OzAdventureTime Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 Hi All,I've been a bit of lurker up until now but have decided that now is the time to get involved ;-PI must say that this forum has been wonderfully informative, even though it has been a cause of panic on the odd occasion My partner and I submitted our EOI last week *yay* - a couple of days after the first round of invites went out (oh well) but that does mean we have some time to sort out the rest of the paper work, which leads me to my question:Is it worthwhile getting a service provider to sort out our unabridged birth certificates or is Home Affairs being efficient at this point in time that we can do it ourselves without too much stress?Any advice would be greatly appreciated!Thanks everyone Rox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 Hello Rox, and welcome to the forum.We did our unabridged certificates ourselves but this was well in advance. We didnt have much problem to be honest. Home Affairs has a customer service number where I was dealt with very effieiently and timeously (much to my amazement) :-) I think home affairs are improving or atleast this was my experience.I would apply for the certificates yourselves and see how you go. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeonH Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 Hi OzAdventureTime,Our experience (in Durban) was that Home Affairs' turnaround times for certificates and passports have improved significantly. We used an agent for queuing, but documents arrived (If I recall correctly) three weeks later.Leon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzAdventureTime Posted July 13, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 Thank you I think I'm going try my luck with Home Affairs, you're not the first people to that they're getting better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monsta Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 (edited) Maybe home affairs paid the electricity bill for the building where they keep the older records.. ? Edited July 13, 2015 by monsta 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanette Posted July 14, 2015 Report Share Posted July 14, 2015 (edited) Hi Rox, if you don't mind me asking, what did you need to be completed before you submit your EOI? Congrats by the way on getting this far. Edited July 14, 2015 by Shanette Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzAdventureTime Posted July 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2015 @Shanette: Thanks We are making use of one of the agents that came recommended on this forum so he handled the whole application for us. As I am the main applicant, I had to provide proof of my English capabilities (I did the PTE Academic Test) as well as proof that my degree is equivalent to an Australian degree (went through ICAA) in addition to the usual statutory documents (Copies of passports etc.).@monsta: we haven't had load shedding in 3 days, so some government department somewhere must have paid something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GandTash Posted July 14, 2015 Report Share Posted July 14, 2015 We got our Unabridged birth certificates and passport for the little one fairly quickly, still waiting for our unabridged marriage certificate - going on 7 months now but agent said any marriage certificate will do so not critical, we just want it before we leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odendaal Posted July 15, 2015 Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Wow, marriage certificate taking 7 months . Which HA did you go to if I may ask?I recently got married and moved to Secunda. With the surname change, I needed to apply for a new passport, ID etc and the passport took 1 week (no jokes), the ID took 2 weeks and unabridged marriage certificate took 3 weeks. Bethal HA is by far the best HA I've been to ....still waiting for the unabridged BC but I only applied for that about 2 weeks ago so we'll see...maybe I spoke too soon ha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QACR Posted July 15, 2015 Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Hi RoxAre you in Durban if you are I have a contact at HA Pinetown who will queue for you. Cost us R200 x 2 but to apply for passport we arrived at 7:45am and we were out by 11am for collection I arrived at 7:45am and was out by 9am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OzAdventureTime Posted July 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2015 Hi QACR,Unfortunately not, in Johannesburg.Tried the Randburg DHA yesterday and that was absolutely chaotic (there's a whole lot of construction going on) so went through to the office in Wynberg and that only took about 45min. My passport is still valid for another 7 years so didn't need to stand in that lengthy queue, thank goodness They did say a 6 to 8 week processing time though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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