Visa rejection based on a requirement VFS Global Bloemfontein never informed about

<p>The Republic of South Africa Department of Home Affairs rejected my application for extension of a Visitor’s Visa Section 11(1)(b)(iii) to pursue a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of the Free State (UFS) Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ), with address DF Malherbe House, Graduandi Lane, 209 Nelson Mandela Drive, Bloemfontein 9301. </p> <p> </p> <p>My 3-month Visitor’s Visa, Reference Number LP013/2014, in order to enter South Africa and start pursuing my postdoctoral research fellowship, was issued by the Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in Lima, Peru, on Wednesday, 1 March 2017. Having been granted this visa, I entered South Africa on Monday, 20 March 2017. Complying very carefully with the documents required for my application, listed on VFS Global South Africa website (http://www.vfsglobal.com/dha/southafrica/visitor-visa-section-study.html) and on the PDF file “TRR ********** _Checklist.pdf,” which was automatically generated by the Department of Home Affairs and VFS Global during my online registration, I submitted my application for the extension of my Visitor’s Visa Section 11(1)(B)(III) Research (Temporary Resident Permit) on Wednesday, 19 April 2017 at 08.15, at the VFS Global office with address Shop 4, The Park, 14 Reid Street, Westdene, Bloemfontein 9301, and obtained the reference number TRR ********** .</p> <p> </p> <p>Although I submitted all the required documents on time, after having confirmed that I fully comply with the list of requirements and that all of my documents are valid, and reconfirming the above in person with a VFS Global official several days before submitting them, my application was rejected by the Republic of South Africa Department of Home Affairs on the following basis: “no South African police clearance certificate is attached on your application as required by regulation 11(2).” This decision materially, psychologically, and emotionally affected my rights and the ones of my beloved ones. Hence, with reference to the Notice of Decision Adversely Affecting Person [Section 7(1)(g) read with section 8(3); Regulation 5(2)], whose receipt I acknowledged on Thursday, 13 July 2017, at 09.15 in the presence of the supervisor of the VFS Global office in Bloemfontein, I kindly asked the Director-General of the Republic of South Africa Department of Home Affairs to please consider reviewing first the list of required documents. Then, to consider comparing the required documents to the documents I submitted. I claimed, and the VFS Global Bloemfontein supervisor confirmed my position on the same day I received the letter of rejection, Thursday, 13 July 2017, that I submitted all the required documents on time. Below, there are valid reasons that support my claim:</p> <p> </p> <p>- One of the required documents on the VFS Global website (http://www.vfsglobal.com/dha/southafrica/visitor-visa-section-study.html) reads as follows: “Original Police clearance certificate issued by the police or security authority in each country where the relevant applicant resided for 12 months or longer after attaining the age of 18 years except for South Africa, in respect of ******** records or the character of that applicant, which certificate shall not be older than six months at the time of its submission: (Provided that the certificate shall not be required from a foreign country in the case of renewal or extension of a visa).” Likewise, on the PDF file “TRR ********** _Checklist.pdf," automatically generated by the Department of Home Affairs and VFS Global during my online registration, one of the requirements reads as follows: “A South African Police Clearance certificate where the applicant has been resident in the Republic for 12 months and longer. This should not be older than 6 months at the time of submission.” Below, there is proof that by the time of submission, and even in the present, I had not been in South Africa for 12 months or longer:</p> <p>o Application for Renewal of Existing Visa (form): Under the subtitle “Details of original visa, as issued to you prior to or on arrival in South Africa” my date of entry is clearly stated: 20 March 2017.</p> <p>o Passport: On the top left corner of page 9, a circular stamp clearly states my date of entry: 20 March 2017. Likewise, on the top right corner of page 7, a squared stamp clearly states my date of departure from Bucharest, Romania: 19 March 2017. Finally, pages 4 to 7, and 24, show where I have been before moving to South Africa between January and March 2017.</p> <p>o Incoming airplane ticket reservation: The ticket shows that I left Bucharest, Romania, on Sunday, 19 March 2017 at 21.55, and arrived in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday 20 March 2017 at 13.00.</p> <p> </p> <p>Having stated that, I am absolutely confident that I comp**** with all the required documents and did not fail in the submission of the South African police clearance certificate as, according to the Republic of South Africa Department of Home Affairs and VFS Global Bloemfontein's regulation, 1) I submitted the police clearance certificates of all countries where I have lived “except for South Africa” (VFS Global website 2017) and 2) I did not submit the South African Police Clearance certificate as I have not lived in South Africa for “12 months and longer” (Department of Home Affairs and VFS Global 2017).</p> <p> </p> <p>After receiving the rejection letter from the VFS Global Bloemfontein supervisor, I asked if he could please contact the Department of Home Affairs in order to explain this inconsistency. He agreed with me and scanned a list of requirements I had in my possession stating that he would e-mail them to DHA and will get back to me by phone in the next days. I told him that I had only a few days to appeal and that I should know soon what was going to happen. He said that if he did not call me I should approach the office a week after. As soon as I left the place I went to the police station at Park Road and issued a police clearance, which had to go through Pretoria and be back in Bloemfontein in 14 days. It surprisingly took less than that. Following advice taken by officials at my insitution, I did not have to go back to VFS Global Bloemfontein as they would handle the case. Personally, I also was of the idea that there was no reason to trust them now after I had trusted their list of requirements and the only thing I had gotten back was a rejection letter based on a non-existing requirement. I was also adviced to appeal officially and book an appointment with VFS Global Bloemfontein so I could go through the whole process again. I did. And, on Monday, 31 July 2017, at 8.15 am I approached the office to do so. Everything went as normal until I this morning, 2 August 2017, when I received a phone call by the VFS Global Bloemfonten supervisor stating that I should pick up my visa. Once I was there, he told me off for not coming to the office, and stated that it was my fault for having sent the appeal, which now was unnecessary. My answer was that I was advised not to approach the office anymore, that I was running agains the time to appeal, and that I wanted to be as formal as I could even if that involved additional costs and an enormous amount of time - especially given the fact that I had to collect all documents again. </p> <p> </p> <p>Now, I have paid and submitted an application for no reason, and have been blamed by the VFS Global Bloemfontein supervisor for something that on the first place should not have happened on their side. I also have lost the police clearance, wasted working hours during the whole process, and compromised a number of officials from my institution, who have kindly tried to advise me and support me in the whole case. </p> <p> </p> <p>How does my complaint involve VFS Global Bloemfontein if the rejection came from the Department of Home Affairs? First, because the information about the requirements both on VFS Global website and on the automatically generated checklist, for which both VFS Global and DHA are accountable, states that I do not need a South African police clearance certificate. The rejection letter nonetheless made the absence of this certificate the reason for the rejection. And second, because once they knew that my visa had been issued the day after the supervisor contacted DHA to explain their incoherent rejection, they could not pick up the phone to say "your visa issue has been solved." Instead, they waited for me to invest time, money and efforts to appeal, and only when the documents were gone they told me that I should not have appealed. If this is an organized system then the moment I was submitting the application for appeal they should have said that I should not appeal because my visa is sitting in the supervisor's office. However, no one said anything, and now I am being blamed because I did not come and sit in the waiting room to see what happens before. </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>