STAFF VISAS GENERAL INFORMATION :

The topic of Visas may seem overwhelming, but our Visa Team is wanting to help you with the information you need for it to hopefully go smoothly for you and your students! It is ultimately important that all our students take ownership of the process for getting a visa for themselves, but that we give them what information we have and communicate well with them along the process so that they are set up for success.

TO THE LEFT YOU’LL SEE STEP BY STEP DETAILS TO HELP YOU KNOW WHAT IS INVOLVED WITH EACH OF THESE THINGS BASED ON THE TYPE OF SCHOOL YOU ARE RUNNING (IE. IF YOU ARE A SBS LEADER, THERE IS DIFFERENT INFORMATION THAN FOR A DTS)

There are a few things that you should know about our students and the visa process that is the same for all our students :

• Students are responsible for getting a visa and the entire visa process - just as our staff are responsible for their entire visa process. You as the School Leader provides helpful information along the way to set the students up for the best chance for success, as we as the Visa Team do what research we can - but what we actually do is limited. Students need to be in contact with their local embassy about what is required, students need to get all of their information together, students need to apply on time and be in communication with us - this is not something that our Visa Team is responsible for.

• YWAM Muizenberg is not financially responsible for our students - so for example, many students need to prove for a visa that they have sufficient finances for them to stay in South Africa - so while family members or friends can act as a “guarantor” that if the student fails to be able to afford to stay or fly out of South Africa, this is never something that we as a YWAM Base will do. This request will come through if a student requests a copy of YWAM Muizenberg’s bank statements - this is not something that we will provide.

• Students can only arrive on Arrival Day (the Thursday before the school starts) - students that arrive earlier will likely then need to do a renewal of their visa, as our Training programs are 90 days long, and most visas are 90 days, meaning that even arriving a few days or weeks early, will impact their ability to stay the length of lecture phase.

• If a student needs to apply for a visa to get into South Africa, it is unlikley that they will be able to come for debrief. As these studnets only get a single entry visa,

  • This happens often with our students from Nigeria and Egypt

  • Have the students try to apply for a multiple entry visa, but its unlikley.

• Western African nations need to pay in lecture fees before we issue a visa letter - this includes Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon.

• Before accepting a student, look up their country of origin

• Anyone arriving on a 30 days visa to South Africa - extend the first week

• finances - if a student can pay for the visa extesion process then they should, if not, look into the school finances to see if you can cover the cost for the student.

• Border runs - just be aware that you may not be guaranteed reentry back into South Africa - even if you travel to other African nations - its unlikely.

• Fly in if you can as that makes things easier than traveling by bus. It seems that the border agents are more likely to make the process easy for entry.

• countries that only get 30 days

  • what to do

• countries that get 90 days automatically - include

• you have to apply for a visa. - ethiopia egtyp

at the end of the day - the student is responsibel to get their visa - this is the information that we have found, but it changes all the time. so the student is responsibel to do the reserach, contact the local embassy in their home country, to

if you will need a visa letter, check here

if you need to apply in Cape Town

• make an afternoon appointment if you can

What We Provide :

• If a student has paid into YWAM - for example, a Nigerian that has paid for lecture phase, you can request a copy of that payment from John

What We Don’t Do :

For your Staff :

• They need to plan to arrive the quarter before they staff a school for staff training - which they will need to be fully present for. This means that your staff will need to start the visa process at least five months before a school begins. For staff for January quarters, this process should begin even earlier as with the holidays the processing of visas can be further delayed

• Currently it is most difficult to get long term visas from India and the Netherlands - this doesn’t make those staff exceptions to applying for a long term visa. They just need to be informed that their process needs to start even earlier.

Important Note on Visas & Transportation:

We always encourage students to fly into South Africa. When people bus is when we have seen issues at borders. Flying in for any nation around SA seems to have more favor with visas, than coming by bus. So this is an important consideration to communicate to your students.