one of those posts i do from time to time to try and help people out, look you see. so, please be kind and understanding if this post - on the trials and tribulations of renewing a south african passport whilst in england or the wider uk - is loaded with them "keyword" things that "seo" types get all excited about.
we recently had reason to go right ahead and renew the sa passport for my (considerably) better half. this was whilst she is in her new home of the uk, as in many (thousands) of miles away from her place of birth, namely sa. to work out how to do this we took to the internet, and discovered the South African High Commission In London website. yes, you can visit the site by clicking the different coloured words there. and like us you can marvel at the "minimalist", hardly there level of help and information. hence this post, really, in the hope of giving some help to others.
the information we had suggested a trip to london was an essential part of getting an sa passport renewed. so off we went, then. yes, plenty of pictures and stories to follow, but i thought i had best do the important, hopefully (possibly) helpful stuff first. and so here we go, after a picture (or two) inside the High Commission that a sign suggested i should not take. but look how close they came to hanging the pictures straight.
having given the subject some thought, and mindful of me wanting people looking to find information on renewing an sa passport in the uk, a sort of "questions and answers" thing strikes me as being best. will it work? well, if you are looking for information on the subject and are reading this, there you go.
do i have to go to London and renew my SA passport in person?
sadly the answer to this is "yes", "no", "maybe". when the staff at the high commission (eventually) saw us, they implied that we could have simply posted the renewal stuff down. quite upsetting when we spent so much time there (i shall get to that), but i dispute the advice.
for a start, absolutely nothing on the website says you can do it via post, instead saying you need to use their "walk in service". also, the service is strictly cash only - would you post cash to a south african official or government body? thought not. finally, in disputing this option, my understanding is due to the double whammy of how easy an SA passport is to forge and how heavily involved SA is in child trafficking, both parents have to be present with the child (or children) when applying for or renewing an SA passport. we opted to renew the boys at the same time, since they were eligible.
basically, you are welcome to call them and ask if you can just post your renewal from somewhere in the UK to them, but everything about my (our) experience says do not bother to do so. come to terms with the fact that you have to go and head to London.
what forms do i need to take with me?
the link above (here you go here it is again for you) gives you the details of them. most of them are ones they say you have to send them an SAE (stamped addressed envelope) for them to post back to you. we did this, and they surprisingly posted back the forms very quickly. alas, our request for three sets of forms for three passport applications were ignored, so we had to write and send three times to get the copies we needed. i strongly suggest you send them an A4 sized envelope and place a large letter stamp on. they make it clear they will not fold forms, and will not accept folded forms when you get there.
please take this part of advice with caution. going on our experiences, should you for some reason be unable to obtain the forms in advance, fear not. they were handing them out freely all the time we were there. i cannot, however, state that they do this every day or for everyone. there is no reason to think not, i suppose. maybe the advice (if this is advice) here is that if for some reason you can't or won't get the forms before you go, it should be possible to get them there. and trust me it is likely you shall have plenty of time to fill them out.
oh, yes. if i put this in bold it should show you how important it is. make sure you complete the forms in black ink and in black ink only. no, the forms don't (i think) say that you have to, but apparently this is expected. we did anyway, someone there at the same time did not and yes, they made them complete all new forms.
so far i have hinted at some of the nightmare that awaits you when you head off to renew an sa passport in the uk. please take heed of the following points.
do i need to take anything else other than the forms?
oh yes, you do. everything. and i do mean everything. no matter what it is, if it is an official SA document you must have it with you. do not go without it, if you are missing anything they will not accept your application.
we took unabridged birth certificates, an unabridged marriage certificate, ID books, current passports and for good measure my british passport. if you are renewing a passport or applying for your first you need all of these. should you be short one, then you can go to the same place to order them. just make sure you have the right forms and all of the other documents.
anything else i need to take?
photocopies. lots and lots of photocopies. no, absolutely nowhere does it say on the website that you have to take photocopies. actually, i stand corrected as it does - here is the link, buried away. confusingly it says that they must be certified copies, then that they will be certified whilst there. they also don't tell you this as you queue (for a while) outside, and also the person at the front desk who "vets" your application does not check for them or tell you that you need them. it is only when you think you are done that they tell you that you are not if you don't have photocopies.
myself and several others had to keep dashing down to a money exchange shop to get photocopies done, at 50p a time. i spent somewhere north of twenty pounds on photocopies. yes, then, it will be cheaper to get them done before you turn up.
exactly what do you photocopy and how many of each? all of the official, unabridged documents quoted above, and at least 2 (two) of each one per application. seriously, to avoid the cost and hassle, just take 3, 4 or 5 photocopies of each document. no, they don't have to be certified, just so long as you have the originals. besides which, on what i saw and heard, they won't accept certified copies in place of originals, so again - make sure you have all the original documents and a load of photocopies.
yes, that is my (considerably) better half with a (splendid) wax statue of Madiba. no, this was not in the High Commission (see first picture), rather at Madame Tussaud's. more on that in a later post, but for now back to the "action" of renewing an sa passport in the uk.
how do i pay to renew my sa passport in the uk?
as mentioned above, they are cash only. this is very important, so to enlist the importance of bold once more, you can only pay for your sa passport renewal in the UK with cash, and by cash it means British Pounds. yes, at least one person there was taken quite by surprise by this and had to dash for cash. on this note, interestingly the cashier lady on duty whilst we were there felt the best thing to do was to "shout" for people to pay, whilst she was behind a bulletproof, soundproof piece of thick glass, so no one could hear her, no matter how angry she got when no one came when she called.
why cash only? a member of staff there said it was to fund Cyril's (as in the incumbent president) pensions. this was only partially in jest. an ambition and aim of all third world countries (or "emerging economies" or "developing nations") to harvest as much hard currency from the first world as possible. by this i mean the British Pound Sterling and the US Dollar. i have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the cash i handed over will be placed in a diplomatic bag, flown to SA and placed in a safe under the care and protection of the ANC. further, i am confident that this shall happen a good deal faster than the passport applications.
yes, it is quite interesting that the likes of Bono, Jim Kerr, etc have remained very, very, very quiet about how the ANC has gone about things. strange and peculiar that, considering they selflessly made pop records demanding that the ANC be given the power they have.
how long does the passport take to be issued?
i have no idea. the website says the turnaround time is 6 months. when we asked at the high commission, they said it can take "from four weeks to six months". so we are going to go right ahead and work on the assumption that it will indeed take six months.
now the big question, with the answer that you do not want
is renewing your sa passport in the uk a painful, time consuming test of endurance that will break your spirit and dampen your desire to live?
yes it is, sadly. whereas the website makes it sound all nice and simple by saying it is a "walk in service", the reality is that it is a good deal of standing around then sitting around then being told that you haven't done something you had no idea you needed to do so running around too.
one piece of advice we got from the staff after we had been there all day - don't go during school holidays. whilst it makes sense to, especially if you have children, the glorious and industrious inefficiency associated with south african governmental bodies has a panic attack at such times. seriously, if you are going to go with children or need to renew a child sa passport, risk the fine off of a school and go during term time.
how long does it take? your entire day. six or seven hours for us. this was some 3 (three) hours queuing in the first queue outside, then some 2 (two) hours queuing in the queue inside, then an hour or so of trying to get it all done.
the high commission opens at 8:45am. one chap said he arrived at 7:30am and found a queue of 40 (forty) people already waiting, so it was as bad as he had feared and worse than we hoped it would not be. make no plans for the day that you are going to do this, assume that you will be there the whole day.
on the one side i do not wish to speak ill off the staff, as they were reasonably polite. but, as with anything official in South Africa, they are woefully inefficient. something wrong with forms is easy to understand considering the lack of support, information and help on the website. what makes this worse is that the people at the high commission will stop at one error, make you spend 30 minutes or so fixing it, then tell you of another error you have to deal with - normally one that could have been done at the same time. a lady there at the same time as us was driven to tears and on the verge of breaking down by it.
anyone who has memories of dealing with anything official in SA - be it Home Affairs or the Traffic Department - will not be surprised at how slow and inefficient it is. from what i could tell they were "flat out" with 10 (ten) desks open and working. going on their numbering system, it took them around 5 hours to assist 40 applications. not a great deal for me to say but you have been warned......
well, anyway, i think that is all i can offer for help, assistance and guidance. should you be needing to head off that way to do any of this, my best wishes for good fortune for you.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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