Speaker 1: Lunch with Pippa Hudson and now Consumer Talk featuring Wendy Nola.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Consumer Talk and to consumer journalist Wendy Nola,
Speaker 2: who is back with us in studio today. We're going
Speaker 2: to be discussing the ongoing issues with the new Irish
Speaker 2: visa application system. Unfortunately, we've seen a number of South
Speaker 2: Africans suffering huge frustration missing key life events and also,
Speaker 2: as you'll hear today, suffering pretty substantial financial losses as
Speaker 2: a result of sort of shifting goalposts, if I can
Speaker 2: call it that. So we're going to devote quite a
Speaker 2: bit of time to that and to some of the
Speaker 2: case studies that have come our way. I also hope
Speaker 2: we'll have time to have some open line calls and
Speaker 2: maybe chat about the new Woolli's loyalty program and its rollout.
Speaker 2: We've had a few people complaining and commenting on that.
Speaker 2: If you want to join any of those conversations or
Speaker 2: share your own experience, you're welcome to send a WhatsApp
Speaker 2: to seven two five six seven one five six seven
Speaker 2: or give us a call on two one four four
Speaker 2: six five six seven. Gosh, Wendy, right off the bat,
Speaker 2: Off the bat, messages are starting to stream in. There
Speaker 2: are a lot of people stuck in this position. Firstly,
Speaker 2: welcome back. Let me have you with us in a
Speaker 2: couple of days for you, oh yeah, but still love
Speaker 2: you to have you back with us. Let me start
Speaker 2: by saying this nothing against Ireland. I was lucky enough
Speaker 2: to get to Ireland visit there with my son in
Speaker 2: late November twenty twenty two and it was the most
Speaker 2: wonderful experienced, the most beautiful place, wonderful people, all of
Speaker 2: that rich history. Even though it was late November, early December,
Speaker 2: it was very cold and very wet.
Speaker 1: We just absolutely loved our trip there.
Speaker 2: But Wendy, we were lucky enough to squeeze in that
Speaker 2: trip when it was still possible to do so without
Speaker 2: a visa as a South African traveling on a South
Speaker 2: African passport, which was a huge appeal. It was a
Speaker 2: huge yeah, And it was I think literally just a
Speaker 2: few weeks or if maybe a month or two later,
Speaker 2: I'm sure listeners will remember we demolished Ireland in the
Speaker 2: rugby and almost the very next day, boom the news
Speaker 2: broke that South the Wood in future have to apply
Speaker 2: for a visa to visit the Emerald Isle, and unfortunately
Speaker 2: it has not been a smooth transition, certainly not if
Speaker 2: you look at the high number of complaints around the
Speaker 2: turnaround time for those visas.
Speaker 3: Wendy No, exactly. So the biggest takeo from this discussion
Speaker 3: is going to be if you're planning to visit Ireland
Speaker 3: and you have a South African passport, you must not
Speaker 3: buy your ticket until you have your visa in hand
Speaker 3: in your passport, right because up until recently, the Irish
Speaker 3: government was advising, or what was making it mandatory for
Speaker 3: you to show proof of having purchased flight, your flight
Speaker 3: and your return flight and booked you accommodation if you
Speaker 3: weren't staying with friends, proof of where you're going to
Speaker 3: be staying, in other words, and now very recently they
Speaker 3: have started saying what I've just said, Now, don't get
Speaker 3: your don't apply, sorry, don't book your ticket before you
Speaker 3: get your visa, which you know, it's great advice given
Speaker 3: what's happening with the delays, but it also means that
Speaker 3: you are now being forced to book last minute, and
Speaker 3: that's so much more expensive, as the case study will
Speaker 3: share proofs. So but so it's it's.
Speaker 2: Important and I mean, as you'll hear, it's that the
Speaker 2: transition from the one to the other that has been
Speaker 2: so problematic for so many people. So as you said, originally, VFS,
Speaker 2: by the way, is the visa processing company that has
Speaker 2: been mandated by the Irish They do theas so up
Speaker 2: until fairly recently, VFS was saying expect six to eight
Speaker 2: weeks turn around and you must be able to provide
Speaker 2: proof of your flight InCom.
Speaker 3: That was September, okay, then went from it went from
Speaker 3: six to eight to eight to twelve, and now it's
Speaker 3: the Irish government told me ninety days somebody who applied
Speaker 3: will get to her later. She said she was told
Speaker 3: twelve to fourteen weeks.
Speaker 1: From application to receiving your.
Speaker 3: Visam fly that far in advance. And it's yeah, so
Speaker 3: many people applied and then the goalpost moved and now
Speaker 3: they're stuck a huge financial.
Speaker 2: And you imagine the anxiety now again, in fairness to say,
Speaker 2: we know many countries are taking a long time to
Speaker 2: process visa applications, Wendy, it's not a situation that's unique
Speaker 2: to the Irish government. And in some cases, like Canada,
Speaker 2: you can't even get an appointment to apply for more
Speaker 2: than a year and a half. I have a friend
Speaker 2: who was in that position who was told the first
Speaker 2: available appointment is over five hundred days away just to
Speaker 2: get an appointment. So it's not to say that they're
Speaker 2: the only one experiencing this issue, but it is this
Speaker 2: issue of the shifting goalposts which has caused all of
Speaker 2: the problems for our listeners. As you've said, flights that
Speaker 2: have been booked that now can't be made because the
Speaker 2: visa hasn't arrived, or if you make the decision to
Speaker 2: wait until the visa's there, you have to pay that
Speaker 2: last very expensive premium for the flights. Do you want
Speaker 2: to walk us through the first case study that we
Speaker 2: have today, which really very well demonstrates the terrible predicament
Speaker 2: that some of our applicants are finding themselves in.
Speaker 3: Indeed, and this cases really touched my heart. One hundred
Speaker 3: and five days ago. It's a precise number, and it
Speaker 3: needs to be given the context here. One hundred and
Speaker 3: five days ago, in other words, more than ninety days.
Speaker 3: Seventy seven year old Philip Berman, who lives in Victoria
Speaker 3: West and the Northern Cape. He applied for a visa
Speaker 3: to visit his family in Ireland. Bear in mind the
Speaker 3: trek he drove to George overnighted because it was late,
Speaker 3: then flew to Cape Town from George the next morning,
Speaker 3: then had to get an uber to the VFF officers
Speaker 3: and repeat the process, so that in itself carried a
Speaker 3: huge cost. Yes, he has family in Ireland, his son,
Speaker 3: daughter in law and their daughter, his granddaughter who's nine
Speaker 3: years old, and they have a particularly special and he
Speaker 3: goes over fairly often. So he applied in March one
Speaker 3: hundred and five days ago, as I said, which was
Speaker 3: the advice. Then when he first made inquiries with VFS
Speaker 3: in September, which is when he booked his ticket, it
Speaker 3: was six to eight weeks okay, significantly less term okay.
Speaker 3: So he says, he's it tells me he's too old
Speaker 3: and to travel economy. So he saved and borrowed and
Speaker 3: paid a special twenty eight thousand rand to Lufthansa for
Speaker 3: premium economy seat.
Speaker 1: And he did that well in advance, so at the
Speaker 1: September last care Yeah, so this is just just to
Speaker 1: clarify here.
Speaker 2: Philip is one of those in this position of when
Speaker 2: he originally made inquiries, he was told six to eight
Speaker 2: weeks six to eight weeks turn around, and you have
Speaker 2: to supply proof of flights. So he went and booked
Speaker 2: the flights. Yes, that's the big yes, and then waited
Speaker 2: until the appropriate time to put in his application, which
Speaker 2: he did.
Speaker 3: In March with in July.
Speaker 2: Now, and important to note, Wendy, it wasn't only the
Speaker 2: cost of a basic visa application. He paid quite a
Speaker 2: few other extras as well.
Speaker 3: He paid two thousand round the equivalent of for two
Speaker 3: thousand round for a multiple journey visa, plus another thousand
Speaker 3: round to VFS, which covered their service fee and the
Speaker 3: cost of kuruing his passport to Victoria West. And that's
Speaker 3: on top of the seven thousand round cost him to
Speaker 3: actually get there. That's nobody's fault.
Speaker 1: But that was the BFS to make that and back.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, so his lasses will be huge financial and emotional,
Speaker 3: of course, but let's talk to him about how those
Speaker 3: rack up.
Speaker 2: Philip is with us on the line, and Philip, I'm
Speaker 2: so sorry that you are going through this. I can
Speaker 2: just imagine the massive anxiety you must be facing because
Speaker 2: I know your flight is booked for the end of July,
Speaker 2: and that's suddenly very very close from now with no
Speaker 2: visa insight. Thank you for being willing to share your
Speaker 2: experience with us, and welcome.
Speaker 1: To CAP Talk.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much. And the strangest thing is I
Speaker 4: just put on my computer and checked. Everything hasn't changed.
Speaker 4: The application form stall seys Airline ticket it Stall says
Speaker 4: has twelve weeks.
Speaker 3: As and you must have that, okay.
Speaker 4: And it was updated yesterday the eighth of July seas
Speaker 4: at the bottom of the form.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 1: Gosh, that's so bad.
Speaker 2: So what they are communicating off offline is not weighing
Speaker 2: up with what is being communicated online.
Speaker 3: I must tell you, Philip, both Pippa and my eyes
Speaker 3: lit up when you said you've just checked, and we
Speaker 3: thought you were going to say and be.
Speaker 5: On the list.
Speaker 3: But it's not how many days to go until you
Speaker 3: need it, because it's not the departure date in your case,
Speaker 3: it's two days before.
Speaker 4: Ye well, I have to be in joe Berg to
Speaker 4: catch the flight would live on so the twenty third,
Speaker 4: So it means I have to leave you out the
Speaker 4: twenty second of this month to George cats a flight
Speaker 4: from George to Jailberg. I'm staying with my brother and
Speaker 4: then catching the flight to Dublin the following day, the
Speaker 4: twenty fourth.
Speaker 3: Okay, if you did luckily, let's hope it doesn't. You
Speaker 3: don't need to claim on this insurance this extra cost
Speaker 3: you paid. But you did pay Lufthans a little extra
Speaker 3: so that if you cancel for whatever reason, they will
Speaker 3: rEFInd you what you paid, which was twenty was it
Speaker 3: twenty eight thousand round Philippies. They will refine you manus
Speaker 3: five thousand runds, so you will get say, twenty three
Speaker 3: thousand round back from that flight, right.
Speaker 4: Dirrect, Now I FI you know, as I've said, I'm
Speaker 4: saying Wendy knows I'm seventy seven years old. Who says
Speaker 4: I'm alive next year? That's number one. It's a school holidays.
Speaker 4: I found my daughter in law. She said I can
Speaker 4: come later in August because the school holidays last year,
Speaker 4: the twenty seventh of August. So I went onto the
Speaker 4: internet and went to lift answer and believe it or not,
Speaker 4: or Premier Economy on the later flights are all sold out.
Speaker 4: I can get a flight on the thirteenth of August
Speaker 4: fifty four thousands Premier.
Speaker 3: So that's almost double. That's twenty six thousand around double.
Speaker 2: Sure, Philip, I mean so me talking substantial financial losses
Speaker 2: besides what you've already spent just putting through the visa application.
Speaker 2: The implication on the flight costs if you have to
Speaker 2: delay this trip are to say, the least substantial.
Speaker 1: You've been in.
Speaker 2: Regular I don't want to say regular communication because it's
Speaker 2: been a one way affair. Philip, I understand you have
Speaker 2: literally been mailing the Irish government on a daily basis,
Speaker 2: saying where's my visas? What sort of feedback if any?
Speaker 5: Have?
Speaker 4: You had nothing? It says, go to the portal. You
Speaker 4: go to the portal. I'll tell you the portal hasn't
Speaker 4: been updated since it confirmed on the twenty.
Speaker 3: Seventh of March, when you applied it late.
Speaker 4: They've received the application, no update. After all the emails
Speaker 4: and everything they say, they reply contact look at the portal,
Speaker 4: but nothing has been updated since the twenty third of March.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, So I just want to put pause and Philip,
Speaker 2: please stay with us because we still have one or
Speaker 2: two more questions for you. But I just want to
Speaker 2: put this in perspective. The number of messages streaming in
Speaker 2: on our WhatsApp line as we speak, and others that
Speaker 2: have come in since yesterday. Yesterday Wendy I heard from Colleen,
Speaker 2: who wrote in to say she had applied for an
Speaker 2: Irish visa on the twenty fourth of February. She was
Speaker 2: hoping to get to Dublin in time for the birth
Speaker 2: of her daughter's first child in mid April. No sign
Speaker 2: of that visa ever arrived, so she had to move
Speaker 2: her flight booking. She did so again and again and again.
Speaker 2: In total, she has had to move her plane ticket
Speaker 2: five times. She then eventually canceled the trip entirely, at
Speaker 2: a cost of thousands of rands, and wrote to me
Speaker 2: to say, as we speak, it has been nineteen weeks
Speaker 2: of silence, no delivery from the Irish side. I'm hoping
Speaker 2: to receive my visa by the end of July and
Speaker 2: to try to fly again. And this is really interesting
Speaker 2: to me, she says. By contrast, we applied last week
Speaker 2: Monday for a Shngen visa and it arrived in four days.
Speaker 2: And this is a very good question, she says, why
Speaker 2: if Ireland is part of the EU, why did they
Speaker 2: not join the very efficient Shangan system instead of launching
Speaker 2: their own private system that they're clearly ill prepared to administer.
Speaker 3: It's an excellent question.
Speaker 1: It's a very very good question that to the Irish government.
Speaker 2: Here are a couple of other examples, Sarah writing and
Speaker 2: to say, my sister had a baby in Dublin in March.
Speaker 2: My mum was hoping to go over, had to cancel
Speaker 2: her trip and is ten thousand rand out of pocket.
Speaker 2: My stepdad has waited nine weeks for his visa with
Speaker 2: no joy, George saying, this Irish visa thing has been
Speaker 2: giving me sleepless nights for weeks. I applied two weeks
Speaker 2: ago for my visa, hoping to have it in time
Speaker 2: for the Box versus Ireland in Dublin on twenty two
Speaker 2: November this year. I've needed to apply for a second
Speaker 2: passport so that I can continue my normal travels for business,
Speaker 2: whilst the Irish Visa office holds onto my passport for
Speaker 2: who knows how long, and I don't even know if
Speaker 2: I will get my visa.
Speaker 3: That the other issue. We covered a case of this
Speaker 3: shortly after the visas became mandatory for South Africans. Do
Speaker 3: you remember somebody who had a trip to Botswana.
Speaker 1: Yes, and the passport was stuck there.
Speaker 3: Yes, and she had to cancel that she couldn't go
Speaker 3: on the trip because your passport was stuck in.
Speaker 1: The Irish process.
Speaker 3: And when she booked the Botswana trip, the visa Irish
Speaker 3: visa was not a thing. So yes, you were stuck
Speaker 3: for any other form of travel beyond our borders.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Guy is another one saying why are vfs still taking
Speaker 2: applications when they know the turnaround time is so long.
Speaker 2: We lost flights and accommodation. We had applied for our
Speaker 2: UK visas we were landing in London. That took three
Speaker 2: weeks to get to us. We then applied for the
Speaker 2: Irish visas and sadly had to get our passports back
Speaker 2: after waiting twelve weeks. We can do one better than that,
Speaker 2: Sadik saying, my brother in law has applied on the
Speaker 2: fourteenth of October for his visa to join his wife
Speaker 2: in Ireland. Until now, every time we make contact with
Speaker 2: VFS Global they say the same thing, It is still
Speaker 2: in processing. It has been nearly a year and we
Speaker 2: have no further information. His daughter, who is also in Ireland,
Speaker 2: is giving birth to his grandson in less than a month.
Speaker 2: He would have liked to be there for the birth.
Speaker 2: Is there anything we can do? Unfortunately, there is nothing
Speaker 2: we can do.
Speaker 3: I hate to say that in this I have to
Speaker 3: say at this point before we continue with Philip, that I,
Speaker 3: as I said, this case has really touched me and
Speaker 3: I've asked gone back to the Irish government to say,
Speaker 3: can you at least give some status feedback on when
Speaker 3: he can expect his name to appear on that lucky list,
Speaker 3: and I was told no, we cannot cannot comment on
Speaker 3: individual cases because of data privacy. Well, of course the
Speaker 3: data subjects as we are referred to as.
Speaker 1: Are begging for all that for me to.
Speaker 3: Be able to intervene on their part and at least
Speaker 3: get some much needed information, But unfortunately, so frustrating we
Speaker 3: are we can't get anything on individual cases at all
Speaker 3: at all.
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry to to be able to have to
Speaker 2: say that to you, Sidika Wendy in fairness, I mean,
Speaker 2: there are so many of these stories. That's just a
Speaker 2: sample of a couple of those that have come through.
Speaker 2: Has there been any formal response from the Irish government
Speaker 2: that you're aware of as because we're not the only
Speaker 2: people complaining about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a conference in Ireland a couple of
Speaker 3: weeks ago, there was a news conference Ireland's Minister of
Speaker 3: State for International Development and Diaspora and Neil Richmond. He
Speaker 3: took questions from South African journalists on this issue. He
Speaker 3: first explained that they had introduced the visa requirement because
Speaker 3: they'd seen one hundred percent increase in people entering Ireland
Speaker 3: from South Africa and Nigeria about a year ago and
Speaker 3: claiming international protected status. I don't know whether I mean
Speaker 3: it occurs to me that probably more from the Nigerian side,
Speaker 3: I'm not sure, but he acknowledged that since the visa
Speaker 3: regime was introduced, there have been swamped applications leading to
Speaker 3: the current delays. He conceded that the human consequences of
Speaker 3: South African's not being able to visit family in Ireland
Speaker 3: on business trips and of business trips having to be canceled.
Speaker 3: And he said, and this was just two weeks ago,
Speaker 3: his department had doubled its resources to handle visa applications
Speaker 3: both in Dublin and Pretoria. But Philip told me that
Speaker 3: he's really not seeing that in sort of output of
Speaker 3: number of visas being granted every week.
Speaker 2: And the reason we can quite Philip on that is,
Speaker 2: as I've said, Philip has been communicating checking on a
Speaker 2: daily basis, and let's bring him back in at this point. Philip,
Speaker 2: thanks for waiting. You've been watching those figures online, watching
Speaker 2: them like a hawk every day, looking for the list
Speaker 2: of names of the lucky people who have been granted
Speaker 2: a visa. Tell us what you've observed about the number
Speaker 2: of applications that are being approved.
Speaker 4: I can ami to me, it's an absolute disgrace. From
Speaker 4: the seventeenth of June. These are the dates have got
Speaker 4: Visus issue issue seventeenth of June to the twenty fourth
Speaker 4: of June, one hundred and fifty six, first of July
Speaker 4: to the eighth of July. Where they supposed to have
Speaker 4: trouble the amount of visas they gave out, it's gone
Speaker 4: to two one hundred and four. That means last week
Speaker 4: that only gave out two hundred and four visas.
Speaker 3: Okay, so the weekly figure it's a week effect.
Speaker 2: So that's that so called doubling of resources isn't results
Speaker 2: in a doubling of output.
Speaker 4: I gave Wendy the link that was updated yesterday that
Speaker 4: excell July. She's got the link to prove these figures.
Speaker 4: I gave us one hundred percent carect.
Speaker 2: So Philip, I mean, thank you for being willing to
Speaker 2: share that with us. And obviously you have been monitoring
Speaker 2: this with an eagle eye, so it's very helpful to
Speaker 2: hear what you've observed.
Speaker 1: In terms of the.
Speaker 2: Numbers that are being processed, We've got about now what
Speaker 2: not even a fortnight before you are setting off. All
Speaker 2: I can say is that I really really hope that
Speaker 2: everything will come through, Philip. I mean, besides the financial
Speaker 2: ask maybe just before we let you go, let's talk
Speaker 2: a little bit about the emotional toll that this has
Speaker 2: taken on you and I would imagine on your family
Speaker 2: on the other side as well of this not knowing
Speaker 2: being stuck in this limbo.
Speaker 4: You know. Another thing is that I've noticed on all
Speaker 4: the people on Facebook, YouTube, whatever, everybody complain that they
Speaker 4: don't give you a date. If they say to me tomorrow,
Speaker 4: listen here, I can only do, We'll give you a
Speaker 4: visa on the tenth of September. They're at persecre work
Speaker 4: around it. I can't now fly a frame left answer
Speaker 4: and say left answer, can you change my ticket to
Speaker 4: say the thirteenth of August. I haven't got a date
Speaker 4: because when it gets to the thirteenth of August, like
Speaker 4: other people that's written into you, they tell you sorry
Speaker 4: my visa, they don't give you a date. They don't
Speaker 4: even reply to your emails.
Speaker 1: You can hear the stress and anxiety that that's causing. Philip.
Speaker 2: I'm so so sorry that you are going through this,
Speaker 2: but thank you for being willing to share your experience
Speaker 2: with us.
Speaker 6: Consumer Talk WhatsApp on seven s five six seven one
Speaker 6: five six seven two.
Speaker 1: Well still it's just streaming.
Speaker 2: In response to our conversation with Wendy Noda around the
Speaker 2: Irish visa delays, Lynn an interesting perspective are saying, I
Speaker 2: wish Durko would get involved with this debacle. I'm a
Speaker 2: travel agent. I am boycotting Ireland and Canada. Yeah, two
Speaker 2: of those are the two that are having the worst.
Speaker 2: I think to do something about delays.
Speaker 3: I look at the Canadian situation because a number of
Speaker 3: travel agents have spoken to me about that.
Speaker 2: It was, as I said, I had a friend who's
Speaker 2: got family in Canada that was trying to connect with them,
Speaker 2: was told five hundred and twenty four days. I think
Speaker 2: it was to get an appointment. So Linn, Yeah, of interesting.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you're not the only travel agent who's just saying, look,
Speaker 2: it's not safe.
Speaker 1: You can't.
Speaker 2: There's no predictability, I guess, and you need predictability when
Speaker 2: you're booking a very expensive overseas trip.
Speaker 3: Something I just want to throw and I'm going to
Speaker 3: be investigating. Except really, but travel agents have told me
Speaker 3: don't arrive at any VFS office to apply for any
Speaker 3: visa more than fifteen minutes ahead of your book to
Speaker 3: appointment because they will charge you extra. Oh my gosh, yes,
Speaker 3: can you believe it? So just you can come back,
Speaker 3: you know, within fifteen minutes, but don't be super early.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, I mean, really, what next?
Speaker 3: What next?
Speaker 2: Here's another one from Tessnasy's my partner and I went
Speaker 2: through this process in April getting to a wedding in Dublin.
Speaker 2: It is hugely distressing and frustrating. The emotional and financial
Speaker 2: toll of waiting with no word is awful. VFS and
Speaker 2: the Irish Embassy seem to have no control. Only the
Speaker 2: Department of Justice can approve applications and they only approve
Speaker 2: a certain number each day. Now, I mean, the question
Speaker 2: is wendy. If they know that they can only approve
Speaker 2: a certain number each day, should they not be capping
Speaker 2: the number of applications that say something needs to.
Speaker 3: Change or they need to improve their feedback, even if
Speaker 3: it's just bot driven, just to say you are likelihood
Speaker 3: that your visa will be based on our current application numbers,
Speaker 3: you know whatever.
Speaker 1: I think it's Philip.
Speaker 3: I was hoping you would say it on air, but
Speaker 3: or fair, He said to me. It's utterly cruel to
Speaker 3: do this to people, and I think the.
Speaker 1: Word cruel is appropropriate.
Speaker 3: Here with what we're seeing. I did so official words
Speaker 3: to get on the record from Ireland's Department of Justice.
Speaker 3: Sounds like the an odd department to be dealing with
Speaker 3: it with such a thing. But it's the full name
Speaker 3: is Justice, Home Affairs and Migration. That's the full name
Speaker 3: of the department. They don't offer much hope, you know.
Speaker 3: I ask them, what would you like to say to
Speaker 3: people who are begging and pleading for visas? Applicants are
Speaker 3: advice that unforeseen delays can arise which are outside of
Speaker 3: the control of the visa desk. This is what I
Speaker 3: was told very recently. If an application has significantly exceeded
Speaker 3: the target processing times. It is possible that on initial assessment,
Speaker 3: the application has not met the criteria to be issued
Speaker 3: at VISA and further assessment or verification is required. In
Speaker 3: such instances, processing times will be longer than ninety days.
Speaker 3: Well that could be the case in Phillip's case, although
Speaker 3: well it could be likely. But the point is he
Speaker 3: doesn't know. Nobody's telling him a thing, So how they
Speaker 3: communicate that. They don't say that, you just have to
Speaker 3: keep going onto that portal daily, weekly, whatever. The official
Speaker 3: advice is for short stay visas, applicants should apply up
Speaker 3: to ninety days in advance of their proposed travel dates,
Speaker 3: and that applicants should not book flights until they have
Speaker 3: received and validated their visa. How do you validate your visa?
Speaker 3: You get your visa and you think, yay, everything's on track.
Speaker 3: I don't know what that means. I should have queried that.
Speaker 3: And then the statistic. Since July twenty twenty four, which
Speaker 3: is when the whole thing started, years ninety four percent
Speaker 3: of short stay visit visa applications have been processed within
Speaker 3: ninety days of receipt by the South African Visa desk,
Speaker 3: and I would guess that most of those were in
Speaker 3: the first half of the not the second.
Speaker 1: Because it sounds like that there's been a real slowdown
Speaker 1: of later.
Speaker 3: I think if they had to give us the figure
Speaker 3: for the last three months, although god you three months,
Speaker 3: because it's ninety days, the last six months, we'd see
Speaker 3: a very much left.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, we had another case study from Judy in
Speaker 2: Heart Bay applied for their visas in May. They'd bought
Speaker 2: their tickets in January, paid for accommodation for a family
Speaker 2: trip with five people, so you can just imagine the
Speaker 2: costs involved, she.
Speaker 3: Said, with visas alone, eighteen thousand, right and plus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they applied in May, which was the timeframe
Speaker 2: they'd been told that, She said. We were told the
Speaker 2: process would be six to eight weeks, so applied in May.
Speaker 2: About two weeks or so after our submission, we were
Speaker 2: advised by VFS that the process was delayed and it
Speaker 2: could now take up to twelve to fourteen weeks. With
Speaker 2: this timeframe, we will miss our flights. And again she's
Speaker 2: been trying to communicate with them to say, what do
Speaker 2: we do, you know, what avenues can we explore? You know,
Speaker 2: we and just no feedback.
Speaker 3: And the work that I do, you can hold a
Speaker 3: supplier to account if they don't meet their own delivery promise.
Speaker 3: So she was within time, Well she's six to eight weeks.
Speaker 3: But even if they told her ninety days, then they
Speaker 3: move it and say, no, it's actually what's ninety days,
Speaker 3: it's how many weeks?
Speaker 2: That's a month and that's three months, right, so that's
Speaker 2: approximately twelve weeks.
Speaker 3: And now they've said no, it's actually twelve to fourteen weeks.
Speaker 3: So how do you do that to somebody once they've
Speaker 3: ever already applied, you know, and made plans accordingly. So
Speaker 3: she's sitting there, what time? What was the date that
Speaker 3: she's applied?
Speaker 2: Played in May, so to June to July to August.
Speaker 2: There's still some time in hand in that case. But
Speaker 2: the point is, Wendy, it's the moving of the goalposts,
Speaker 2: and it is the changing conflicting information about you must
Speaker 2: have booked your flight versus please don't book your flight,
Speaker 2: compounded then by just no communication when anybody tries to
Speaker 2: follow up.
Speaker 1: So again it's.
Speaker 2: Very frustrating for Wendy and I to present a case
Speaker 2: where we really can't make a difference except to alert
Speaker 2: you to the fact that this is a major, major
Speaker 2: concern and if you are planning a trip to Ireland,
Speaker 2: do not be fooled into thinking it's a simple quick
Speaker 2: process and leave some bufferom, leave substantial bufferom in your timing.
Speaker 3: You can't trust that you know the initial promise will
Speaker 3: be met because God's time later. Exactly.
Speaker 2: Very interesting message just in from George who says I
Speaker 2: have just received some positive news.
Speaker 1: From my travel agent.
Speaker 2: She has mentioned that this issue is now at Parliament
Speaker 2: level in Ireland. Visas are apparently going to receive exponited attention,
Speaker 2: especially with the upcoming test between South Africa and Ireland.
Speaker 2: They know that there is going to be an increased
Speaker 2: need for visa issuing. I hope this is good news
Speaker 2: for some, but I can't guarantee everything. I, however, will
Speaker 2: be hanging on to those words. Thanks George for that
Speaker 2: small glimmer of hope. Bronwin saying we also lost fifty
Speaker 2: thousand rand due to not getting our Irish visas. Surely
Speaker 2: vfs knew there was an issue. How could they still
Speaker 2: take our money? Isn't that theft? Yeah, it's a very
Speaker 2: tough one.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 2: I'll circle back to what I said, Wendy, if they're
Speaker 2: aware that the processing capacity is capped at a certain
Speaker 2: number per day, to me, it's unconscionable to then take
Speaker 2: in more applications than you.
Speaker 3: Know with the within the time frame.
Speaker 2: That even alying for the fact that perhaps some applications
Speaker 2: will be rejected because they're not deemed valid applications.
Speaker 1: It's always unconscionable to me.
Speaker 2: That that you continue to operate as if you are
Speaker 2: processing normally.
Speaker 3: Normally, and this story we're going to report back on,
Speaker 3: certainly on Phillip's case in the next two weeks.
Speaker 1: This may be a case of wishful thinking.
Speaker 2: But Trevor writing in to say, is there any priority
Speaker 2: for school tours? My friend's son is going on a
Speaker 2: multi city European tour. Will the Irish Consonate give special
Speaker 2: consideration for this?
Speaker 3: As I said to you, now, I have to say
Speaker 3: I doubt that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd be surprised, I'm sorry to say, And we
Speaker 2: wouldn't know anyway anyway, because they're not communicating with anybody
Speaker 2: about that.
Speaker 3: So specific cases.
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, perhaps it's it's something for schools et cetera
Speaker 2: to take notive as well that if you are planning
Speaker 2: this kind of trip that requires multiple legs and a
Speaker 2: lot of wangling of visas and destinations, that perhaps this
Speaker 2: is one destination you need to leave it. But think
Speaker 2: about leaving off for the time being. As much as
Speaker 2: it pains me to say that, because I would what
Speaker 2: a beautiful country, and I so enjoyed visiting herself.
Speaker 3: I have a strong Irish heritage, and you know it's
Speaker 3: just but I was planning to visit. But I think
Speaker 3: I'm going to wait until at least next year.
Speaker 6: I'll consume it. Talk open line call one double four
Speaker 6: six oh five six seven.
Speaker 5: My friend as also.
Speaker 7: She had to cancel the Irish part of it. Fortunately
Speaker 7: she can do that. She had to play extra I
Speaker 7: think out of pocket about ten thousand.
Speaker 5: But what they do say is what you would have
Speaker 5: preferred in this case, is that they rare the cancel
Speaker 5: of visa because then she can care. Then she can
Speaker 5: claim from a terrible insurance.
Speaker 7: But that doesn't happen. I mean, she's gone, and she's
Speaker 7: still she got a shame in visa. She still has
Speaker 7: not received Irish vision, but obviously she canceled that part
Speaker 7: to cancel flight set to change flights, so it's quite
Speaker 7: a substantial amount of exceremoney.
Speaker 1: That's an interesting point.
Speaker 7: And she applied more than days ago. Anyways, thanks for that.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's an interesting perspective. So you can't claim
Speaker 2: on the travel insurance because you haven't had a No,
Speaker 2: your visa hasn't been declined, and we should have actually.
Speaker 3: Mentioned that it was prep and we didn't get there,
Speaker 3: So thank you for that. A travel agent did contact
Speaker 3: me last week to say, you think you covered, but
Speaker 3: you're only covered if your visa is denied. Yeah, if
Speaker 3: it just doesn't come in time, it's not covered in
Speaker 3: the policy, so you don't. I mean that Judy's family,
Speaker 3: Hot Bay Family eighteen thousand round. That's just no way
Speaker 3: to recover that. It really is put South Africans wanting
Speaker 3: to visit Island for whatever reason in a really really
Speaker 3: antenable situation.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's I'm sitting here thinking, if the intention
Speaker 2: is to reduce the number of unwanted immigrants to the country,
Speaker 2: this is one way of doing it.
Speaker 1: But you're taking with them.
Speaker 2: The wanted one, the wanted tourist markets. Because who in
Speaker 2: their right mind is going to contemplate booking a trip
Speaker 2: to Ireland in the near future unless you are an
Speaker 2: absolutely die on springblight fan. I mean, who in their
Speaker 2: right mind would risk it right now? It's unfathomable.
Speaker 3: Stakes are very very high.
Speaker 2: Okay, oh Emmanuel, I'm so sorry, she said. In February,
Speaker 2: they told us it would take two to four weeks.
Speaker 2: They phoned yesterday to say it's ready, but unfortunately we've
Speaker 2: already missed our granddaughter's birthday, which was in April. This
Speaker 2: is Yeah, we didn't have a chance to really explore
Speaker 2: this deeply with Philip, but what I wanted to say,
Speaker 2: Wendy is it's not just the financial cost, the emotional
Speaker 2: toll of the anxiety of not knowing, the sleepless nights,
Speaker 2: worrying what is it going to come in time? Should
Speaker 2: I be canceling? What do I do for the person
Speaker 2: who's waiting for the visa? Is hard enough for the
Speaker 2: family on the other side who are also trying to
Speaker 2: organize their lives and make plans and grandchildren who are
Speaker 2: waiting for granted to come and don't understand why they didn't.
Speaker 3: In fact, thank you for mentioning that. Because there was
Speaker 3: a report in the Irish Times sometime in June and
Speaker 3: mid June where they interviewed South African immigrants who exactly
Speaker 3: that we're waiting for boyfriends, parents, etc. To come and visit,
Speaker 3: and so the agony is the same on the other side.
Speaker 2: Oh starta to those who are caught in this terrible
Speaker 2: in between. I'm really really sorry for what you are
Speaker 2: going through and I hope, I.
Speaker 1: Hope that they are able to scale up.
Speaker 2: The resourcing on the Department of Justice side to process
Speaker 2: more decisions.
Speaker 3: Well, certainly from he's not with the Department of Justice,
Speaker 3: but that minister. I quoted Neil Richmond, He's Islands Minister
Speaker 3: of State for International Development and Diaspora, when he spoke
Speaker 3: sort of on the side of that country to Dublin
Speaker 3: two three weeks ago to a number of South African
Speaker 3: journalists who then wrote reports. He's I don't have in
Speaker 3: front of me, but he said that in his constituency
Speaker 3: and where he lives, there are a lot of South
Speaker 3: African immigrants who have shared their stories with them of
Speaker 3: their family not being able to come and business partners
Speaker 3: at whatever, and so he was very much alive to
Speaker 3: the human side of it him. So hopefully that will
Speaker 3: if it's in parliament. You know that would certainly that
Speaker 3: kind of you know, hands on experience and exposure to
Speaker 3: what this is doing will help.
Speaker 2: Will hopefully prompt some action on that side. Wendy, just
Speaker 2: in the last few minutes before before we wrap up,
Speaker 2: I want to just switch completely to a different topic,
Speaker 2: if I'm May. I came back from my holiday to
Speaker 2: find an email in my inbox from the Wooly CEO
Speaker 2: announcing the launch of the new loyalty program on the
Speaker 2: first of July. And we've had a couple of emails
Speaker 2: from people who are a little bit confused about what
Speaker 2: it means for them because they've read the press releases
Speaker 2: saying it's going to be a teared system that if
Speaker 2: you spend X, you qualify for a certain package of
Speaker 2: vouchers and benefits, but if you spend X plus why
Speaker 2: you get more, et cetera. And it's a sort of
Speaker 2: a sliding scale. But what that scale looks like hasn't
Speaker 2: been very well communicated, and I just wanted to take
Speaker 2: the moment to say, firsty to those who've been mailing
Speaker 2: in saying, from the perspective of hey, all of my
Speaker 2: existing coffee vouchers and the like disappeared. They are being reloaded. Yes, Vic,
Speaker 2: thanks for letting us know. Vix just mailed me because
Speaker 2: he was one of those. He said, hey, you know
Speaker 2: they disappeared in this process.
Speaker 3: And it's something you've got used to in it very
Speaker 3: much a.
Speaker 2: Nice to have, And there was a communication saying they
Speaker 2: wouldn't be valid for the last week of June while
Speaker 2: their transition to the new system, but they hadn't reappeared.
Speaker 2: Vix just mailed me to say thumbs up. The vouchers
Speaker 2: are back, which is great. But for those who want
Speaker 2: to read the finer detail of what you get on
Speaker 2: Witch Tier, it is actually there. It is in the
Speaker 2: terms and conditions sort of information. So if you click through,
Speaker 2: it takes a little bit of squirreling, is all I'm saying.
Speaker 2: On the app and within the Woolli's app, within the
Speaker 2: Loyalty rewards section, you need to sort of whittle down
Speaker 2: through to the terms and conditions and there you will
Speaker 2: get a very clearly delineated explanation of what the three
Speaker 2: different reward levels are, what amount of spend qualifies you
Speaker 2: for which level, and what benefits come with Witch level.
Speaker 2: So there are three different reward levels. Just quickly to
Speaker 2: run you through them. The basic level, which is called
Speaker 2: loyal is for those who spend up to twelve thousand
Speaker 2: round a year and you get access to various promos.
Speaker 2: You'll earn at least four vouchers per year, which is
Speaker 2: quite a substantial change from what used to be there,
Speaker 2: and a couple of opportunities to unlock the play and
Speaker 2: win games if you move up to the next level,
Speaker 2: which is Ambassador level, which is for those who spend
Speaker 2: between twelve and thirty six thousand round a year. That
Speaker 2: goes up to sixteen vouchers per year, plays benefits, et cetera.
Speaker 2: And then the top tier, which is the VIP Reward level,
Speaker 2: is for those who spend over thirty six thousand round
Speaker 2: a year and that includes at least twenty four vouches
Speaker 2: per year early access to online promos are all kinds
Speaker 2: of additional benefits. So those are the three scales. It's
Speaker 2: not to twelve thousand, twelve thousand to thirty six and
Speaker 2: over thirty six thousand round per year in spend, and
Speaker 2: it'll be on a rolling over the last twelve month
Speaker 2: spaces in which you can move between them.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just what to say quickly, I did engage with
Speaker 3: Will with this morning and about the app being a
Speaker 3: bit wobbly, and they've said yes. This has been a
Speaker 3: huge undertaking, moving literally millions of customers from w rewards
Speaker 3: over to this new mad Difference. There was always a
Speaker 3: chance of a few hiccups along the way, and the
Speaker 3: app has been a bit unstable in the last week
Speaker 3: or two. The team is working very hard to get
Speaker 3: it into a good place and they're almost there.
Speaker 2: Okay, so allows some more wiggle room for teething problems.
Speaker 2: But if you're having ongoings difficulties, it does sound like
Speaker 2: those few hiccups are being worked out. But if you
Speaker 2: are having substantial ongoing issues with loss of benefits that
Speaker 2: were there before, et cetera that you want to flag,
Speaker 2: you're welcome to send us an email. And remember, if
Speaker 2: you want to raise a case with Wendy, the best
Speaker 2: way to do that is on her website, which is
Speaker 2: Wendynla dot co dot s A and that is spelled
Speaker 2: k n O W L E R Wendy Noola dot
Speaker 2: co dot SA. Fill out the contact form there. You're
Speaker 2: also welcome to send an email to consumer at NOLA
Speaker 2: dot co dot sed Wendy, thank you so much. A
Speaker 2: bit of a frustrating one for us not being able
Speaker 2: to help more. But I hope that the public service
Speaker 2: of the educational aspect that this is what is happening,
Speaker 2: and you.
Speaker 3: Need validating for all those others who are going through
Speaker 3: this there alone, and just airing the sort of magnitude
Speaker 3: of that problem.
Speaker 1: And we'll try again next week Wednesday. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: Wendy Nola