# home affairs. almost a good visit



## Stevan (Jun 30, 2009)

So youngest daughter has reached sweet 16 and time for her ID book.
Home Affairs send a mobile office to the schools in these parts not sure if it is a national thing. because she is not a citizen she had to go to the office though, that horrible dreaded knot in the stomach "here we go again"

System is reasnoble. go to reception get the required form and fill it in, a quick check and then join the line. Makes sense nobody filling the forms in at the counter leaving the staff free to process.

Ok first question on form enter ID No. quater of an hour explaining to three diffrent people why we didnt have an ID no. as it was a first application ( i had exactly the same thing with my application).

ok sorted and we are in the line about an hour to get to the front.

ok here i give them some leeway because we are not citizens so lady went to check. we needed an extra form which she gave us. sat to one side whilst i filled it in as she served someone else, by now there was a little huddle of people refilling forms. to her credit, and always with a smile she was serving us all as quick as possible and trying to keep the line moving as well. we were all sorted in about 2 hours.

Front of house lets the rest of the system down, if they did there job properly the lines would not build so badly. if everybody had the right paper work it would be a lot better. Respect to the 2 working the counter as they were getting through the people as quick as possible and always with respect and a smile. Shame that only two out of four counters were open though.

No respect to the german lady in the line infront of me who managed to insult everybody she spoke to from home affairs and a few in the line as well. apparently it was a scandle that she should wait her turn like the rest of us.

i give Port Shepstone Home Affairs 6 out of 10 this time. purley for the excelent work of the counter staff.

Of course we havent received the ID book yet so i reserve the right to adjust my score.


----------



## WhenweB (Jan 23, 2012)

Stevan said:


> So youngest daughter has reached sweet 16 and time for her ID book.
> Home Affairs send a mobile office to the schools in these parts not sure if it is a national thing. because she is not a citizen she had to go to the office though, that horrible dreaded knot in the stomach "here we go again"
> 
> System is reasnoble. go to reception get the required form and fill it in, a quick check and then join the line. Makes sense nobody filling the forms in at the counter leaving the staff free to process.
> ...


Glad it went without too much of a hassel. My recent encounter with London SA Embassy was quite promising too and very very nice staff. In actual fact I found all the locals very friendly in Cape Town on my last holiday in December - there really had seemed an apparent change of heart. Time will tell I suppose. Hope your daughter gets her ID book soon..... then the fun of driving license!!!!!:eyebrows:


----------



## Stevan (Jun 30, 2009)

WhenweB said:


> Glad it went without too much of a hassel. My recent encounter with London SA Embassy was quite promising too and very very nice staff. In actual fact I found all the locals very friendly in Cape Town on my last holiday in December - there really had seemed an apparent change of heart. Time will tell I suppose. Hope your daughter gets her ID book soon..... then the fun of driving license!!!!!:eyebrows:


yes just going through that with my son. first id book then learners. Scooter for christmas, this year scooter was not big enough so motor bike. now car learners and he thinks a car for christmas.


----------



## kingofthecastle (Mar 26, 2012)

My last visit to home affairs was awesome. They now have a digital thumb print system which speeds things along. Application for a new id book took me around 15 minutes and it arrived 2 weeks later. This was in a small town mind you.


----------



## Rustler (Apr 9, 2012)

*It pays to check in*

Check in with Home Affairs every so often and ask them to look up the history of your file to avoid identity theft !!! It pays to do this in this land of ours. Even if you just write a letter and update your contact details.


----------

