Don't trust a word they say and prepare for a rough ride

It has been an absolute nightmare working with can only be considered the most *********** and uninformed staff at VFS. It has been going on with them for almost 4 years now and they put you through hell and can't complain in their offices because then they will remove you.

Our nightmare started with my mother-in-law emigrating to RSA based on being a relative of a permanent resident. A criteria statede on Home Affairs' website. She app**** for her temporary permit first and once she got that app**** for her pemanent residency in March 2016. Since then it only had a status of Pending and VFS can't give any feedback or update. Up until today when they stated that she can't apply for a permanent residency. When the person at enquiries was questioned on how this is even possible he quickly back-tracked and claimed he does not know and Home Affairs will decide.

With the temporary residency application we just got back the fourth one. The first one was straight forward. The second one we had to do because the permanent residency was still not issued. The third one they only made it the lenght of the period left on the passport the application was one - which was 5 weeks. This we found out when we went to collect the third one. We obviously questioned why this happened the person calmly blamed us for submitting it wrong and who at VFS said they can submit it like that? Coincidently the incompitent staff member who processed it was sitting next to the person we were dealing with but 'you are not allowed to show any sign of annoyance or agression'. So we app**** for a fourth time. This time the required documents was completely different to the list they supply on their own system after you make a booking online and also what it is on the Home Affairs website.

So now after almost 4 years we have done 1 permanent application (still outstanding) and 4 temporary applications (all granted). Each comes with R 1150 processing fee for VFS. Concidence? I dont think so. They are an incompitent bunch of people that are not there to serve or assist. They make it up as they go along with no recourse for causing stress and strain for the South African public or foreigners making South Africa their home and contributing to the economoy.