Living Zimbabwe

Category: Travel & Tourism

  • Zimbabwe Citizen Visa Applications and New Zealand Immigration Profiling Group

    Another Declined New Zealand Visa Application For a ZimbabweanThe UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are popular destinations for Zimbabweans looking for greener pastures. With this migration brings the issue of family who have stayed behind in Zimbabwe wanting to have a holiday and visit their relatives in their new homes. Being Zimbabwean, applying for a visitors visa for any of the above mentioned countries might be a bit of an ordeal but if you have all your paperwork in order you would expect to get a positive response within a few days of applying. When it comes to applying for a visa, it is not the biggest or most popular destination that poses the most problems. New Zealand, which probably has the least to offer in terms of employment, earning and development potential is the one that gives the most headaches.

    Zimbabweans looking to enter New Zealand as a visitor or on a long term basis can expect to be in for a very long wait as their applications are being processed. Let’s say for example someone in Zimbabwe wants to visit a son, daughter, sister etc. They will have to submit an application through the New Zealand High Commission South Africa branch in Pretoria which will set them back ZAR800 plus the cost of couriering the passport, application and supporting documentation to South Africa. In some cases they may need to get the person they intend on visiting to send supporting documentation to submit with the application. Once in SA, they will be told that they don’t process Zimbabwean passport holders applications and that it will sent to NZ for processing which will take two to four weeks (this timeframe seems to vary). The weeks that they were told it would take end up turning into months and at the end of it all the applicant gets a letter that reads along the lines of ‘we regret to inform you that your application for a visitors visa has been declined……’

    The New Zealand Immigration Service (NZIS) set up a unit called Immigration Profile Group (IPG) which processes visa applications of citizens from countries it deems as high risk. If you are travelling on a passport from a country on IPG’s list and are applying for any sort of visa the application is sent to Wellington regardless of where in the world you are. Due to the situation in Zimbabwe, it happens to be close to the top of that list which makes it difficult to apply for a visa to travel to and enter NZ. With that being the case, family members of Zimbabwean resident in NZ have missed out on those very special and one off events in life that are just not the same without loved ones around. I have come across a number of Zimbabweans whose parents have applied for visitors visas and been declined after waiting for months and months for a response. A number of these declined applications have been for people who want to visit to attend their son or daughters wedding or the birth of a first grandchild. It is extremely heart-breaking for parents, sons and daughters when a visa application is declined even after explicitly stating the fact to NZIS that someone wanted to travel for those reasons.

    When IPG receives the application it is put into a ‘managed queue’ as it waits to be assigned to a case officer and how long that takes or what position it is in the queue, no-one knows. If you call NZIS to find out the status of the application and it hasn’t yet been declined, all that they tell you is whether or not it is in the queue, with a case officer or notes if any that have been placed on the file. You cannot make direct contact with IPG via telephone with only way of getting in touch with them being via fax or email. Even if you are to get in touch with IPG, the chances of getting a response from them are slim to none.

    Something else that becomes an annoyance for applicants is the length of time for which IPG holds passports for. Some people might need their passport to travel but when they get in touch with the overseas mission through which they submitted the application they are told that asking for their passport back means withdrawal of the application. But that is not the case, passports can be sent back to applicants as the application progresses in the queue. That shows that there is a break down in communication between IPG and NZIS overseas missions. One thing that is even more pathetic is that fact that if you call their call centre here you can have operators telling you that you can get your passport back as the application progresses and others telling you that if you ask for it back the application is effectively withdrawn. What information do you work on when some of the call centre representatives don’t seem to know how the process works and IPG cannot be contacted directly for the correct information?

    Even after satisfying all the requirement there is no guarantee that a visa will be granted. Working on information from personal experience and that of friends whose family members applications have been declined, IPG does not seem to follow their own guidelines and wants excessive amounts of information in order to approve an application. As an example; for evidence of funds you need to show proof that you have enough money to support yourself during your stay. Their minimums are NZ$1000/person/month or NZ$400/person/month if accommodation is paid for. If you are not able to provide this proof, the other acceptable form of evidence is a declaration by a New Zealand sponsor that they will pay for accommodation and maintenance. A few people who have been able to provide proof of funds in the form of very healthy bank statements (not in ZW$) have had their applications declined on the basis that a sponsorship form was did not accompany the application. On top of that they have been deemed as people who were not likely to return to Zimbabwe even if they are well travelled and have enough money to pay for their visit and then some.

    The common theme with declined applications is that they do not believe that the applicants will return to Zimbabwe once in New Zealand. Apparently New Zealand cannot send Zimbabweans back home once their permit has expired because of a United Nations Convention. Yes, there may be people who have ulterior motives but I believe that a large proportion of the applicants are genuine visitors. It just makes you wonder if it is worth it trying to go through the hassle of putting in an application, getting your passport back if you need it, following up on the application and having niggling thoughts for months of whether or not you will get the visa. For a lot of genuine applications it ends up being a very big waste of time and money.

    Members of the Zimbabwean Community in Wellington (ZIMDARE) meet with Parliamentarians and presented the issue to them. They received a letter stating that the Minister of Immigration and the head of IPG were looking into the issue. It will be interesting to see what the outcome is. In the mean time though NZIS and IPG really need to get their act together and be able to provide clients with useful information in a timely manner. The also need to be more upfront about the application process and not be make applicants and sponsors run around to provide them with all the information they ask for and turn around to decline an application for petty reasons.

  • The Ridiculous Cost of a Zimbabwean Passport

    Zimbabwean PassportFrom the 7th to the 10th of May staff from the Zimbabwean Embassy in Australia (Mr Moses Chikanyairo and Ms Pelagia Mbanda) were in Wellington to assist all Zimbabweans who wished to apply for a passport. For a number of people news of their visit was welcome as there is no Zimbabwean Embassy in New Zealand meaning that people have to travel to Australia or make alternative arrangements if they want to apply for a new passport. Having embassy staff in the country gave people the opportunity to pick-up a passport application form to fill out which they would then send to Zimbabwe and get friends or family to aide in processing the application. Before the arrival of the Embassy staff, information with passport application requirements and associated fees was distributed with the cost for a new passport being: passport forms – AU$30.00, passport fees – AU$190.00, verification of documents – AU$50.00 coming to a total of AU$270 – Click here for new passport application requirements and fee schedule from the Zimbabwe Embassy Australia.
    People went along to where embassy staff were stationed ready to pay AU$30 to pick up an application form but were caught off guard when they were told the fee was AU$80. The embassy staff were only accepting bank drafts which after a conversion from the NZ dollar and associated bank fees came up to approximately NZ$120. That is an exorbitant price to pay for an application form. A New Zealand passport will cost you about NZ$150-$170 depending on where you are in the world, an Australian passport AU$200, a British passport £75 and a U.S. passport US$100. As you can see, if you were to compile a list with the cost of passports from various nations around the world, Zimbabwe passport fees are bound to be close to if not at the top.
    It just doesn’t seem right that one has to pay just for an application form and then the processing fees. For people living in the diaspora, they may run into a few problems when trying to apply for a new passport due to some of the requirements. These include the need to supply a long birth certificate and national identity card. Depending on how long a person has been away from Zimbabwe they may not have this documentation. In the case of a national identity document, they are only issued in Zimbabwe where a personal appearance is required for photos and fingerprinting. This makes things a little more difficult for someone trying to apply for a passport and doesn’t have all the required documentation. In the end all the money that has to be paid and the hops you have to jump through for a passport if you live out of Zimbabwe end up being one big headache when in reality it should be a relatively simple process. It may work out to be a lot cheaper and easier to go through the official ‘unofficial’ channels for a new passport.
    People applying for passports from Zimbabwe are not immune to high passport fees. The Registrar-General’s Office is constantly increasing passport fees to match the economic climate with the last update being on the 14th of April – Click here for a list of fees for a Zimbabwe Passport as at 14 April 2008.

    *FEES UPDATE* – Click here for a list of fees for a Zimbabwe Passport as as 17 July 2008.

    The government really needs to re-evaluate what they charge for and how much they charge for passport applications. In the end it may not be worth all the hassle of applying for a passport that takes you nowhere if you are eligible for citizenship in another country.

  • Luciano, Joe and Beyonce To Rescue Zim Tourism

    Terence Mapurisana (ZBC/ZTV) Interviewing Luciano 'The Messenger' in ZimbabweThe Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) is on a mission to try and revive the once thriving tourism sector through their Perception Management Programme. The programme involves bringing opinion leaders and celebrities to the country who will then hopefully go on to share their experience of Zimbabwe with the world.

    Late last year the ZTA invited Jamaican reggae star Luciano aka “The Messenger” to Zimbabwe where he performed hits such as ‘One Away Ticket‘ at the Jacaranda Jazz Festival held at the City Sports Centre. During his visit he had a few inspirational words for the people of Zimbabwe and was full of praise towards the Government and President Robert Mugabe’s efforts towards true independence. Joe 'Joe' Thomas Stepping off Air ZimbabweA few weeks ago American R&B sensation Joe Thomas commonly known as “Joe” who is well known for the hit song ‘Good Girls‘ visited the Republic. He didn’t seem to have a lot to say and stayed quite neutral when it came to issues related to the government. He was reported to have been paid around US$50,000 for his visit.

    Most people understand the concept that you have to spend money to make money but I don’t know if spending that amount of money on musicians will do a lot to revive tourism. Yes, there may be a lot of hype around the period of their arrival but that dies down after their departure and life in Zimbabwe goes on as per normal. The musicians go back to doing what they do in their everyday lives with their pockets a little fatter. What the ZTA wants is for these musicians to act as ambassadors for Zimbabwe but I don’t see that as being much help especially when one of them was reported to have said he had not really heard of Zimbabwe until he was invited to the country.

    Beyonce Knowles in Zimbabwe?The amount of money that the ZTA has spent on bringing Luciano and Joe to Zimbabwe could have gone to much better use. There are a number of ways in which the government could have used the rare foreign currency to benefit the people of Zimbabwe. I am not an expert on marketing but I am sure there are a number of long term measures they can implement to try and revive tourism. The ZTA say they also have stars such as Beyonce Knowles lined up to perform in Zimbabwe. With her international acclaim it will cost a fair penny to have her perform. If she does perform will it be money well spent or just a waste?

  • Zimbabwe Listed as One of the Most Dangerous Destinations?

    Zimbabwe Police Brutality - This is NOT what Zimbabwe is about. I was reading through Forbes last week and came across an interesting article: World’s Most Dangerous Destinations. I was curious to see if Zimbabwe was listed amongst the likes of Iraq and Afghanistan and that it was. Forbes gathered the information from iJet, a company that specializes in assessing global threats. Zimbabwe was ranked five meaning – Control Risks: High security risk, insignificant terrorism risk and medium travel risk.

    I disagree with it because on a whole Zimbabwe is not a dangerous place and her citizens do not live in fear of losing their lives. Yes, Zimbabwe is experiencing a few problems at the moment but Zimbabweans are more worried about getting by than going out and causing chaos. Most of the violence that has taken place has been perpetrated by people with strong political affiliations. When situations have turned violent, these events have been isolated and died down pretty quickly.

    I don’t like seeing Zimbabwe being included on the list of the world’s most dangerous destinations. Even if it is only ranked as a ‘Control Risk’, being branded as a dangerous destination is enough to further tarnish the image of a nation. If someone was to see a country they intend on traveling to on such a list it would be a big deterrent for them visiting regardless of what kind of a risk it is said to pose.

    Various nations worldwide have warned their citizens against traveling to Zimbabwe, a step which I see as being a little extreme. A few tourists still do visit Zimbabwe and come out unscathed with pleasurable memories and hopefully a different perspective of life. On the whole Zimbabweans are peaceful people and Zimbabwe does not deserve to be branded as a dangerous destination.

  • The Passport That Takes You Nowhere

    In Zimbabwe’s early years travel was so easy for a number of her citizens. Getting together all the necessary items to take your family on holiday was not a difficult task. Applying for a getting a passport if you didn’t have one was simple. Getting money for travel, accommodation and spending was not a problem either. Best of all, passage into a number of countries worldwide was a breeze. You could travel to quite a few visa free and if you needed a visa the application process was simple and approval almost certainly guaranteed.Nowadays, it is a completely different story.
    Traveling on a Zimbabwe passport can be a little tricky. You need a visa to visit a number of countries. A few years ago Zimbabwe introduced machine readable passports but some of the Zimbabweans in the Diaspora have not yet gotten a chance to get themselves one. They are still traveling on the old style non-machine readable and handwritten passport. These old passports can lengthen processing times at border controls and. I have an old style passport and have even been stopped at the air bridge. This happened to me when boarding flights in Johannesburg, Dallas and Stockholm. The authenticity of my passport is what was being questioned. This was such an inconvenience and embarrassing as I was made to stand aside with an official standing next to me waiting to question me as my flights boarded.A few weeks ago I got to listen in on a conversation between a Zimbabwean and the former Immigration Minister (New Zealand). He mentioned how it was in his era that they started up a unit Immigration Profiling Group (IPG) that handles all visa applications from a list of countries that they deem as high risk. These countries are where there is political unrest of whom its citizens may decide to not return if allowed passage into New Zealand. He mentioned that Zimbabwe was at the top of the list of African countries. Visa applications normally take weeks but if you have the misfortune of being a citizen of a country whose applications have to go through IPG you are looking at a wait time of about 6 months. This is ridiculous when all you want to do is visit a country even after that six month wait period your application may be declined. If you are a 23 year old person who has not travelled at all and doesn’t have any real reason to return to your homeland you can forget about it. This is sure to be the same for a number of Western countries around the world who are imposing sanctions against Zimbabwe.

    Anything and everything is just becoming harder for Zimbabweans but, there are a number in the Diaspora who have been able to become residents of the countries they are living and working in which does give them a bit of peace of mind in knowing that they do not have to worry about what to do when their visas/permits expire.

  • Maybe Air Zimbabwe Can Do It

    Following on from the previous post, maybe Air Zimbabwe can do it. Strengthening ties with airlines in the region may help in rebuilding the airline. Take a look at the story below:

  • British Airways Flies Out – Will Air Zimbabwe Cope?

    On the 28th of October a British Airways Boeing 777 flew out of Harare on its way to London for the last time. BA cited high operational costs as the reason for the pull out. Fuel shortages in Zimbabwe had forced them to truck fuel in from neighbouring countries which was becoming uneconomical. A decline in passenger numbers was also resulting in losses on the Harare route.

    In the nineties, BA flew packed Boeing 747 jumbo jets to Harare four times a week. A number of other foreign airlines flew into the country and these included the likes of Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, TAP and Qantas just to name a few.

    When the political situation in Zimbabwe started to deteriorate a number of airlines withdrew their services. All that was left was a handful of African carriers and BA. Due to dwindling passenger numbers BA cut their services to three flights a week on 777s which carry half the capacity of 747s. With BA’s departure, Air Zimbabwe is left as the only airline with a direct route to Europe.

    To fill in the gaps, Air Zimbabwe has added two more flights to the Harare-London route. This brings their weekly flights between the two cities to five. Them being able to handle the increase in flights is another story. The state owned airline has been facing a few problems brought about lack of fuel, maintenance and mismanagement issues. There have been periods when flight delays have stretched for more than a few hours and ran into days. On occasion aircrafts have been diverted to cater to government officials leaving a number of passengers stranded. Only time will tell if they are able to provide a good service.

    There is a question that is still on peoples minds. Was BAs pullout really due to economics or was it politically motivated in an effort to further isolate Zimbabwe?

  • The Smoke That Thunders – Victoria Falls

    Victoria Falls is a 1.7km wide waterfall that drops up to 107m into the Zambezi Gorge forming the largest curtain of water in the world. The falls which are located between the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia are feed by the Zambezi River. The Falls were named Mosi oa Tunya ‘the smoke that thunders’ by the locals but when David Livingstone “discovered” the Falls 1885 he renamed them after the reigning queen of the British Isles, Victoria. Victoria Falls have been designated a World Heritage Site under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.

    In days gone by whenever Victoria Falls was mentioned, Zimbabwe was sure to be part of the conversation as it was the most popular country to visit the falls from. This is due to the fact that when you are on the Zimbabwean side of the falls you can stand right opposite the falls and the majority of the falls are in Zimbabwe. Over the last few years, tourists wanting to visit the falls have been doing so from the Zambian side and they are marketed as Victoria Falls, Zambia. Whenever I see or hear this my heart sinks as I think of how things used to be.

    The rapid decline of visitors to the Zimbabwean side is due to the political situation in the country. Zambia is really profiting from it as tourists visits to the falls from the Zambian side increase. Vic Falls is not the only area of tourism to suffer. Other areas such as safaris have also suffered. As a result Zimbabwe has lost out on millions of dollars of revenue. This much needed revenue is something that could help to get the country back on its feet.

    This is the wonder that is Victoria Falls: