# Exceptional Skills Permit & Permanent Residency - Update



## Guest (May 18, 2011)

Hi all

Continuing my updates on the law changes, I wanted to touch on the Exceptional Skills Permit.

The Immigration Amendment Bill will head for a final debate in Parliament mid June. After that it is just a matter of President Zuma signing off the legislation and it will become law.

The new Act will have consequences on selected permit types, most notably the *Quota Work Permit* and the *Exceptional Skills Permit*. These will be replaced by a single permit, the "*Critical Skills Permit*".

Under the current legislation candidates holding *Exceptional Skills Permits* can also apply for *Permanent Residency*. Once the new law comes into effect, this is expected to stop as the new legislation does not provide for an "Exceptional Skills Permit".

We are thus urging all foreign nationals who do have Exceptional Skills Permit but have not yet applied for their Permanent Residency, to do so asap.

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.


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## BJ100 (Jun 6, 2011)

Joaschim said:


> Hi all
> 
> Continuing my updates on the law changes, I wanted to touch on the Exceptional Skills Permit.
> 
> ...


Hi Joaschim, 

Thanks for posting this update. I am thinking of applying for a quota work permit (possibly an exceptional work permit if I can find a professional body to attest that my skills are exceptional). Unfortunately, I am from the US but I'm temporarily living in London so it will take a couple of weeks for me to compile the required documents from the US. Most likely, I'll be ready to submit my application at the end of June.

I am not at all familiar with SA's parliamentary process and how long it may take for the legislature to wrap up debate on the Immigration Amendment Bill, so a couple of follow up questions for you. 

1) In your opinion is the immigration Amendment Bill likely to be passed prior to the end of June? 
2) What happens to applications (concurrent applications for exceptional skills and permanent residency) that are submitted before the new Bill is passed but processed after the Bill is passed? The SA embassy in the UK states that it takes 30 business days to process these applications so I expect quite a lot of work permit applicants will fall into this category.


Thanks much!

BJ


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## Edd (Jul 29, 2011)

*Exceptional skills*

Hi Joaschim,

Can the new amendment to the immigration act have retroactive effect on those who have just submitted an application for PR based on exceptional skills if the law comes into effect while their application is still being processed?

Kindly clarify.


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## travelling-man (Jun 17, 2011)

FWIW, both my wife & I have special skills. I in heavy commercial aircraft handling and commercial aviation counter terrorist procedures and training and my local airport are desperate to use me.

My wife have extensive experience as a theatre manager/sister of cardio thoracic surgical procedures. She has several procedures named after her and has in the past been part of the team that pioneered hole on the heart surgery on babies, including unborn babies.

SAQA (South African Qualification Authority) recently told us we were not skilled enough in our respective fields to qualify. They said they were only interested in academic qualifications and nothing else whatsoever.

On top of those things, I've also written a book that promotes RSA and have a regular column in my local paper, so I contribute to the community and (until it was sold last week as part of our move) owned outright a house on one of the most secure and desireable golf estates in the Lowveld.

We also have a small private income, other small incomes from websites etc and our own business registered and paying tax and promoting (overseas) tourism in RSA.

Despite all that, they still turned us down, so unless you're something like a nuclear physisist, don't expect the special skills or similarly named catagory to be much use. 

Oh, and as part of all that, I've been running a business here for over 30 years and living here on a series of visas for over 10 years.

Frankly, we love Africa but after all the bureaucracy and BS we've been through in the last year, we're both very glad to be leaving. lane:


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