Problems renewing SA passport in London

I just read an article from ioltravel.co.za about how a South African struggled to renew their passport in London. I thought of sharing it as I have a brother staying in the UK.

I can honestly say that a few years ago, even I struggled to renew my passport in South Africa as the lines are long and the staff are lazy as hell. It has changed a bit and it still takes long, but its a lot faster than it use to be.

If you want to read the full article then click here as I have just noted some of the details.

Below are some of the users experiences:

• You’re not allowed to call the Home Affairs offices direct. This is just bad practice, but I’m not surprised.
• You can’t go in and see them – they will only give you application papers at the door and not allow you in. Talk about being lazy and all, they should just make it that you can download the forms from the internet. Why pay someone just to stand outside and hand out papers.
• You have to use a charge number to make an appointment – at a cost of £1 per minute! The initial message that you get when the system responds is so long that by the time you have finished setting the appointment up, it’s cost you anything between £14 and £17! This is a money-making scheme and someone should report it, I think SA Home Affairs in London is probably the only one doing this kind of practice.
• The staff are surly and rude, as if they want to punish you for having the audacity to live outside South Africa. This is still a problem in some the of departments, the staff think you owe them.

I thought the comic strip below depicts what it is like in South Africa

Are you a South African living abroad?

Have you had the same experience?

Tagged as: home affairs, lazy staff, london, money-making scheme, renew passport, renew south africa passport in london, South Africa

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