The Cape Town and Western Cape tourism authorities are outraged by the arbitrary changes which have been made in the newly promulgated Immigration Regulations 2014, especially those pertaining to child tourists, and the effect that this is having already on tourism to our city and province.  The implementation of the Regulations has been delayed from 1 July to 1 October, as a result of the uproar it has generated.

The new Immigration regulations require parents to travel with the unabridged birth certificate of each child, the only country in the world to require this documentation for travel to another country.  The process of acquiring such  a document is a lengthy one, one mother writing on Facebook that she had just collected hers from the Malmesbury offices of the Department of Home Affairs after a 13 month waiting period.  This branch is the most efficient at such applications, she had been advised.  The regulations also require the second parent to agree to the foreign travel by the child if that parent is not part of the travel party.

In addition, the new regulations require that visas be applied for outside the country, which would make Continue reading →