The South African government has granted Nigerian businesspeople 10-year’ visas; its Consul-General, Bobby Moroe, disclosed this during the South Africa-Nigeria Trade and Investment Roundtable in Lagos.
Moroe said that while some would receive up to 10 years’ visas, others would receive three, four, five, or more.
The South African Consul-General, however, added that they must apply for visas and prove that they are legitimate business people before evaluating and adjudicating their applications.
“If they qualify, they will get 10 years visa or they get seven depending on the nature of the credibility of their application, but there are people who are going to get 10 years visa they are people who have been to South Africa quite a number of times, who also help small investments in South Africa in the business sector, in the film industry, in the academic sector and so on.
“So, we help quite a number of them who have shown interest and it’s in our best interest that we facilitate that to the fullest because it also benefits our own country, South Africa, besides benefiting the relations of the two countries,” he added.
He said all the criteria are listed on the Victor France Shanghai (VFS) website. He urged those interested to review all the requirements; however, they must also classify their applications.
Moroe added that those criteria differ from one person to the other; even when applying for a business visa, it depends on which sector such an applicant is in and how often he has been to South Africa.
He said, in the adjudication process, an immigration officer relies on the information that he receives from the applicant.
“So when somebody gets a six-month visa, it means the credibility of the information that he has given qualifies him/her for a six-month visa, so a decision that the immigration officer takes is based on the credibility of the application itself, it’s not arbitrary; the immigration officer is guided by the application to determine how many years the applicant must get,” he said.
The Consul-General assured whoever qualified would get the visa, adding that it was the normal process. The only difference is that now, the number of years of validity of the business has increased to make doing business easy for the two countries, and it’s the first of its kind.
