The short answer
If an application for permanent residency is wrongfully rejected, you can apply to the Director-General of Home Affairs to review the decision.
The whole question
Dear Athalie
I’m a South African citizen married to a foreign national. We’ve been married for 15 years and have five children together.
In 2012, we applied for permanent residency for my husband at the Cape Town Home Affairs office. He had been using an Asylum Seeker Permit, which he used for the PR application. The process was extremely difficult and unpleasant; officials questioned the validity of our marriage and paternity of our children.
After many delays and resubmissions, the application was finally lodged, and we paid the required fee. In 2014, we were told the application was rejected due to two “missing documents”, which we had in fact submitted and were checked off by Home Affairs. We appealed in March 2014, but have never received a proper outcome.
We contacted the Public Protector and even the Presidency. The response we eventually received was that Home Affairs couldn’t locate my husband’s file. Meanwhile, his refugee interview was rejected, and he was given a deportation order to leave the country by December 2024.
Legal representation tried to submit a good cause application, but this was dismissed without consideration. My husband now has no form of ID and cannot work. This affects our whole family, he’s on our children’s birth certificates and our marriage certificate.
Can anything be done to resolve this situation or reopen his permanent residence case? We are desperate for assistance.
The long answer
If you have been married for 15 years, you would have married in 2010? Thus in 2012, you would have been married for two years. I’m asking this, because the law says that you must be married for five years before you can apply for permanent residence.
Obviously, while waiting for a reply, which could take time, you must renew your permit.
Black Pen Immigration says that if an application for permanent residence is wrongly rejected, you can apply to the Director-General of Home Affairs to review the decision. But the wrong decision must have been made based on a legal error, such as incorrect application of the law, inadequate assessment of the facts or not following the correct procedures. Importantly, the appeal must be lodged within 10 working days of receiving the notice of rejection.
If the Director-General rejects it, you can appeal to the Minister.
But if the application for a refugee permit is rejected, you would need to appeal to the Refugee Appeal Board within 10 working days. Your husband would need to go back to where he had his interview and ask for an Appeal Form. You would then have a hearing, and the rejection would either be overturned or upheld.
So, whatever was the case, and whichever route your husband followed, you and your family are now in a terrible situation, where your husband has no form of identification and cannot work. It seems truly extraordinary that after 15 years of marriage and five children, your husband can be told to leave the country. I cannot believe that our government and Constitution could permit that.
Perhaps you and your husband should make a sworn affidavit detailing each step of this long tortuous process starting from your marriage and onwards from there - the 2012 application for permanent residence, the rejection and the reasons given, the information from the Presidential Hotline that Home Affairs could not find your husband’s file two years after he had applied for permanent residence, etc. Include dates and names of officials where possible, and take it, together with certified copies of all the documents you submitted, plus certified copies of marriage certificate and birth certificates of the children, to one of the following organisations that have a great deal of experience in dealing with Home Affairs, and ask for their urgent assistance:
Here are their contact details:
The Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town
Email: info@scalabrini.org.za
Tel: 021 465 6433
Johannesburg office: 011 339 1960
Cape Town office: 021 424 8561
Email: lhr@lhr.org.za
Legal Resources Centre:
Email: info@lrc.org.za
Johannesburg: 011 038 9709
Cape Town: 021 879 2398
Wishing you the best,
Athalie
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Answered on June 10, 2025, 1:06 p.m.
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