I have Dutch citizenship and automatically retained my right to permanent residence in South Africa as I was born here. I have been advised many times (by Home Affairs) that I cannot apply for a permanent residence permit because I am deemed to be a permanent resident. In order to avoid all the hassles upon returning from overseas visits, Home Affairs wrote a sentence in my passport to keep the border control officials off my back. It read "As a former SA citizen by birth, the bearer is deemed to have retained the right to permanent residence in the RSA." This sorted out all my re-entry problems. My passport has expired and upon visiting Home Affairs today, I was advised that they can no longer write that sentence in my passport. Before they can assist me, they require the original letter from Home Affairs confirming my renunciation of SA citizenship (which I no longer have - only copies), and no-one can answer my question: I renounced my SA citizenship in 1998 but as I was born in SA, I was advised that I cannot apply for a permanent residence permit as I automatically retained my right to permanent residence in South Africa. Has this position changed? My sister is sitting with a similar problem and she has been trying to sort this out with Home Affairs for the past 2 years - border control says she needs a permanent residence permit nr stamped in her passport, and Home Affairs says it is not possible to apply for such a permit as she automatically has it???

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Province: Western Cape

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