I am a citizen of Zimbabwe and frequently travel between Zimbabwe and South Africa on a visitor's visa, either by air or bus, as I have a child in South Africa. About two weeks ago, I flew to Zimbabwe without any issues noted at the South African airport. However, today, when I attempted to return to South Africa, I was informed at the airport in Zimbabwe that there seems to be a problem on the South African side and that I need to visit the embassy. Consequently, I was denied boarding for my flight to South Africa. The details of the issue were not clearly explained to me, which led me to wonder if I have been placed on a V-list or could potentially be banned from South Africa without my knowledge and without any corresponding stamp in my passport. I have never overstayed my visa, and my passport can verify this. Has anyone experienced a similar situation? What could this imply?
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How often and how long do you go there? Or in other words, how much of the last 90, 180, and 365 days did you spend in SA?– jcaronCommented Dec 14, 2023 at 8:10
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1I spent almost the entire year this side .. I would go to Zim for a week then be back– ReeCommented Dec 14, 2023 at 8:23
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4By "this side" you mean SA? If so, while you may not be banned, you are clearly well over what visitor visas are intended for, so you probably won't be entering on one anytime soon. You probably need a different type of visa.– jcaronCommented Dec 14, 2023 at 11:48
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Yes I mean SA. So do I need to apply for a different visa? Will I be allowed to for example if I prove I'm taking care of my child in SA?– ReeCommented Dec 14, 2023 at 14:23
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2While the question seems to be about a short visit, in the explanations in the comments it seems OP lives in SA.– WillekeCommented Dec 14, 2023 at 16:44
1 Answer
Visitor visas are designed for that: visits. Spending most of you time in the country is not a visit, that's called living there.
Some countries have very explicit rules about this. For instance, those in the Schengen Area have the so-called 90/180 rule, which says you can't stay more than 90 days out of any 180 consecutive days in the Schengen Area .
Other countries have more murky rules, and just state that "you shouldn't use repeated or successive visits to live in the country" or something similar. There, the rule of thumb is that you should stay at least as much time out of the country than in, but this is left to the appreciation of the border officer when you try to get in.
Other countries still, like SA, are very unclear about this, but still do not want you to live in SA using a visitor visa or visa-free access and hopping back and forth to stay within the maximum duration of stay (so-called "visa runs").
They actually introduced a few years ago pretty strict rules for visitors with visa-free access from non-neighbouring countries, which forces those visitors to go back home before they can get a new visa-free entry, so they do indeed know about the issue and try to prevent it in at least some cases.
If you stay most of the year in SA, you are not a visitor. You are living there, so you are an immigrant. There are different types of visas for this, though I personally do not know anything about them. In most countries there are types of immigrant visas for people who have family in the country (in some places this makes it very easy and cheap to get an immigrant visa, in others it can still be a costly and complex process), I don't know the situation in SA.
Since this is about long-term travel, you'll probably find better answers on Expatriates.SE.
Note also that if you spend more than half of your time in a country, there are usually tax implications: you probably need to register with the tax authorities, file returns, pay taxes, etc.
