Visa/Travel Restrictions to be Eased

[Richprins]

Ramaphosa: Tough visa relations to be eased for tourism, business

Jean-Jacques Cornish | about 19 hours ago

PRETORIA - As part of his economic stimulus package, President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africa’s tough visa relations will be eased to facilitate tourism and visits by business and highly skilled people.

Ramaphosa told a media briefing at the Union Buildings that his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping had told him prospective Chinese visitors were being kept away by South Africa’s visa architecture.

It’s reliably estimated that South African visa restrictions have cost the country half a billion dollars in lost tourism and business visits.


President Ramaphosa says he can’t confirm this figure although he acknowledges substantial losses caused by the visa regime.

He says changes to the requirement for children to have unabridged births certificates will be announced in coming weeks among measures welcoming highly skilled people and potential investors to South Africa.

He says a pilot electronic visa mechanism will also be implemented.

https://ewn.co.za/2018/09/21/ramaphosa- ... m-business

[Flutterby]

Do we really want all those Chinese visitors here?

[Mel]

Your government does…

I read about the visa stuff last night and for the first time heard about the reason behind it.
Now I wonder if child trafficking doesn't matter anymore in lieu of more tourists,
of if the visa restrictions from 2014 never helped the problem in the first place…

But it sure is good news for the average honest travellers

[Lisbeth]

I wonder for how many countries visa is mandatory

There are lots of lists for those who do not need one, but not the others.

Found it! Most of the Asian, Arab, central America, Eastern Europe and African countries minus Southern Africa.

[Richprins]

The big part is the birth certificate for children - that was a major headache for tourists.

[Lisbeth]

Quite a stupid idea

[Richprins]

It was to stop child trafficking...but the criminals will use other ways, I'm sure anyway.

[Lisbeth]

They always find another way

[Richprins]

PRETORIA - Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced relaxed visa regulations, although they will not be effective immediately.

President Cyril Ramaphosa approved the visa changes last week in a bid to boost tourism and make business travel easier.

The reforms include regulations around minors travelling to South Africa.


The key changes will be that rather than requiring all foreign national travelling minors to carry documentation proving parental consent for the travelling minor to travel, travellers will now be advised that it is only “strongly recommend” that they carry this documentation.

The documentation will only be required though in exceptional circumstances and “high-risk situations.”

In 2015, visa requirements for minors were introduced to curb child trafficking.

They're said to have cost the economy around R7.5-billion as some tourists simply stayed away.

The tourism sector has been hit hard in the first half of 2018.

Other visa amendments announced on Tuesday include relaxed visa application processes for residents of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and a review of the South African critical skills list.

http://enca.prod.acquia-sites.com/news/ ... -announced

[Lisbeth]

"You are not allowed to smoke, but if you want to you can do it. Only if we are sure that you might get cancer we will prohibit it". Almost the same thing