Fake students, fake retirees and bribery: SIU exposes visa racket

Foreigners have been able to buy their way into South Africa on fake documents with the help of home affairs officials who treated the visa system like an open marketplace, according to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

The findings were part of a presentation the SIU gave to parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education on Wednesday, mainly covering its investigations into universities and colleges. However, part of the presentation was an update on a separate investigation into the department of home affairs.

The probe was launched under Proclamation 154 of 2024, which authorises the SIU to investigate how the department issues permanent residence permits, corporate visas, business visas, critical and exceptional skills work visas, study visas, retired persons’ visas, work visas and citizenship by naturalisation. It also covers the installation of T200 firewalls at the department.

Investigators said they have uncovered “a co-ordinated study visa fraud system inside home affairs, where corrupt officials helped approve applications backed by fake acceptance letters and other fraudulent documents”.

The SIU said the process was “treated like a marketplace”, with applications fast-tracked through inside contacts and money paid to officials or to their spouses and businesses to make it happen. The payments were moved through EFT transfers, cash send and ATM deposits.

Some officials reportedly used side channels and dummy phones to avoid being detected.

The SIU said foreigners were routinely able to obtain study visas by submitting fraudulent supporting documents, including letters confirming registration at institutions of higher learning, fake medical certificates, forged radiologist certificates, fraudulent medical aid membership numbers and falsified criminal record verifications.

The SIU also found that home affairs adjudicators failed to verify or simply overlooked the fraudulent documents before granting the visas. Once in the country, many of the foreigners did not attend the colleges or universities named in their applications at all. Instead, the SIU found that they opened businesses that went on to receive millions of rand, some of which was paid back to department officials.

In some cases, the acceptance letters used to support applications came from institutions that had never accepted the applicant in the first place. Other letters were traced to institutions that are not registered with the department of higher education at all, and in some instances, the SIU found the institutions named did not exist.

The SIU found that once a study visa expires, many foreigners apply to change their status to a different temporary visa, such as a retired person’s visa or a visitor’s visa, to stay in the country.