We specialize in expediting outcomes for applicants, having successfully assisted over 1000 individuals through court applications filed in the High Court of South Africa.
As a starting point, we will send a final letter of demand to the Department of Home Affairs (Home Affairs), addressing the Minister and Director-General. The letter of demand will demand finalisation of the pending application within 10 working days.
If the application remains pending after the 10 days, we will proceed to draft the relevant documents for the court matter to be issued at the High Court of South Africa (court). We will also request a court date at the appropriate time in terms of the relevant practice directives and court rules.
Once the court matter is issued with a case number, we will draft an affidavit in support of the court matter, which the client will sign in the presence of a Commissioner of Oaths.
The entire court matter (including the signed affidavit) will then be delivered to the relevant sheriff’s offices in order to be formally served on Home Affairs.
Typically, Home Affairs will attempt to expedite the pending application once the court matter has been served, often providing us with written updates.
If no response is received, our advocate will appear on behalf of the client on the allocated court date and request the court to grant the order against Home Affairs to finalise the pending application.
Once the court order is granted, Home Affairs will be provided with a certain number of days to comply therewith.
In our experience, Home Affairs will usually attempt to finalise the pending application before the court date.
EXAMPLES:
Pending temporary residence visa
- See an example where the court date was allocated for the 24th of August 2022 for a visa application that had been pending for over a year. The visa was issued on 23 June 2022 – 2 months prior to the court date.
Click here to view the example.
Pending permanent residence permit
- See an example where the court date was allocated for the 18th of March 2022 for a PR application that had been pending for more than 4 years. The permanent residence permit was issued on 15 March 2022 – 3 days prior to the court date.
Click here to view the example.
Exhaustion of remedies – 3 rejections for relative’s visa
- See attached a copy of a court order granted on 6 December 2019 in which the High Court set aside the rejection of the applicant’s initial relative’s visa application and subsequent appeals, and ordered the Department of Home Affairs to issue the client with a relative’s visa.
- The court order also compelled the Department of Home Affairs to finalise the long outstanding application for a Permanent Resident Permit within 90 days. The PR application was submitted in 2014.