This industry comes with a flood of questions. There are so many unknown variables at play and travelers are naturally looking for peace of mind that their travel documents are in order (it is the last thing you need to worry about).
While we can’t answer all your questions (because there are just too many and this page will be overloaded with too much content), we have tried to address the most common ones. At the end of the day, the content on this page serves to create awareness that Move Up is here to help. Those looking for industry leading solutions are encouraged to contact us.
To help address the questions, we have taken the liberty to break the content up into sections.
If you are a South African passport holder, with no other nationalities (passports issued from any other country), the default answer is “yes”.
There are however some applicants that have dual nationality (South African passports together with a passport issued from another country). To address cases where dual nationality applies, we have put together a list of “visa national” countries. This is a list that shows countries that require UK visas.
If you only have a South African passport and realize that you need a visa, try our quick and easy assessment to find out which visa best applies.
This question is not verbally expressed much but it happens often with first time overseas travelers. We trust that having this content helps travelers understand the logic and reasoning for needing to have both.
To best answer this question, we take a look at how to apply for a UK visa. Understanding how the process of applying works is one way that we can answer this question.
Great question. This is an aspect of our business model that we are most proud of.
The basis of Move Up’s guarantee is our biggest selling tool. We guarantee that applicants that instruct us to represent them will get their visas first time round. If they do not get their visa with our representation, we refund our case fee in full.
Further details can be found on “our guarantee” page.
Move Up at the end of the day is a third party in the visa application process. Move Up is therefore an optional service and it is not compulsory for an applicant to make use of our assistance.
We appreciate that a lot of travelers are price sensitive and are looking to get to the UK as cheaply as possible.
There are however South Africans that need help and can afford the luxury of getting expert insight. We cater for these travelers.
At this point, we just need to conclude that Move Up prides itself in being South Africas favourite immigration consultancy and we look forward to helping even more travelers in the future.
The answer to this question is “you are not meant too”. The British governments department of UK Visas and Immigration does have a phone line you can call (although they will ask you for credit card details and will charge R25 per minute).
You can call the UKVI on:
+27(0)21 300 3758
If you would prefer to dial a UK number direct please call:
00 44 1243 218 173
This is a paid service and there is a cost of £1.37 UK Sterling per minute in addition to your standard network charges. Please have a valid credit or debit card ready to process your payment. We can accept MasterCard credit and debit cards, and Visa credit and debit cards. You will not be charged until you are connected to an adviser. Calls may be recorded for training purposes. We are able to handle your calls in English.
What the British government expect is that applicants (globally) find the answers on their gov.uk site.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Losing a South African passport with a valid UK visa is like loosing the UK visa.
We have South Africans contact us to say they just bought a 10 year visitor visa and have since lost their passport. In these cases, South Africans have to reapply for another passport from SA Home Affairs and then need to reapply (and pay again for) their UK visa.
A transfer of a UK visa (from an expired South African passport to a valid one) can only be done if the applicant can present the original visa (inside the expired passport). A South African is not permitted to transfer a visa from a misplaced one.
There is only provision for ILR visa holders (permanent residents), who have not allowed their visa to lapse (and been outside the UK for 2 continuous years). This provision is known as the “Returning Resident visa“.
All other cases (Ancestry and Settlement visas included) have to reapply (unfortunately).
This question does not get verbalized enough (and it really should). Often we get South Africans thinking that they can work the UK visa system into their favour.
The truth is that the UK government have caught onto this questionnable approach to visas and have put very strict policies in place. Specifically that changing from visitor status to employment status whilst in the UK is not permitted.
The UK government insist that South Africans can only change their status in a country that they are resident of.
Her Majesties Passport Office (HMPO) has different expectations for when a renewal takes place with a valid British passport (seen as very easy process) versus when a British passport has expired.
This question comes up often. Understandably so, given that from 1995 – 2005 South Africa experienced what is commonly known as a “brain drain”. The UK opened its doors widely to South Africans seeking international work experience.
The UK doors were possibly opened to widely, given that all the local entry level positions were filled by foreigners. The UK is now faced with over population and poor performing British nationals who struggle to secure jobs in their own country.
With the 2008 recession, the UK has since adopted stricter qualifying rules. They have closed the doors to the old 2 year Working Holiday Maker and the Highly Skilled Migrant Program. South African passport holders are finding that the UK are now closing their doors to UK employment opportunities.
At this stage, applicants willing to join HM Armed Forces or willing to do unpaid charity work in the UK can consider this as their only viable gap year options.
Move Up has tried in the past to gain the attention of Tier 2 licensed companies to see if mutually beneficial agreements could be arranged, however given the diverse specialities that recruitment agencies go through to gain specialized solutions, we found that UK placement is not feasible at this stage.
We have however setup affiliations with UK recruiters who are looking for South Africans. We cannot guarantee placement but we can at least provide reliable introductions.
We have put together further useful information on our “UK jobs” page.
Starting off, to make sure we are talking about the same marriage dependent visa (because there are quite a few different ones), lets first take a look at our “spousal visa” page.
The default answer to this question is partners that have a legally recognized relationship akin to marriage as well as minor dependents (below the age of 18 years at the time of submission).
This includes shared biological children, adopted children and step children. At this point we must clarify that out of all the family dependent cases that exist, the step child (or single biological parent) cases have the highest risk of refusal.
Move Up is a South African based consultancy that serves to help South Africans (nationally and internationally) in getting permission to pass through the UK border.
That is obviously an over simplification of our role but it does give context as to what motivates us.
Further details can be found on our “about us” page.
If you have been shopping around, you will see that majority of immigration consultancies offer an apparent “No Win No Fee” service guarantee.
After closer evaluation though, applicants generally find that there are hidden administration costs. This administration cost in our opinion is unethical.
Our approach to the industry is very clear. If we do not help in getting the visa awarded first time round, in cases that we offer representation in, then we do not deserve to get paid (not even for our administration or time).
At the moment, there are immigration firms that play a numbers game. The more clients they can sign up, the more risk they can take. In their approach to the industry, they can afford to offer representation to anyone (whether they qualify or not) because they get paid regardless.
To protect the public, Move Up runs through very detailed assessments (free of charge), to confirm if applicants can qualify. Only once Move Up has assessed the feasibility do we then offer representation.
This approach, in our opinion, operates in the clients best interest (and not our own).
Further details can be found on “our guarantee” page.
Unfortunately OISC has no jurisdiction here is South Africa. They are not able to (or interested in) monitoring SA based firms.
To protect the SA public, Move Up aligns itself with UKIASA (http://ukiasa.org/). UKIASA has standardised UK immigration legislation (to help clarify the grey ares of the “transparent” UK legislation. This standardization helps accurately address applicable visas and holds firms accountable for relevant information provided.
Should you wish to find out more, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
At this point, if you are not sure of which visa (or if you qualify for a British passport), we encourage interested applicants to complete our quick and easy online visa assessment:
To find out more about further technicalities, we have the following groups of content available to interested applicants:
