going on these things tend to happen. I say this because I just notice the date you mentioned when you applied during 2021, often at times they tend to go through audits which dramatically slows down issuance of visas.


Unfortunately you are right when it comes to applying for a visa in another country when your residency in that country hasn't surpassed a certain amount of weeks or months but even with that being said sometimes they do make an exception depending on your reason as to why you need to travel to another country when you've just moved into another country. My advice is also elaborate to them and further explain that you've been assign a work assignment that requires you to visit country "x" or better yet you are going for an important and delicate reason. Never use vacation as your reason. By doing so you may be able bypass this restriction.

Poetchi:
Pls is it possible to appeal a rejected e-visa and how does one go about it pls?
The reason for rejection was that I did not attach my ID. I had applied for my mum, using my own bank statement.

For now it is pointless to appeal an evisa rejection as the South African evisa department isn't structured as of yet to handle appeals. Although you may receive a letter via email insisting you can appeal, avoid this route and resubmit again with your id/passport(your missing document).

Also can you explain further what you meant by, "I had applied for my mum, using my own bank statement." what do you mean by this? Are you saying you applied on your mum's behalf( your mother being the applicant) and used your bank statement as a sponsor? If so then this can complicate things a bit, as you do need to attach a letter explaining that you are sponsoring your mother on her visit to South Africa and assume full responsibility of the cost of her vacation expenses. Ideally I will recommend that you still have to attach her bank account if she has one as often at times they still need to see her own bank account( this often at times is overlooked if applied at the consulate office but I'm yet to see the response via evisa route).

Depending on how old your mother is they may overlook it and grant her the visa if she's deemed or classified as an elderly lady. My next question will be, are you a South African residence? if so then attach your South African id and in that letter ensure to write your address elaborating that she will be residing with you at your premises.

xdastardx:
I must commend you, koffeed. All your information on the visa process has been insightful and valuable. Thank you.

You guys are always welcome. Cheers as always!

Oluwamek:
Hello Koffeed,
My proposed travel date is 0n the 23rd of October and I haven't heard back from the new E-visa application I put in last week, especially as the bank statement was generated online.
How do I go about this fast track visa? My travel period in SA is about 14days.
Thank you for your usual help.

Depending on which country you live In and how far the consulate is from you, the quickest option will be to apply through vfs(vfs submits your documents to sa embassy) route, which I believe if you are in Nigeria, you should get a quick approval(within 5-10 days) provided you submit all the needed documents. Not sure if Nigeria has the Premium Vfs service option but that speeds it up faster in 3-5 days.

To also be sincere with you it's been only a week since you applied through the evisa route. I'm assuming you have awaiting adjudication
on your status? Give it a week or two more to receive a decision.

Evisa unfortunately isn't a faster route in the time being. By applying through vfs you can at least have that method as a backup while you await a final decision of the evisa route.

NOTE: To all those needing an expedited visa approval application, vfs(physical route) route is always the best especially when you select and pay for the premium service with them because your package(visa application) arrives at the sa embassy with a tag that makes the consular aware that you are in need of prompt decision due to various reasons( such as a conference you are attending on short notice, or your flight is due to depart in a few days), Evisa doesn't have this method as it takes them days if not weeks to even open an application let alone render it a final decision.

Hope this helps. Cheers

dynamicd28:
It is a 4.6mb pdf file. It is clear and legible to my own eyes. HACC replied, saying that "The error was temporary, please try again later''.

Glad they replied. Have you tried uploading it again to see if the same error message shows up?

At the current moment I will advise all those entrepreneurs with business ideas and a business plan to focus on Portugal or perhaps Spain for a startup visa. Ideally you don’t need to have a business already in its early stages, you can have a business plan well drafted detailing out everything.

With respect to Portugal Startup Visa, the requirements are straight forward.

You will first need to submit your business plane to an institution known as IAPMEI. This institution will take 3months to approve or reject your business plan if they feel it won’t be beneficial to the Portuguese economy. If your business plan is approved, you then move on to using the approval declaration letter to move on to the next stage which is obtaining your startup visa from the embassy. Trust me, at this point you’ve already been approved as the embassy will grant you your startup visa without any hustle as long as you have all your documents following the guidelines as well as your declaration of approval from IAPMEI.

My reason for wanting most entrepreneurs to consider this route is because of the enormous benefits it brings.

With a startup visa you can work on growing your company while gaining residency in Portugal, this residency enables you to have other multiple jobs meaning you can work for other companies while focusing on your own as well. You can further your education as well as residency gives you the legal right to do everything citizens of that country have. Within 5years provided you are in good conduct you will be able to apply for citizenship!

As a residence of Portugal, you can travel throughout the entire Schengen territories without a hustle of needing any visa.

This visa also allows you to have up to 5 owners apply with you provided they are part of your startup company. All 5 owners will gain the same residency provided your startup company is approved with IAPMEI.

Each candidate must have at least 5800 euros for an entire year in their bank account. This amount honestly isn’t a lot at all when you compare it with just a normal tourist visa. This amount although may be subject to go up with factors to inflation it’s still relatively low.

This forum is to educate one another on how to go about achieving a startup visa from various countries. The benefits of it is beyond reach. My believe in this world is, if you have a dream, permit it to materialise....If your country country isn't allowing that dream to materialise, look elsewhere to gain that recognition. Currently almost all developed countries have introduced the implementation of a startup visa to help promote and drive the economic growth of their respective homelands. With a startup visa individuals are able to locate to foreign countries and potentially start a business. A startup visa gives an organisation or an individual the ability to horn his skills and turn an idea into a corporation.

Currently most European countries have made it easy for expats to obtain this visa with less stress. Portugal currently has redefine what it means to obtain a startup visa as its requirements are less complicated.

Gentlemen let's educate ourselves on this approach. Feel free to ask any question you may have as well as concerns about this visa and I will do my best to answer all. Cheers gentlemen. Currently South Africa is scheduled to release a startup visa in the coming months as well

Bank Statements for Evisa

As of October 9th 2023, I've been able to gather a few details from a colleague of mine at Home affairs concerning this nightmare. Please all those that are gathering bank statements for the purpose of evisa route unfortunately you do need actual bank official stamps on them and not a printed out copy stamp. Unfortunately South Africa few months ago has intercepted over 500 fake bank statements via the evisa route while they were conducting their quarterly audits through evisa. All these documents upon investigation came out to be fake and the banking institutions verified them as false statements.

She further elaborated that this indeed has caused a huge concern for the home affairs department as they are trying to weed out this sincere issue. Unfortunately the only method they are willing to accept as of now is the actual physical stamp with a date entailed in it showing that it was recently stamped and at the bank. The only option they are willing to consider is unless your banking institution has a verified reference code number like what the South African banking institutions are now offering. Also they do analyse the bank statements to see if your funds were recently dumped into your account or if your account has consistency regarding your funds. Depending on the days you intend on staying in South Africa kindly ensure that the amount equals the duration of your stay. they do consider your food, your lodging expense to balance out your account balance unless you are staying with a friend or your accommodation is paid for already.

I know most people have complained about the inability to obtain actual bank stamp with date on it but do your best to visit the bank after printing out the digital bank statements and explain to them that this is South Africa's request in order to obtain a visa, let them understand its urgent and ask to speak to the manager for such request. Rest assured each manager in most of these banks can actually provide you with the stamp and date and perhaps even his or her signature on that statement.

Hope this somehow helps gentlemen. cheers

abeylevels:
Thanks a lot @koffeed for the responses.

It is wonderful to have great people like you on this platform.
God bless

You are sincerely always welcome my friend. Cheers

tannystacey:
Its a visa thread. We dont wanna digress pls.

Moderators take note. We really are trying to get answers to questions here, not going back and forth with someone who has never probably never seen the walls of an airport and who is quick to bring delusional opinions from their weakened fragile egos.

If you wanna go back and forth go and open your own thread like the many ones you have opened in the past. Then pple who have time will respond to you and your dead narratives.

Valid point Tanny, My sincere apologies.

vozkini:
@hunee and others.
I think South Africa visa is getting difficult this days. What's the possibility of getting visa for one that want to apply by November 10. When I will be back from business trip in securing family visa for December travel using sticker visa or EVisa. Please advice.

For all those that are in need of a fast track visa for South Africa as in 14 days or less visa, id suggest go through the physical route of applying via vfs. This method unfortunately is considered the best route as well as the requirements are less. If you go through the evisa route be advised that the supposed staff that regulates this method is short staffed hence be prepared to encounter some delays. The other reasons to give yourself enough room per say almost a month for evisa route is that, this method is still new to the government workers and as such most of these agents are known to deny most applicants without any cause.

Between the month of July-September evisa from South Africa has denied almost 90 percent of Indians as well as 90 percent of certain European passport holders without any reason. Lithuanians are getting denied in excess. As of right now almost 98 percent of Pakistans are automatically rejected due to an incident that was recently discovered at the home affairs divisions. If it makes any difference numerous Pakistan passport holders(20 of them) were apprehended at the Johannesburg airpot for using fake evisa documents to get into South Africa. This disaster as of today has been a contributing factor to why most of us are facing rejections.

antzlaive:
This request for death certificate of ones parents when uploading documents. Can one just tell them it's not available. Where I want go see death certificate?

I know, it makes no sense as to why they are asking for death certificates of deceased parents to the extent of asking the same of your spouses parents if you choose the deceased option. You can possibly add an affidavit swearing that you don't have the death certificate of the "said" decease person and possibly explain that it's been such a long time with other factors included. Afterwards get the affidavit notarised and add it in replacement of the death certificate. Hopefully that should be enough.

For all those that are wondering, be prepared to be asked for death certificate validation if you decide to choose deceased for one of your parents or your spouses parents, as well as your spouse if he or she is deceased. Simple solution will be to avoid saying so for now until thy fix that error

hunee:
You see this diplomacy is reason why we are here today. No one want to talk or be called out for the ills in the society gravely killing innocent peoples destiny. I spoke to a friend who has been in SA for more than 9 years. Despite all her connects, she lament of not been able to get a job because the system prefers to favor her own people against foreigners. If Americas and the rest of the world was that way, alot of you that seek greener pastures abroad will not be able to go there! There has to be an equilibrium. A system where you are seen as a criminal immediately you present your passport at the airport is a bad system. This transcends from our society to what people see and perceive about us. We must not shy away from the issues in other to create awareness and better orientation. FYI, alot of people can be rehabilitated and become better persons by reading and hearing some of the things been discussed here. Everytime is not visa visa, let us always deliberate and engage ourselves on issues affecting visa refusals so everyone can be better enlightened.

Truth be told I do fancy a splendid engagement of different minds as long as it doesn't welcome an aggressive tone from those participating in such debates hence by all means I do share your opinion to a certain degree. Now, If I may also interject I'd like to bring forth some truth to others since we've decided to enlighten our thoughts concerning South Africa and it's mishaps of handling governmental and civilian issues such as immigration and others.

I think often at times the unrealistic comparisons of European countries to African countries is absurd and I say this with the kindest heart. To compare European countries or the western countries governance to that of South Africa is like comparing a man in his 70’s to that of an infant or better yet a boy in his early teens. Gentlemen let’s dissect this for a second if you can permit me………….Europe has had over thousands of years with governance including scientific research, human behavior analysis and so forth whereas South Africa has had less than 30 years of governance under it’s own people. Remember gentlemen that it wasn’t too long ago that they gain independence, fact is most of us are older than the independence of south Africa. So please do not be surprised when they are making so many terrible mistakes. Rome as I recall wasn’t built in a day. To get to a level of proper communication with less chaos within a country will require an extensive amount of educating its people and if history serves my little knowledge right it wasn’t too long ago before South Africans (the real Africans) where permitted to educate themselves. Often at times we forget that citizens of that country have suffered immensely trying to survive and cater to themselves. Ask yourself one valid question, ever wonder why south Africa’s median age is 17years old?

You see I expect South Africa to continue making countless mistakes with it’s corrupt governance because they do not have the proper knowledge yet to govern themselves…..they will eventually get there at some point but for now be kind to it’s civilians. Look at Ghana, for a beautiful country that gained it’s independence in 1957 yet they are still swimming in a corrupt governance and so is the rest of the African countries. We must come together and be lenient on ourselves instead of always comparing ourselves to foreign continents.

Additivesupplie:
The thing tire me honestly....

I stopped putting the blame on government some while ago when I started looking outside the box..... Government did not fall from sky, the peoples make the government.

You see ehn, Nigerians abroad has badly put the country reputation to the garbage.

Whenever I travelled and see how some Nigerians behave overseas makes me wanna hide my identity but for me, I still stand gidigba as a Nigerians. But it's what it is.


It's better Nigerians should stay away from south African Embassy for now,,,,
Only them actually knows the fuse they have with Nigeria.

Each country has its own problems as well as its merits, we as Africans must reframe from always attacking one another when matters such as this arises. Indeed, a corrupt government or institution contributes towards the behaviour of it’s civilians but nevertheless we must try to treat each other with respect and integrity. Life is hard as It is, thus to sit behind the comfort of one’s home and furiously lash out at another brother or sister is simply demoralizing. Bear in mind that before there was ever a country to divide us we were all simply humans residing in one continent. This idealistic notion of your country is better than mine is a fairytale of an ignorant soul. This platform was created to assist with the needs of our fellow brothers and sisters and it should stay that way. Let us maintain some respect for our fellow Africans regardless of which country they’ve been subjected to.

Always remember that a country doesn't define a man’s destiny, a man rather defines a country’s destiny.

If it is not too much to ask, I will go back to assisting those that need advice on how to go about achieving this e-visa debacle. As always gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure.

dexydidi:
My visa was denied for this reason.

However my yellow fever card does not even originate from nigeria but was issued in ghana. I am completely exhausted about this.

I sent them an email. What you all reckon I do?

Plus what does the last 10 days means? I mean the last column ?

The 10 days is just for appealing or disputing what they've issued you as a refusal. Personally don't bother trying to appeal it with a written report instead try and see if you can call the South African embassy directly and ask to speak to a consular. explain to them the the yellow fever issued is from Ghana and not Nigeria.

Now with that being said that is why you've been refused. The South African embassy in Nigeria is used to the Nigerian Yellow fever card and not the Ghanaian one hence why you presented it to them they thought it was a fabrication. Personally I would advice that you take the Ghanaian one to the clinic and have them issue you a new Nigerian yellow card based on the verification of the Ghanaian one. in other words there will be no need for you to get another series of vaccines because you already have your Ghanaian yellow card to show you've done so. It should be a simple process.

abeylevels:
Hello Friends,

Thanks for the various contribution to help each other.
Pls i am planning to apply for the e-Visa for a conference next month.

I have 2 questions:

1)How can i get a flight booking that will be valid for the next 2 weeks during the e-Visa application?
How do you guys do it?

2) The location of my conference is in another province close to Cape Town. I have read on this forum that only Johannesburg airport(OR tambo) recognize e-Visa. I will like to know if this is true?
Can i book my flight directly from Lagos to the nearest airport to the conference area even if i do not land in OR tambo?

3) Another question pls: the flights i have seen online have 1 or 2 stops. Has there been anyone who travelled on e-Visa with stop over in other African countries?

4)Final question:do i need the police and medical report in my application?

1-You don't necessarily need the booking to last two whole weeks. you just need to be able to book with a reference number and a booking itinerary to showcase them. don't worry if it expires 72 hours if you don't physically purchase the ticket. You can use South African Airways on their website and choose the option pay later to get your booking.

2-As of today that information is categorically false. You will not be denied based on your visa being e-visa. initially in the early stages of evisa, most border agents at the airports had little knowledge about it hence why they needed to verify in South Africa be it Tambo airport, or any other airport but its been over a year now and I presume they've have the necessary training to get use to it by now. if anyone gives you trouble at the airpot just ask to speak to the supervisor. All airports in south Africa will give you access to the country provided you have your evisa paper document stating the validity of the visa, there is a bar scan code on it that they can now officially scan so you shouldn't have an issue, that bar code is the same as getting a physical stamp at the embassy.

3-South is not the only country practicing evisa so don't worry about layovers before reaching your final destination in South Africa. what's important is which ever country you transit through ensure that your Nigerian passport gives you a no visa needed to transit through that country, that's what is important. for instance if you need to go through Ghana you won't need it because of the Ecowas agreement but per say if you have to transit through Other countries in the south then verify online that Nigeria is visa exempt. Now if you need direct flight with little stress look into South African Airways as an option.

4- You do not need a police and medical clearance as a tourist visa. Now with that being said if you state on your evisa application that you've lived in another country for more than 12months the evisa system will ask you to include a police clearance for that country you resided in for more than 12months besides your actual country of citizenship. make Sure to avoid this part. Medical report is only needed if you decided to complicate things and say on the application that you have certain medical issues. Besides this medical report is needed if you are applying as a business visa which grants you long permanent stay to run and start a business in South Africa or if you are applying for anything besides tourist visa.

Cheers and pardon any typo you may come across on my reply. too exhausted to edit

Oluwamek:
Thank you.
So, I just got back from the bank, GTBank doesn't print out statements anymore. They send it to you electronically.
I also asked about the stamp and they said they do not do that as the statement generated online is already stamped.
I will generate a new statement and reapply today.
I will be back with a positive news by God's grace.

Ok, don't worry you will be fine. I think in the future South Africa Home affairs just needs to understand that the same way their banking institutions have stopped issuing physical stamps and moved to electronically generated stamps on statements so has other countries and as such should alert their agents to incorporate this new changes into how they render approvals.

As always cheers mate and stay positive.

Oluwamek:
Thank you for your prompt response.
I applied on the 15th of September and got a response today.
I plan to go to the bank and get them to stamp the statement.

You welcome my friend and all the best and let us know the outcome.
when you pay the bank a visit see if you can let them stamp the statements with official dates on it as well. this will give your statements some solid evidence that this was done inside the branch as it will have a stamped date on it. Also when you upload it on your computer to send it, ensure you scan the entire statements so it gives it a clearer identity and convert it into a pdf after your scan. Hopefully you should be ok afterwards. cheers

Bammybestowed:
It was rejected, reason:invalid statement of account. Funny people, submitted an FNB statement of account as I live in SA and the application was for a minor. I guess once the eye is not there, it’s most likely a rejection. All the best to those waiting for a response.

There might have been various reasons as to why this happened to you. Normally for you to get rejected on an FNB bank account established in South Africa is very unlikely unless it was a generic rejection which I suspect but if not then this might have been the other probable cause:

FNB Bank in South Africa is actually the main primary bank South Africa home affairs uses hence if they rejected your statements then you possible didn't print out the statements that included the reference stamps on top of your bank statements. This newly designed reference stamp allows anyone you showcase your bank statements to easily verify your bank statements as they are able to go on FNB website and insert the reference official code number which will show them your entire bank statement for the month the code was on. It authenticates it. This is an implementation South African banks have started implementing to weed out fraud and schemes. My advice is if you didn't do this and you printed out the bank statement without that code then you will likely be rejected especially knowing that it is their Home affairs bank of choice.

Hope this helped. cheers mate

SOUTH AFRICA E-VISA FOR GHANAIANS:

If anyone has applied to the new South African e-visa implementation for Ghanaians Id like to know. Reason being is I want to know if there is a bias establishment as to how often they are refusing Nigerians in comparison to Ghanaians. if indeed we notice that Ghanaians are getting approved faster with less denials then we can draw a conclusion that indeed this e-visa route is rigged. I'm somehow expecting Ghanaians to get a bit of an easy route because the ambassador for South Africa to Ghana made it sound easy but then again don't they always say one thing and do something completely different.

So please any Ghanaian going through this new established method for your country let us know including the time it was approved. For for I've heard that when Ghanaians apply via evisa there is no fees and that you are met with 0 payment. Rest assured that means there is already a looming problem. they haven't activated the payment option yet hence you may be looking at over a month before you see any progress or indeed you've been granted 0 payment

Oluwamek:
Good morning, please I need an advice.
I just got a rejection on my application, see excerpt below:

The reason for the decision is/are the following:
The proof of sufficient available financial means is not in the form of a recently bank certified statement forthe last three months
You may, within 10 working days from date of receipt of this notice, make written representations to the Director-General to review the decision.
Should you fail to make representations, or fail to keep the Department informed of your whereabouts, the decision set out above shall remain effective. It
is your responsibility to enquire about the outcome of your representations within 30 days after submission thereof.

It's a stamped and signed GTBank statement that was printed from the web and was also backed up with a reference letter from the Bank.

Please, what should I do?

To be sincere with you I feel they refused you on a generic base meaning they are doing this based on no solid reason as far as you've provided all the necessary bank certified documents. My advice is to file a new application all together. you can always try applying again either the evisa route or in person at vfs. if you choose to apply via evisa route see if you can get the branch manager to actually stamp the bank account documents rather than printing them online with the stamp and see if it makes any difference this time. Like I said earlier most of their rejections tend to be generic refusal for no tangible reason on the evisa form hence be ready that they may issue a similar response but all the same try and see if it's different.

Hope the first application didnt take you that long to get a response back. cheers mate

Do not attempt to appeal as the evisa currently isn't built for appeals although they make it sound like you can appeal with their generic response. You will end up wasting time and resource on an appeal. they currently don't have the resources nor the funds to cater to appeals yet.

DHS-EVISA TIP :

To all those applying via e-visa route be cautious that if you make a mistake per say you checked business visa rather than a different option such as a tourist visa or checked one of your parents as deceased and submitted the documents. After it has processed to the next phase asking for uploaded documents, be aware that you can't undo this mistake unless your entire application is processed. Now I know some of you will assume it will automatically reject your application after 14 days, that is not the case. DHS-E-Visa is a newly developed portal thus the so called service agents often at times don't regulate these things. If you wait, you might end up with no improvements for weeks to even months. You can send them an email but be aware that the email agents most times have nothing to do with those that actually view the documents to assure it's processed. That centre is different from the dhs e-visa agents centre hence why most of you keep getting generic emails with little or no help. it's as if they copy and paste message and send it to everyone to calm them down.

Those that are having issues with bank statements being rejected even when you've done all that is required (certified stamp and signatures), due to the proper lack of well trained workers most of these agents don't follow the proper guidelines and as such will still reject the bank statements because they are basing their decision on personal knowledge rather than following the e-visa refusal guidelines.

Another hidden information is each month embassies of South Africa depending of where you are applying from have a quota(certain amount they allow) whenever they reach this capacity they tend to refuse everyone else after that target is hit. you will all notice sometimes within a month or week everyone is getting rejected for no reason (bogus reason). dhs e-visa may not admit this but that is the actual truth. especially South Africa is known for this strategy. You will all remember that often at times before e-visa portal was open, vfs every now and then will tell applicants we are not accepting applications right now. that was always the truth behind it. They've done this to multiple African countries.

Hope this was useful

dynamicd28:
"We have encountered a problem.Please send an email to hacc@dha.gov.za and quote number : 4329253"

I got the above message while attempting to upload one of the required documents, its size is 4.6mb. Has anyone experienced something similar? I have sent a mail to HACC, from my experience they revert in two days, let's see what happens. This is for DHA evisa.

This code/error number you received has to do with how you uploaded the documents. Normally when the pdf or jpg picture isn't clear enough you will be given this error. also be aware that if you take a picture with your phone (example being a picture of your visa or passport bio) and upload the link you might encounter this error due to the image not being visible enough. Hope this helps mate