visalove – WANDER OUR WORLD

29. Dezember 202019. Juli 2021

Moving 13.000km in 35 hours

Hello, Bonjour and Molweni from Cape Town where I live and work for two years. Due to the ongoing pandemic, I have arrived about 9 months later than originally planned. But I think all of us have realized by now that planning and COVID-19 are not much compatible.

In March this year I applied for my visa, which was just before the lockdown. It was then unsure what‘s the next steps to be taken. However, South African government made it very easy as no steps were to be taken at all until September, when SA finally opened up its borders again. Of course in a very COVID like manner; with much confusion which countries can enter, what requirements need to be adhered to and the possible chance of finding yourself in front of closed borders the next day.

In the meanwhile I had started my new job in Cape Town remotely and worked from home while I was in a hustle of trying to apply again for a visa. Until one morning in late October I got a call from Berlin, which was someone from the embassy asking me if I am still interested in my visa. Of course I was! I was desperately waiting to apply again. All they needed were new medical certificates that I got to send them over.

Working from home while waiting for my visa

While I was waiting for my visa to be issued I asked myself how will that visa actually come into my passport that the embassy had sent back to me in April? No one from the embassy responded to my emails and calls so I took my passport, gave it a last hug and sent it via courier to the embassy, just hoping for the best! 10 days later I was to find my passport including the visa in my postbox, what a day.

So by mid-November, I held the hardest paper to get in my hand. I booked my flight for early January 2021, little I knew that COVID would surely have new surprises for me. I must admit there is never a dull day during this pandemic!

20 December, I heard about the plans from the German government that wanted to ban all flights from UK AND South Africa! I checked my calendar, just making sure it was not April fools’ day. All countries are open to fly to and out of the 2 ones Germany wanted to ban, 1 is my future home country. How lucky must I be! Chances were low that anything between mid-December and mid-January would come across – I thought. Surely enough COVID thought it got a bit too easy during the past days.

Next day morning was Monday 21 December and the news told me that since midnight the borders for UK were closed already and the plans were for SA to follow as well. What had happened in the last few hours? I could just not believe it. I rebooked my flight to the 28 December but I was not feeling so confident it would take off. Here comes next morning, Tuesday 22 December where Germany announced its new regulation with a ban for all flights for UK and SA. No time to think twice, things were just running much quicker than I could act. Hence, I rebooked my flight again, I told the agency to book me on the next flight possible, which was next day 23 December.

The decision was taken: I shall spent my first Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere 13.000 km away from my family.

4 things you can‘t recover: The stone, after it is thrown; The word after it is said; The occasion after it is missed; The time after it is gone!
Deanna Wadsworth

Luckily my PCR test showed I was negative and I was praying that I will manage to get everything done in under 35 hours. I am quite positive that I won’t find many people that emigrated in under 35 hours, in a pandemic! With lots of support on both countries, my home and future home country, I made it on time to the airport with all essentials being organized.

My flight took off just as scheduled with a fraction of passengers than the A340 could carry, a miracle how the airlines can operate like that. Plus, flying back from SA to Germany with no passengers at all due to the new German regulation in place to fight the unknown mutation of COVID. 12 hours later, I landed in CPT, got off the plane, sanitized my hands at least at 3 different stops before I handed over my negative PCR test and my COVID immigration form.

*Flying into Cape Town is always a special sig*hting

Before the passport control, came the last obstacle, my temperature was taken and oh my word it was luckily below 37 degrees Celsius. Anything else I also would have probably just not accepted.

I don’t know where I am going but I am on my way
Carl Sandburg

The passport control was quick and easy, no queues at all and quicker than I could realize I had my luggage back and was ready to see Cape Town and my hotel for the next few nights. I was welcomed very warmly and had about the best start one can wish for if you move to a different continent. Lovely days of Christmas were ahead of me that I spent with some colleagues, I got to experience my first African Christmas under the warm sun and next to the table mountain. Nothing I thought of just a few days before.

Happy that I had such a blessed start, I look forward to a fun time to come that surely will have some unpredictable adventures waiting for me!

My new lessons learned while moving to a different continent during a pandemic:

Plans, no plans – COVID-19 and plans are just not best friends;
Warm Christmas – Christmas Day and sun does fit together very well, and
Mix it – Mixing up several languages in one sentence seems to be a thing here.

Cheers to wandering the world and moving to a different continent during the pandemic – bye bye, salut and hamba kakuhle ∞

22. März 2020

How to manage the visa struggle

Hello, Bonjour and Sawubona from my newest adventure of moving from Europe to South Africa, Cape Town. Corona virus is not a friendly helper, but that’s a whole different story. In this blog I want to focus on advices how to get a visa, which is already an interesting battle itself.

When deciding to leave a continent with family and friends that you know behind, you go through many stages; from being euphoric to worried to happy. And then it comes: the naughty visa application. Some say it’s worse than going to the dentist, some say it’s random and unfair, I say it’s a struggle to survive even if you think you might be prepared for it.

First things first, you have to find out which visa application form is the one you need to correctly fill out. This really is a bigger step than thought if you have no one with experience to tell you. Afterwards, you need to gather all documents and proofs demanded by the application form. Now this really is a masterpiece of its one, almost impossible if you don’t have any competent help and leading to lovely, time-consuming trips to the embassy. Most of the time you can’t rely on help of the employees of the embassy so make sure you got all your paperwork done correctly.

Every visa application process is different and it even differs from embassy to embassy for the same country. So here my advice if you want to survive the visa application process efficiently when applying for an intra-company work visa from Germany to South Africa, Cape Town:

Check out which embassy is the one you need to go to (Berlin for whole Germany except Bavaria. If you live in Bavaria, Munich is responsible for you).
Make sure the intra-company work visa is applicable for you. This should always be the case if your German employer sends you to Cape Town to a branch or subsidiary within the group and you don’t quit your job in Germany but will be re-employed after the expatriation time in South Africa.
Download the application form from the SA embassy website.
Get a folder ready for all documents to come.

Gather all documents mentioned in the visa application. This is:

passports from all nationalities you have,
copies of all your passports,
download and print the form DHA-1738 and fill it out,
biometric picture not older than 6 months,
a letter of the branch / affiliate in South Africa confirming the transfer and specifying whether your position is junior or senior. This needs to specify your new occupation and the relationship between your German employer and the one in South Africa. Documentary proof is likely to be asked, so better be already prepared with the registration documentation issued by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPS) for the South African company. Furthermore, a translated trade register excerpt for the German company will be needed. Most likely you will also be asked to present an organogram to show the relationship between the German and South African company, best to show as well your current and future position and how they are related,
a written undertaking by the South African company so ensure all points mentioned under this number in the application,
a plan developed by the South African company to transfer your skills to a local citizen incl. currently certified copies of their identity with their ID numbers. If you don’t present the original letters but copies that are sent to you via email, the HR person signing all those letters need to present a certified passport copy as well,
a confirmation of your German employer that you will be transferred to the South African company, mentioning the time period for your stay,
your original contract translated into English and certified by a sworn translator incl. an attached copy to it. As a back up take a copy of your original contract. Moreover, you need your original assignment letter or contract for your new position in South Africa,
original police clearance certificate,
a signed medical report as provided on the website of the embassy,
a signed radiological report as provided on the website of the embassy,
if you have children accompanying you, take a proof of parental responsibilities with you,
if a spouse is accompanying you, take your marriage certificate translated into English and certified by a sworn translator with you,
if you travel through a yellow fever country, take your vaccination proof with you,
proof of payment of the application fee 5 working days before your application in the embassy,
an A4-size envelope franked with the Express easy DHL online label (0,5kg).

Supplement documents potentially needed for no. 5

Make sure all HR departments from all countries involved, provide you the right documents. Check and check again bevor booking your transfer to the embassy. YOU need to go to the embassy and YOU will be the one who needs to go again if anything is missing. Keep that in mind.

Print your documents in good quality, the embassy won’t print anything for you.

If you think you got all the papers together and are ready for the application, check again if you really got it all correctly together before heading to the embassy. The one in Berlin opens at 9.00am every day but make sure to be there no later than 8.30am to avoid long waiting queues. Anyways you must be in the embassy before 11.30am or your application will not be processed that day and you need to come again. Keep also in mind that no visa application will be processed on Wednesday in Berlin.

So when you have finally arrived in the embassy and received a waiting number, be patient and just give a short prayer to god. This might raise your chances. Once it’s your turn you will need to hand over all documents you have gathered in the correct sequence as mentioned according to the application form, this is essential to have the employees‘ goodwill at least. Then you be patient and wait until your application is thoroughly checked and you are called again.

This now is the moment of truth, was all your preparation good enough or will you go back home and redo your homework more carefully again? Whatever will be missing or additionally required by the embassy is going to be highlighted, so hope for no highlights at all. If your application will go through immediately, count yourself as very much privileged and well organized while understanding the language of bureaucracy to the highest standard. Congratulations! Now you walk out the embassy and spoil yourself with some bubbles before a long period of patience, patience and patience.

Get your papers in order for the embassy

If you have to come again to the embassy, don’t worry this is the normal case. For the next time however, bring the same forms with you where the employer of the embassy has left the marks, highlights and information. Do not use a new version. This time when walking into the embassy, pray again that it will be all to the satisfaction of the embassy. If this will be the case, you can be happy and be patient as well. From now on it might take a while until you hold your visa in your hands – if no corona virus comes in between to make a perfect mess.

My newest lessons learned:

Rely on help – relocation agencies might know the interpretation of bureaucracy language or even a sworn translator,
You can’t check enough – not even your own helpers,
Be an early bird – arrive early at the embassy and wait patiently until they open in front of the gates.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives – bye bye, salut and sala kahle ∞

7. März 2020

Off to settle down in Mother City

Hello, Bonjour and Sawubona from a new adventure, that is already lining up at the horizon: I will move to another continent and start living and working in Cape Town, South Africa! It’s finally been settled and a new chapter will soon present other kinds of adventures to me. Everything is going to be quick now, if I manage to survive the visa process (see next blog with advices I wish someone could have given me beforehand). April will be the first month where my new home will be in the Rainbow Nation. Being basically addicted to Africa and its beautiful landscapes, this is a dream come true for me. I can still not believe how this all fits into perfect shape.

A year ago, I was packing bags and preparing myself for an unforgettable time in Zimbabwe, where I was volunteering in the bushlands of the private game reserve Cawston Wildlife Estate for three months.

Not even one and a half years ago, I got my bags ready for Cape Town, to spent amazing holidays in „Slaapstad“. It was there, where I started to fall in love with the city home to the iconic Table Mountain and framed by white beaches. It was then, when I thought „This is the city I want to work and spend my life“. But you know, I thought it was just one of these sentences you tell yourself, you shortly dream about, then you forget and move on with your real life. This time it was however bound to be different. This time my dream moved on and worked its way into my reality by mysterious and perfect ways. This time my dream changes my live!

Soon, I will start working for my German employer in South Africa, that sends me off to one of the most southern points, to Mother City and I am more than delighted. Sometimes, I just thank god for his ideas of paths for my live. Sometimes, I just can’t believe to be so very lucky to have a wonderful husband who made everything possible to join me into the Rainbow Nation. It still sounds like a surreal dream to me, that I will soon be living in Africa, in an extraordinary country, in between the famous moutain, the largest wine route and the wild ocean.

„Be prepared to fall in love“, was what I was told before I headed to Cape Town for my first time. „Be prepared to settle in“, is what I am looking for now. I do know it’s not going to be easy all times and it surely will be a huge change to live in a country with economical, political and historical challenges. But here I come loadshedding, and I am happy for that move. I can’t wait to live my African dream! Cape Town surely isn’t like the African bush I always long for and South Africa surely isn’t the same as the wild Zimbabwe. However, Mother City and the Rainbow Nation can offer landscapes equally beautiful and wildlife sightings equally adventurous as in the untouched ground of Zim. But also crime rates and offenses to a different level.

Be a warrior not a worrier!
Anonymous

So how best to prepare for a move from a safe country in Europe to an adventurous one in Africa?

Well, first to settle all important details with the employer;
Second, be patient, patient and patient;
Get the visa done and again be patient;
Then, get the household packed into plenty of little boxes;
Gather information about what can be imported, what is restricted and how much are the taxes on imported goods;
Fill in endless forms of never ending paper work;
And again, be patient, patient and patient;
Write a summary of all stock to be brought into South Africa (all for the lovely customs procedure).

My lessons learned:

Fight for your dreams – they will come true, eventually;
Don’t start worrying too early – it only takes away your peace and joy of today;
Survive the visa process – be prepared to spend plenty of joyful time in the embassy.

Cheers to wandering the world and the wonders of our lives – bye bye, salut and sala kahle ∞