Questions to Ask an Immigration Lawyer About a Foreign Worker

How to use this guide

A useful consultation does not merely confirm that “a work visa is possible”. It produces a consultation decision-and-answer record that can be checked against the final documents. This page owns the lawyer's outputs. The consultation-preparation guide owns what the employer sends in, and the submission gate owns the later pass-or-block decision.

Ask which visa route fits the actual activity

Begin with the role, not the easiest-looking checklist:

1. Which section 19 route or other category fits the duties, employer relationship and proposed duration?
2. What fact would move the matter to a different category?
3. Is this a local hire, an intra-company transfer, a corporate arrangement or another form of activity?
4. Does the proposed work location, client assignment or group structure affect the route?
5. Is the worker currently permitted to perform any of the proposed activity?

Ask the lawyer to identify the statutory provision, regulation and current notice relied on. “Sponsorship” is useful reader language, but it is not one South African visa category.

Ask how the points-based system applies

General and critical-skills work-visa applications are adjudicated under the points-based system introduced in October 2024, subject to transition rules and special arrangements. Ask:

• Does the current points system govern this application or does a documented transition rule apply?
• Which occupation is being used, and do the real duties support that classification?
• Is a current critical-skills list entry relied on?
• How will the qualification level be proved?
• Which experience periods qualify, and what evidence supports them?
• What remuneration figure and components are used?
• Is the offer of employment in final, consistent form?
• Does a formally recognised Trusted Employer offer contribute, or is the employer only an applicant to the scheme?
• Which language evidence is needed?
• Has a second person independently recalculated the points from the final documents?

The Minister's notice sets an eligibility threshold and marks an offer of employment as mandatory. Ask what other prescribed requirements remain even if the points total is met. A score is not a guarantee of approval.

Ask about the general-work and SAQA waiver

The October 2024 general-work-visa waiver removed the regulation 18(3)(a) Department of Employment and Labour certificate requirement for general work visas adjudicated under the points-based system. It also partly changed treatment of a pending SAQA evaluation in the circumstances it describes.

Ask:

1. Is this application a general work visa adjudicated under that system?
2. Which old checklist items are displaced by the waiver?
3. If the SAQA outcome is pending, what proof of submission is sufficient for the waiver's limited treatment?
4. What visa-duration consequence may follow if only proof of the SAQA application is submitted?
5. Is a translation, professional registration or other qualification record still required?
6. Does Department of Employment and Labour material remain relevant to a different route or employer process?

The waiver states that it is permission to submit an application, not a grant of immigration status. Ask the lawyer to keep eligibility, evidence and present work authority separate.

Ask about the 2026 medical-report waiver

Ministerial Immigration Directive 10 of 2026 waived the prescribed medical-report requirement for future visa and permanent-residence applications and applications pending adjudication. Ask:

• Does the directive cover this application and submission date?
• Has the receiving mission, centre or portal implemented the later directive in its checklist?
• If an older checklist still displays a medical report, how should the conflict be documented?
• Which other records, such as police clearances or category-specific health evidence, remain required?

Do not treat an operationally stale checklist as a reason to misstate the law. Equally, do not delete a channel requirement without recording the current directive and the advice received.

Ask about the offer, contract and real work

Use the same facts the business will operate under:

• Does the offer need to be conditional on visa approval or other authority?
• Do job title, duties, salary, benefits, work location and duration align across every record?
• Who is the legal employer?
• Who is authorised to sign the offer and statutory undertakings?
• What happens if the start date passes before a decision?
• Can the person travel, train, onboard, work remotely or attend meetings under the current status?
• What event requires a new application, change of conditions or notification?

Ask for wording that reflects the truth without promising an approval date. A contract can allocate risk and conditions; it cannot create immigration authority.

Ask what the worker may do while the application is pending

This question should receive a document-specific answer. Ask the lawyer to review the current visa, its conditions, the submission receipt and any concession being relied on.

Immigration Directive 7 of 2026 gives temporary treatment to defined visa holders with certain pending applications and verifiable receipts. It does not allow activity beyond existing visa conditions for the covered pending long-term visa group. Ask:

• Is the worker within the directive's applicant class?
• Is the receipt verifiable and the matter still pending?
• What activity do the existing conditions allow?
• What happens when an outcome is received?
• What travel rules apply to the worker's nationality and receipt?
• Does the directive exclude the particular application or activity?

Do not accept “the application is in” as the full answer.

Ask about the employer's continuing duties

Section 38 of the Immigration Act addresses employer verification, employment within status conditions, record retention and reporting. Ask:

1. What must the employer check before the person starts?
2. Which copies and verification record must be retained?
3. How long must prescribed employment records be kept after termination?
4. Which termination, status breach or change must be reported, to whom and by what method?
5. Who inside the business owns expiry monitoring?
6. What should happen if the visa, passport or role changes?
7. How will a compliance inspection be handled without unlawful discrimination or informal enforcement?

Ask for a practical employer control, not only a quotation from the Act.

Ask what Trusted Employer status changes

The points notice awards points for an offer from a Trusted Employer, and Home Affairs launched a further scheme intake in 2026. Ask:

• Is the employer currently accredited, merely applying, or outside the scheme?
• Which official record proves current recognition?
• Does the recognition cover the employer entity making this offer?
• What procedural simplification or evidential effect applies to this application?
• What does TES not change?

Do not let a scheme expression of interest become a representation that the employer is already trusted. TES participation does not itself give the worker a visa or permission to work.

Ask about changes, refusals and adverse history

Before choosing a filing strategy, disclose and ask about:

• previous refusals or withdrawals;
• an overstay or undesirable-person issue;
• earlier waivers, appeals or reviews;
• a different employer or job in a pending application;
• contradictory forms or attachments;
• a suspected false document;
• a lost or unverifiable receipt; and
• a planned change during adjudication.

Ask what must be corrected, explained or separately challenged. Also ask which date controls and whether the lawyer's scope includes the response, appeal, review or only advice.

Ask how personal information will be handled

The file may contain passports, police clearances, family records, addresses and employment history. Ask:

• Which records are needed for the first stage?
• What secure intake channel should be used?
• Who may access the worker's file?
• How are source documents separated from working copies?
• How will obsolete drafts be labelled?
• What is the retention and return arrangement?

Verify the practitioner through the Legal Practice Council before sending sensitive records. Then verify the actual intake address or portal using an independent contact route.

Ask what the fee buys

Define the first deliverable:

• written route and points opinion;
• evidence-gap and risk note;
• form and document review;
• application preparation and submission;
• communication with the receiving channel;
• response to further information;
• refusal or appeal advice; or
• ongoing status and employer-compliance monitoring.

Ask who will do the work, who will supervise, what is excluded, whether the fee is fixed or estimated, how VAT and disbursements are treated, and what event requires new authority. Confirm who owns appointments, payment, originals, submission, tracking and collection of the outcome.

Ask for the consultation decision record

Before the meeting closes, capture:

If an answer is provisional, record what will make it final. If the advice changes after a new document arrives, retain both versions and the reason.

Legal disclaimer

This is a general consultation agenda, not legal advice on a particular foreign worker. The correct route, points evidence, status, concession, employer duty, submission process and deadline depend on the current official instruments and complete facts. Ask the practitioner to record any provisional conclusion and the evidence needed to finalise it.

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