Tim Leavey, Kenilworth
Like your correspondents, the Hansells, I have lived here for over 40 years and had the same problem with my permanent residence certificate. I applied for a copy as they did and was told it would take nine months. I eventually waited nearly two years. Patience, I am afraid, is the name of the game: emails, phone calls got me nowhere.
When applying you are given a tracking number which you must track periodically which I did till suddenly one day it
told me my certificate was ready for collection. While waiting for this document to arrive, I travelled to the UK twice by simply taking my new passport and old passport with the stamp in it and showing both at Passport Control going in and out the country without any problem. I also had my SA ID book with me that shows I am a permanent resident.
As an aside, my wife and I applied for new ID books in May at Wynberg HA as ours were stolen. We were there for less than an hour applying for them and five minutes to collect them. Being over 70 has its advantages sometimes. I read your column with interest every week
Courtney Jacobs, Cape Town
My story is different from what I read in your column. I got divorced in December 2016. I remarried end of December last year and when my wife went to register our marriage she found out that I’m still married to my ex-wife.
It has become more than a struggle to get my divorce registered. HAs phone number is always “broken” and my lawyer told me it will cost a lot of money to get a court order to get HA to do their job which they should be doing anyway.
Justice is blaming HA and HA is blaming Justice.