Are you confused about South Africa’s new travel laws that require children travelling to and from South Africa to present their Unabridged Birth Certificates before they’re allowed in/out?
Well, you’re not alone. The good news is that the people over at Drive South Africa sympathise with your plight, and have worked to create a web portal/app called the “Child Visa Checklist App” that informs you of exactly what paperwork is needed.
This it does with a clever three step process that lets you specify your exact circumstances, using a 37-node decision tree running behind the scenes that covers every conceivable scenario.
Once you’ve made your selections, the app/site then displays all of the documents you’ll need to provide in order to be allowed in or out of the country with your child/ren.
The new laws were introduced on the 1st of June, 2015, and Drive South Africa said in a press statement they were intended to curb the trafficking of children into and out of the country, as well as fight domestic child custody disputes between divorced parents.
Andre Van Kets, co-founder and marketing director of Drive South Africa added that “The only problem is, these regulations were launched with little consultation with the tourism industry, are rather confusing and might even make people think twice about travelling to South Africa.”
And so the tool was developed to help people overcome these new bureaucratic hurdles, and with a bit of luck keep those deep-pocketed tourists pouring in while also putting a dent in child-trafficking figures.
Unfortunately, it still doesn’t solve the problem of this well-intentioned legislation being a massive hindrance to legitimate travellers and little to no inconvenience at all to actual child traffickers, since they likely don’t use official border checkpoints to move into and out of South Africa anyway.
But it at least makes the actual process of applying for clearance a little less arcane for people just trying to enter or exit the country with little ‘uns in tow.
At least.
