Question NW2298 to the Minister of Home Affairs
04 July 2022 - NW2298
Roos, Mr AC to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)What are the reasons for clients not receiving a confirmation of all documents submitted through the Visa Facilitation Services and that the documents are in order for the applications submitted; (2) Whether he intends to implement a requirement for clients to receive confirmation of all documents submitted and that these are in order; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
Reply:
(1) VFS only attends to the “non-judgemental” part of the application process (i.e. the administrative function). VFS is not permitted, by law, to give any advice or to take over the role of the DHA. Consequently, VFS are not permitted to validate the documents or provide any substantive confirmations to applicants. In order to assist applicants, the DHA has developed a checklist which VFS uses, from an administrative perspective, to cross check whether all the required documentation is present. If any document is missing, the applicant is informed at the point of submission. The applicant then has the option to, despite the missing documents, proceed to submit their application or return later with the missing documents. In the event that the applicant, despite being informed of the missing documents, wishes to proceed with their submission, they are required to sign the checklist acknowledging that he or she was informed about the missing document. All applicants are issued with a receipt which is an acknowledgement of submission of their application.
(2) In view of the fact that VFS has a process in place as indicated above, there is no need to implement any further measures.
END