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NEWS | FOUR KEY CONSIDERATIONS WHEN RELOCATING TO MAURITIUS

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Applications for the Premium Visa are submitted in Mauritius through the Economic Development Board. It takes 5 to 7 days to obtain a Premium Visa, and the main requirements include health insurance and proof of accommodation.

Property Acquisition

Mauritius has implemented irresistible investment options to attract foreigners, mainly South Africans. Property acquisition provides an avenue to obtain a 20 year Permanent Residency Permit.

The Mauritian Government currently offers an exquisite residency program for foreigners who would like to obtain permanent residence based on property purchase. To qualify, foreigners must purchase property within a designated scheme (IRS/RES/PDS or SC) put in place by the government.

Purchasing a property is one of the simplest options to relocate to Mauritius. Previously, foreign nationals were required to invest $500,000 in a property. This threshold has now been reduced to $375,000.

Compared with South Africa, where a South African is allowed to purchase a property as a freehold or through a 99-year lease agreement with the option of renewal, the title of the deed of Mauritius’s property remains under the property holder’s name from the onset. Many of Tax Consulting’s clients have begun to consider their property options. The company has facilitated a number of acquisitions done remotely, subject to visiting Mauritius and confirming the sale.

Exiting South Africa Correctly

It is essential to ensure that you remain tax compliant when exiting South Africa. The South African Revenue Service has become far more aggressive in recent years with South Africans living and/or working abroad – especially those that have not done a compliant exit.

The first step is to determine what type of exit you will make from South Africa. The two simplest options (with various iterations in between) are:

  • Leaving South Africa permanently, to relocate elsewhere; and
  • Leaving South Africa temporarily, with South Africa remaining home base.

The difference between the two comes down to tax residency and how it must be dealt with. As a tax resident of South Africa, a taxpayer is taxable on worldwide income and assets. As a non-resident for tax, one is only taxable in South African on South African sourced income and assets.

With both options, a solution must be found to ensure protection from double taxation. Generally, with a permanent move abroad, one will use financial emigration to cease tax residency of South Africa formally. With a temporary move abroad, one would use the Double Taxation Agreement between South Africa and Mauritius.

It is important to understand the “exit tax” from South Africa when ceasing tax residency. The exit tax is mainly unknown among laymen, but this declaration and payment must be made to SARS, to ensure that the exit regulations are concluded.  If this step isn’t taken, SARS may argue that one has not fulfilled the exit formalities and thus remain taxable in South Africa on worldwide income and assets – never mind the potential for SARS to raise penalties and interest in this scenario.

Financial Emigration: The New Process

After years of South Africans successfully ceasing tax residency by using the financial emigration process, the Government has decided to remove the process as we know it and replace it with a more stringent verification system and risk management test. The practicality of the new process has yet to be announced.

Financial emigration applications under the current legislation will only be processed until the end of February 2022, if they have submitted prior to 1 March 2021. After that, the uncertain new process – which promises to be more stringent from a tax perspective and less so from an exchange control perspective, will begin.

This deadline gives South Africans little time to submit their applications. In the future, South Africans need to be cognisant of a more cumbersome process on the horizon.

Preliminary Critical Skills List Now Available

NEWS | PRELIMINARY CRITICAL SKILLS LIST NOW AVAILABLE

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“The list is publicly available from the DHET’s website and companies should start reviewing it in anticipation of a round of public commentary before it is finalised,” says Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb.

Jacobs confirmed that Xpatweb’s own research was used as a reference of input for the DHET Occupations in High Demand (OHID) report and, subsequently, informed the preliminary Critical Skills List by the DHET.

Availability

The current Critical Skills List was published in 2014. Significant macroeconomic events have affected the country’s foreign skills demand since then, like the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the impact of COVID-19. This makes the new list vital to enabling the recruitment of emerging business-critical talent internationally to promote economic growth.

Jacobs anticipates that, with the recent publishing of the OIHD report from the same research base, the momentum of that work will carry forward to the finalisation of the new Critical Skills List.

“The new List is likely to be published in early 2021,” reports Jacobs.

Exclusions

Notably, several occupations on the current Critical Skills List have been excluded from the preliminary list. These include corporate general manager; risk assessor; certain ICT designations; electrical and chemical engineer; toolmaker; pressure welder; boilermaker; certain trades, such as millwright, pipefitter, double-coded welder and rigger; foreign language speaker; and business analyst.

This may concern employers who have difficulty sourcing these skills locally. Visas for foreign nationals listed on the Critical Skills List are typically processed two to six months faster. This puts companies who urgently need to replace scarce workers not on the List at a disadvantage.

“To make their needs heard, organisations must provide feedback proactively as the opportunity to comment becomes available,” says Jacobs. This will ensure the finalised list aligns with actual national business requirements.

Input

As the only private company invited to present its findings in an interdepartmental session to develop the OIHD, Xpatweb provided research from its own Critical Skills Survey, taken annually over the last five years. This research is also incorporated into the DHET’s preliminary Critical Skills List.

Jacobs believes Xpatweb’s participation can be attributed to the quality of its Survey data. “Of the 32 occupations listed in our report, 24 were already included in the preliminary List, so there was a significant complementary overlap in the research” she says.

The Survey provides a channel for organisations to pre-emptively participate in initiatives like the development of the national Critical Skills List. “Instead of waiting for the public comment process, they can contribute to the early stages of policy formulation,” says Jacobs.

Conclusion

Jacobs urges organisations to become active players in the final Critical Skills List. “This will help ease immigration constraints that may limit access to occupations essential to economic growth,” she says.

She also commends the DHET and DHA for their outstanding work and for openly engaging the private sector.

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NEWS | SOUTH AFRICA MUST BE COGNISANT ATTRACTING SKILLS HAPPENS AGAINST BACKDROP OF GLOBAL DEMAND

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She emphasises that it is important to be reminded that skills are globally sourced for the economic benefit of those countries and South Africa has to compete for scarce skills.

On November 26, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Dr Blade Nzimande held a media briefing to launch the 2020 National List of Occupations in High Demand (OIHD).

Nzimande also formally published the Government Gazette containing the list of OIHD.

Jacobs says that, when looking at the results in their entirety, it is evident that there is a continued lack of critically skilled individuals available in South Africa and key stakeholders need to address these problems collectively in an effort to reinvigorate the economy.

She explains that the OIHD alerts tertiary education institutes, professional bodies, employers and other stakeholders to occupations currently in short supply and for which there are indications that there will be relatively high employment growth in the present and future.

She notes that this allows these bodies to establish courses and internal skills development programmes to alleviate future shortfalls in business-critical competencies.

Jacobs informs that the list shows growth in industries such as media and marketing, information and communication technology (ICT) and healthcare.

The gazette also gave special mention to the organisations that were consulted in the process, including Xpatweb.

Jacobs explains that Xpatweb was invited by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to present its findings from the yearly Critical Skills Survey as part of an interdepartmental session, which also comprised the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the Department of Labour and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC). This includes the methodology used and impact on employers.

The Xpatweb Critical Skills Survey, now in its fifth year, comprises inputs from the DHET during the above consultation sessions, with the 2019/20 survey also more in-depth in that it unpacked feedback from the participants, notes Jacobs.

“There is a continued lack of critically skilled individuals available in South Africa and thanks to survey participants, which include large multinational and South African organisations, we are able to provide valuable inputs and guide the government’s Critical Skills List (CSL) shaping the decisions that will help local businesses reinvigorate the South African economy,” she acclaims.

Jacobs says the DHET is working alongside the DHA to update the existing national CSL, which was last updated in 2014.

The current CSL was established when the Immigration Act was amended in 2014 to replace the then Quota Work Permit with the new Critical Skills Work Visa. The list was developed in conjunction with the OIHD and the skills lists from DHET, explains Jacobs.

The main objective of the Critical Skills Work Visa is not only to provide South African employers the ability to recruit and attract skilled foreigner nationals for their organisations, but also to assist government in support of the national infrastructure programme, strategic infrastructure projects and key national strategic projects in support of the DTIC, she notes.

“The CSL enables South African employers to recruit critically skilled resources internationally which cannot be sourced within the country,” Jacobs informs.

She mentions that candidates recruited for a critical skill can get their visas processed on average two to six months faster than those not represented on this list.

Jacobs mentions that Xpatweb’s research suggests areas that will present most opportunities include occupations in the growing oil and gas sector, ICT skills and science, technology, engineering and mathematics teachers.

“Our results further show that ICT specialists and engineers continue to be one of the most sought-after skills, with 19% and 21% of participants respectively indicating same. This is supported by the South African Institution of Civil Engineering, which stated in 2019 that South Africa continues to lose hundreds of engineers year on year who emigrate with their families. This “brain drain” continues to contribute to skills shortages in the engineering sector,” she indicates.

Moreover, and based on the company’s survey results, certain occupations have been re-included within the preliminary CSL that would have been omitted initially, for example, network analyst, quantity surveyor, actuary and nurse, notes Jacobs.

However, she notes that it is not yet confirmed if the aforementioned will be included in the new CSL, as it is at the discretion of the DHA.

The list is expected to be published in early 2021 and will incorporate occupations that have recently emerged following input received from the relevant stakeholders involved during the inter-departmental sessions.

Jacobs says with the impact the pandemic has had and the operational changes organisations are undergoing, it is anticipated that with the gazetting of the OIHD list the momentum will carry forward and the CSL looks to be on schedule for release early next year to support South African economic growth at this crucial time.

“There are thus active and ongoing engagements with regards to the new CSL, whereby a preliminary CSL report has already been introduced and it is currently undergoing internal engagements with the Home Affairs Minister.

“We are expected to received feedback from these discussions in due course, following which we look forward to the opportunity to again give input based on the latest Critical Skills Survey which is currently running and due to close in January,” she says.

Source: Engineering News

Successfully Navigating Important SA Government Document Renewals While Living Abroad

NEWS | SUCCESSFULLY NAVIGATING IMPORTANT SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT RENEWALS WHILE LIVING ABROAD

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This leaves South Africans wanting to obtain their Civic Services stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they usually have to travel back home to complete the process; and even then they are not guaranteed to receive the documentation in time before having to travel back abroad.

Types of Civic services

Typical Civic services include:

  • Unabridged birth certificates;
  • Unabridged marriage certificates;
  • Passport renewals;
  • Death certificates;
  • Apostilling/legalising of documents;
  • Letters of no-impediment;
  • South African Police Clearances; and
  • Expediting of any pending applications.

Why is a local service provider is key to obtaining these types of documentation?

Besides the fact that you might not be able to return to South Africa to fulfil this process, it often occurs that when trying to obtain/reapply for official Certificates, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) does not consider such applications with high priority which consequently leaves a substantial backlog with processing times to be as long as 6 – 18 months.

Using a professional service provider comes with an added level of assurance, swiftness and convenience; where the process is fully understood, and applications submitted on a first-time accurate basis. Xpatweb has assisted many South Africans abroad, and accordingly, compile, submit your application, and facilitate the process on your behalf to DHA in South Africa and courier to wherever you find yourself in this world.

Once we have received your information and the required documents, it will take approximately 8 weeks for the Department to process and issue your certificate.

Other benefits include:

  • Removing the administrative burden of compiling documents
  • Avoiding long queues, application forms and processes
  • Includes several follow-ups to ensure your application is finalised
  • Resolve any issues that might cause a delay
  • Full tracking of the application
  • The certificate gets delivered to you within an excellent turnaround time

Xpatweb maintains a long-standing professional relationship with DHA and our professionals are well versed in the various South African Government Issued Certificates. This service allows you to get your affairs in order from the comfort of your own home.

AUTHOR
Mpho Ndimande
Mpho Ndimande
Immigration Administrator

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NEWS | SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST SOUGHT AFTER SKILLS

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“The OIHD list is an essential resource for skills development initiatives across the tertiary education, public and private sectors,” says Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at Xpatweb, a private firm that was invited to contribute to the list’s compilation.

Why the list is important

The OIHD list alerts tertiary education institutes, professional bodies, employers and other stakeholders to occupations that indicate relatively high employment growth in the past, present and future but are currently in shortage. This allows them to establish courses and internal skills development programmes to alleviate future shortfalls in business-critical competencies.

The Gazette regards an occupation as being in shortage when the demand for labour exceeds the supply of people willing to work for a particular income, under prevailing working conditions, at a specific place and point in time.

“We encourage stakeholders to review the list against their existing training programmes and human resources requirements to ensure they are adequately prepared,” says Jacobs.

Private sector input

“As the only private sector company to receive special mention in the Gazette, we are proud to have been consulted in this process,” says Jacobs.

She attributes the firm’s inclusion based on the Critical Skills Survey Results, which is an annual survey that reports the skills that organisations consider most difficult to source and recruit.

On the basis of this research, Xpatweb was invited to present its findings as part of an interdepartmental session, also comprising the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the Department of Labour, and the Department of Trade and Industry. This included the methodology used and impact on employers.

The Xpatweb Critical Skills Survey is in its 5th year running and, with inputs from the DHET in the above consultation sessions, the 2019/20 survey is more in depth to further unpack feedback from the participants.

The inputs received up to end September 2020 have already been incorporated into the OIHD list published on 26 November.

The impact of COVID

The 2020 OIHD list takes into consideration the impact of COVID-19 on economic activities and the consequent shift in demand for affected occupations. These are highlighted either in red, indicating possible slower recovery in or lower demand for the skill, or green, indicating possible faster recovery or increased demand.

“This introduces some uncertainty into the equation, and we will closely monitor how the pandemic plays out and if there are lasting effects on the job market,” says Jacobs.

Towards a critical skills list

The OIHD list is not a critical skills list and does not indicate those occupations requiring the employment of skilled foreign nationals for whom visas may be obtained.

The DHET will work with the DHA to amend the existing national critical skills list, which was last updated in 2014. The list is expected to be published in early 2021 and incorporate occupations that have recently emerged.

“Our research suggests these will include occupations in the growing oil and gas sector, ICT skills and STEM teachers,” says Jacobs.


AUTHOR
Marisa-Jacobs
Marisa Jacobs
Director