Renewing South African Passport

[Bruceza88]

Hi,

 

I'm from South Africa and applied for a new South African passport in April 2018. The Embassy said it would take 6 months for my new passport to arrive. In October 2018 (6 months later) I contacted the Embassy to enquire about my new passport but it hasn't arrived yet. Ever since then I have contacted them weekly but still no passport and they said they will check up but they can never give me any answer as to whats wrong or why its taking so long.

 

The problem now is that I need to go for a Non-B visa but I don't have any pages left in my current passport. 

 

My tourist visa is expiring in a weeks time. I can go and extend the tourist visa for another 30 days (extra cost) and then wait another month for my new passport which would make it a 10 month wait. What am I to do if I don't receive my new passport next month and can't extend my tourist visa again?

 

Does anyone have any suggestions or how I can resolve this?

 

Thanks

[ubonjoe]

I think I would be writing a email or be calling the passport authority in South Africa about your passport. It sounds like the embassy is not doing their job.

When does your passport expire?

[Bruceza88]

I have sent an email to the the South African Home Affairs (Passport authority) and still awaiting their reply. My passport only expires in 2025. My problem is that I don't have enough pages for new visa's.

 

I agree, the embassy is very bad and not doing their job.

 

 

[Inepto Cracy]

Hi Bruce. Having just returned from SA, there have been ongoing strikes by the printers of passports and driving licenses in SA this passed year.

I renewed my passport from here, good staff at the embassy in BKK, PM me for their personal contact details.

Failing them, go down to Singapore.

Remember you can get an emergency travel passport just for reasons of extra pages, then transfer the stamps to your new passport when you get it.

Remember we have an election coming up in May and if you are an expat, you may register online to vote from abroad, either Thailand, Singapore or any of our consulates.

[allanos]

What I.C. has said above is correct regarding the print strike.  The printer is in Pretoria. Although the strike was in July last year, it has seriously disrupted the issuing of official documents.  I had a driving licence issue, and it seems, in order to catch up, the printers are declaring a lot of applications as erroneous, even if they are not, just to remove some of their backlog.

 

Get hold of our Embassy in BKK and ask if they are able to issue a Temporary Passport to you, or whether it must come from South Africa.  Also how long they estimate the delay will be in arranging a Temp for you.

 

Our temporary passports last for a full 12 months, but you are restricted as to the countries which will accept them.  Not UK, not Schengen, not USA etc., because they are not biometric.

Edited January 8, 2019 by allanos
to add more information

[Bruceza88]

Thanks for the replies.

 

I received my passport just in time to be able to go for the visa.

 

Just a heads up, it took 9 months for the it to arrive so plan far ahead.