WINDHOEK – Government is in the process of considering granting longer employment permits for up to five years for serious investors and professionals with scarce or rare, most-sought after skills, the Executive Director in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration Etienne Maritz said. Maritz said employment permit is either for an investor (self-employed) or employee who should possess scarce or rare skills for various economic sectors. He said this permit may be short or long term, ranging in duration from 12 to 36 months.
“Currently, government is in the process of considering longer periods for up to five years for serious investors and professionals with scarce or rare, most-sought after skills, “stated Maritz during the launch of visa and permit stickers yesterday while listing categories of visas.
Visas are given for purposes of holiday, business exploration, meetings, consultation, visiting friends and transit. Permits are given for employment, short term employment, permanent residence and students permits, which a stamp was required.
The visa and permit stickers replace the traditional stamps commonly referred to as rubber stamps.
Maritz stated visas and permits are essential components for facilitating travel and taking up residence in Namibia by allowing foreign nationals to travel to Namibia, and for some to gain temporary or permanent residence in Namibia. He indicated a specific stamp is endorsed in a passport or travel document of a foreign national as a way of authentication of specific legal status in the country.
The executive director said the practice in many countries is similar to Namibia, however, the majority of countries have advanced to issuing visas and permit stickers.
“The rubber stamps have become one of the greatest challenges of our times due to fraudulent activities and have become unreliable, easily available and reproduced and utilised in unlawful practices. Every year we encounter fraudulent stamps imitating those we endorse for employment permit, permanent residence permit, money and much of the ministry’s time is spend in litigations,” said Maritz.
Maritz stated the implementation of the visa and permit stickers will be slated in two phases, starting with an employment permit, temporary residence permit, work visa, student permit and permanent residence permit which are all processed by the head office in Windhoek.
He said the second phase will be to rollout visa stickers for holidays, transit and general visits to diplomatic missions abroad. He said this will require strengthened linkage between their diplomatic missions and the head office.
“We are happy to inform you that a parallel project in respect of online application for visas and permits is being developed to allow clients anywhere in the world to submit their applications.”