# Spousal permit applied but tourist visa expiring



## Neilexpat (Apr 15, 2011)

hi guys 1st time poster


I am Uk citizen ,

Since January 21st living in Polokwane , south africa

I am married to south african , have a job offer from a company , have applied for spousal/relative permit. The company never bothered to do the permit for me.so wasted a month.

so went to Dept of home affairs and did this my self, 
after the company gave me job offer letter. The Dept Home affairs recieved week last friday. 

My uk tourist visa runs out april 21st. 



Can i overstay on my tourist visa while waiting for my spousal permit.? this will probably take another 3/4 months.
will i get fined , or pay a fine when leaving


I have been told i cant apply to extend a tourist visa because this application will cancel the spousal/relative permit application

my wish is to go back to the uk for 1/2 months and get a job , and come back when spousal/relative permit is done. but have been advised
if they process the permit and iam not in country it will be cancelled . -? is this correct?


so will it be ok to drive to zimbabwe this week - for a day then come back and hopefully get another 3 months tourist visa. on entering south africa


advice pls

thanks in advance 

As a newbie love the advice given on these forums 
, very helpful 

All the best Neil


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## Stevan (Jun 30, 2009)

ok a couple of things for you.

do not over stay on your tourist visa your application wll almost certainly be rejected as you have stayed illeagly.

if you have only been in country for three months you can go to 
home affairs and get another three month extension. go quick as i think you should have done this at least 30 days before expiry of current permit. you could leave and come back and get another visa but would seem pointless if home affairs will extend for another 3 months. at the end of this three months you should be able to extend on a month by month basis until your permit is granted or refused. They may ask you to lodge airfare as deposit with them (my brother is in this process at the moment.

unless the rules have changed since i got my permits i see no problem in going back to uk and waiting, as long as home affairs can contact you. We applied in cape town then returned to uk until our temporary permits were ready, as it happened our permenant residence came through very quick as well before we left uk.

Couple of little things. if you find sombody especialy helpful in home affairs (there are a few) stick to them like glue.
my other bit of advice is contact a reptuble imgration agent. the rules seemed to be applied diffrently depemdant on which office you are using.


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## Neilexpat (Apr 15, 2011)

Thank you very much for the advice
went to zim over the weekend came back and got another 3 months


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## Guest (Apr 19, 2011)

Good Morning

I would like to clarify a few points as things have changed greatly since Stevan dealt with Home Affairs, and subsequently some of the information is very much out of date unfortunately.

1) Once you have applied for a permit, you may stay in South Africa until the application has been processed. If you know that you need to travel, we would still suggest that you do this before the expiry date of the current visa.

2) Once an application has been submitted, you CANNOT submit another application until the initial one has been processed. 

3) Home Affairs prefers an applicatiomn to be submitted before 30 days of expiry, however one can still submit an application within the 30 days. In these cases a good cause application will need to be submitted.

4) With the implementation of the HUB in Pretoria, the regional offices have no more influence over the process. They also no longer are able to provide useful information. The reason is that the entire process has been centralised, due to a lot of corruption and fraud in the past, where officials at regional offices were bribed in exchange for favours. 

You may still find officials that provide good advice, but they will no longer be able to really assist once an application has been submitted.

5) Travelling to neighbouring countries in order to obtain a new visa is a great risk! Home Affairs is being extremley strict in avoiding this border hoping scenario. You seem to have been lucky, but I strongly caution any foreign national planning on doing the same. In the majority of cases the candidates only receive a 7 day visa when returning to South Africa.

Where Stevan is correct is that you may leave South Africa while the application is in process. 

If the application is still in process, you will not be fined should you leave SA.

I trust that you included the job offer when you submitted the Spousal Permit application?

I hope this clarifies matters, but do let me know if there is anything else.


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