Hello everyone,
Firstly I must say, this is a great forum. Could not have got to the stage we have without it!
Since I cant seem to get any answers from the SA officials, I'm hoping someone here can help.
Our situation:
I'm a SA citizen (with UK ILR, soon to be dual SA/UK national). Have been living with my Lithuanian (EU) girlfriend for 6 years in London. We want to move back to SA end of 2012. We decided to go for a LPP and SA Permanent Residence (since then got engaged a few weeks ago and will get married in Sept 2012). We want to apply for the LPP and SA PR in London now before going back. We have gathered all the paperwork necessary as per many different sources (official and otherwise!)
However, when contacting the SA High Commission in London to book the PR/LPP application appointment, they told us that since PR takes so long, we would do better to apply for Temporary Residence & LPP at the same time as applying for PR.
Accepted the fact but have some questions:
1. If we apply for a LPP and Temporary Residence permit now in London, how long will we have before needing to enter SA?
2. If we make the PR application now at same time as LPP & TR permit, is it allowed that we leave to go live in SA on the LPP & TR permit? - i.e. will we be able to collect the PR permit in SA in heaven knows how long (18 months+) or will we need to come back to London?
Any advice greatly appreciated!
Thank you.
UK to SA: LPP + Temp or Perm Residence?
Hi technicidat,
Welcome to Expat.com! 
Thank you for this introduction.
I hope other members will be able to help you.
All the best,
Christine
Hi.
You can only apply for permanent residence once you have lived legally in S.A. for more than 5 years.
I think you are a bit confused with all the visas, you should apply for the LPP aka relative/spousal visa, which are all temporary visas, you would normally get a two year visa, you would then have to apply for a new one after two years.
You must consider what your GF are going to be doing while in S.A. if she wants to work, study or do business she will need an endorsement that allows her to do that. She will need to have a job offer before being able to apply for the work endorsement, one must apply for the work endorsement at the same time as the LPP.
If she wants to study or do volunteer work, those visas are much easier to obtain, when I got my study visa I got it in 10 days, from the consulate in Copenhagen.
You can leave and enter S.A. as much as you want as long as you enter on a valid visa, does not matter if you have visas in the pipe line.
Regards Sarah
Hi Sarahk,
Thank you for replying to my post.
We wanted to apply for Permanent Residence on the grounds of having cohabitated in the UK for more than 5 years. From what I know, one does not need to have lived in SA for the 5 years to get PR on this particular basis.
When applying for SA PR while still in another country it is called direct residence. This is actually possible to do, SA High Commission confirmed this but advised us we will wait a looong time. Unfortunately using this method we would need to wait until the PR application is approved and they estimate 18 months+
Since we dont want to wait around that long in the UK, we are looking at the Temporary Residence + LPP route but have questions related to PR as I mentioned.
Thanks!
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