Fabulous S11 Work Authorisation Updates

27 Mar Fabulous S11 Work Authorisation Updates

We are happy to inform all our foreign clients that there have been favourable developments in the S11 authorisation application.

As of 27th March 2018, all Directors, DP’s and Photographers from Visa-exempt countries ( Countries that do not require visas to enter South Africa ) have been categorised as Oversight travellers and not Specialist. This means that there is no longer a need to go to the embassy to acquire their S11 authorisation – it will now be issued at the port of entry, as long as they are carrying a FIVA letter.

Please see below the favourable changes as per FIVA:

The Advantages.

• Directors, Directors of Photography and Photographers will be removed from the Specialist list and added to the Oversight list, so if from a Visa Exempt Country they may proceed directly to Port of entry as long as they have a valid FIVA letter.
• The “Specialist Visitors visa with Work Authorisation” (both the 90 day and 3 year versions) will no longer need to carry the name of the company that makes the original application.  This allows an Applicant to work for other companies for as long as the visa is valid. All companies having a person with an existing visa on their shoot are obliged to be registered with FIVA and secure a FIVA letter confirming the visa holder’s presence on the project each time this happens. This letter must be in the possession of the applicant and its purpose is to inform Home Affairs of the activities of the Applicant while here and performing under the FIVA guidelines.
• Please note that should a model agency for instance prefer that their name still be displayed on the Visa that they should ask for this when applying.
• For those Applicants who need to apply for a visa prior to arrival, they no longer need to be in his/her place of residence in order to process the application.  This presumes that the Applicant is legally working in/visiting the country from which the application is taking place.

The Concessions: 

• Filmmakers in the Specialist category who have already been granted a 90 day visa previously, will need to apply for a 3 year visa for the next visit.  This clearly comes with the added requirement of obtaining a medical report, radiology report and police clearance.
• The outer limit of working days allowed to the embassies to complete the application has been extended to 10 days with a strong encouragement to complete in the existing 5 days.

Great news to make shooting in South Africa so much simpler!