Is there any point in retaining SA Citizenship?

[MadMother]

I hear what you saying but I was wondering if you could check in at the airline with one passport and then preent another passport once through security at passport control? Does the check in passport have to match the one produced to passport control check?

When I rang Qantas they just kept repeating that the passport MUST match the ticket name. I tried to find out whether the actual person at the ticket desk or the person at passport control would be let me through if if showed both passports, but I couldn't get a definite answer from anyone.

If you are wondering why my Australian visa is in my Netherlands passport it's because we came to Australia on 457 visas (ie no Medicare), but the Netherlands has a reciprocal agreement with Australia, so we got Medicare after all.

[andrea_vk]

It looks like is a difficult situation and some people had problems in other countries because of that. The expensive is having to buy two different tickets, one to fly to SA and one to fly back.

Here is a thread in another forum

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/365961-passport-and-plane-ticket-under-different-names/

Another point, can you change your visa now to your South AFrican passport. I assume now you have PR.

Is your Australian driver license on maiden name?

IN form 929 : change of address and/or passport details it says

You must advise the department of any changes to your

passport details before and after a visa is granted to you.

This includes details of any new passport you obtain to replace

a passport that has expired or been lost/stolen/destroyed, and

any additional passport of another nationality you hold. The

details of any new passport that you provide will be linked to

your record on the department’s systems to facilitate your

travel. Where a new passport has been issued, a certified

copy of this passport must be submitted with this form

If they can link your South African passport to your visa, and you do not need to show the visa label, because of electronic visa, then you can just fly out of Australia with your South African passport.

I would still print proof of visa, to show in South Africa that you have a visa.

Or maybe they can put a label on your South African passport if you pay.

I would phone immigration and find out, as that would be the easiest.

[Eva]

I have never thought about this problem. I have an EU passport in my maiden name too, will become an Aussie citizen in a few weeks time and my South African passport has expired... but I am not planning on visiting RSA anytime soon. I agree with Jordy, between one of your three passports you should hopefully get them to sort out your comings and goings. Good luck.

[miraclebabycaw]

My surname problem is probably not very common (even my sister who is also married and has the same dual citizenship as I do, does not have a problem as she hasn't taken her husband's surname). I am happy to renounce my SA citizenship, but the question I was actually asking is - if neither parent has South African citizenship prior to a child turning 18, will the child automatically lose their South African citizenship (as it is in the Netherlands)?

To answer your actual problem, why would there be any issues with your kids citizenship? They are legally South African and have the citizenship in their own rights. Neither of my parents were South African. My father was Dutch and my mother British. I never had any issues under 18. I also have British Nationality and a British Passport courtesy of my mother obtained before I turned 18. Never had any hassles with retaining my SA citizenship even tho my parents were not South African.

wrt your passport dilemma, I don't see it as an issue if you carry both passports. Book the tickets on your SA one, take both passports as well as a marriage certificate and you should be fine. My mother no longer has her South African Permanent Residency stamp in her passports as it was such a mission to get it changed through each passport so she has the original page which she carries in her current passport and carries her SA ID book when re-entering SA or if there are any queries about how she does not have a visa in her passport, and has had not issues with it ever. When she left here last month she had a one way ticket back to South Africa. They just wanted proof that she had the right to live in South Africa and were happy with her SA ID document. An Australian license would be as good an id for coming back as anything else

Just my 2 cents

[Eva]

miraclebabycaw, it is their Dutch citizenship that the girls with lose (as I understood it)

[miraclebabycaw]

@Eva - No it wasn't..read her question again. She knows she will lose the Dutch citizenship and was querying IF the girls would lose their SA citizenship as well..

QUOTE

"if neither parent has South African citizenship prior to a child turning 18, will the child automatically lose their South African citizenship (as it is in the Netherlands)?"

[Eva]

Well it seems she answered her own question, because under 18 you don't lose your citizenship which is what she says right in the beginning... I lost the plot along the way, too much energy required to re-read it...

[MadMother]

Hi everyone, thanks for all your comments! It seems that I may have forgotten a vital difference between my children's Dutch and SA passports...

Dutch Passports - before the child turns 18, at least parent must have a valid Dutch passport or the child will automatically lose their citizenship BUT I think that this only applies because my children were not born in the Netherlands (passport acquired by decent).

South African Passports - If my husband and I both lose our SA citizenship (e.g. getting Australian citizenship without applying for dual citizenship first) this should not affect the children as they are under 18 and were born in South Africa (passports acquired by birth).

This sounds right doesn't it? Duh

[MadMother]

I've just found a definitive answer to my question...

Section 7(3) of Act 88 of 1995 - South African Citizenship Act (http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=71009) states:

7. Renunciation of citizenship

(1) A South African citizen who intends to accept the citizenship or nationality of another country, or who also has the citizenship or nationality

of a country other than the Republic, may make a declaration in the prescribed form renouncing his or her South African citizenship.

(2) The Minister shall upon receipt of a declaration made under this section cause such declaration to be registered in the manner prescribed, and

thereupon the person who made the declaration shall cease to be a South African citizen.

(3) Whenever a person ceases under subsection (2) to be a South African citizen, his or her minor children who are under the age of 18 years shall also cease to be South African citizens if the other parent of such children is not, or does not remain, a South African citizen.

My husband didn't apply for dual citizenship, so he technically lost his SA citizenship when he became an Australian citizen. So, if I renounce my SA citizenship (so I can legally enter SA on my Netherlands passport), both of our children will lose their citizenship as well.

[chzaau]

Just be careful, they changed the 1995 act as it was found unconstitutional in some regards. One of the items was that a child could not lose there citizenship.

Here is a link http://www.services.gov.za/services/content/Home/ServicesForPeople/Citizenship/personalidentification/retainSAcitizens/en_ZA

Loss of South African Citizenship

1. Subject to the provision of subsection (2), a South African citizen shall cease to be a South African citizen if -

(a) he or she, whilst not being a minor, by some voluntary and formal act other than marriage, acquires the citizenship or nationality of a country other than the Republic; or

(he or she in terms of the laws of any other country also has the citizenship or nationality of that country, and serves in the armed forces of such country while that country is at war with the Republic. Any person referred to in subsection (1) may, prior to his or her loss of South African citizenship in terms of this section, apply to the Minister to retain his or her South African citizenship, and the Minister may, if he or she deems it fit, order such retention.

Edited July 22, 2013 by chzaau

[Eva]

As far as I know a child under 18 cannot lose their RSA citizenship, we recently applied for our Aussie citizenship and that was what I understood.