Consulate General of South Africa — Local services in New York

I will be visiting South Africa later this August and had to apply for a tourist visa. Before my appointment, I was feeling a little apprehensive because of the negative reviews on the internet, but my entire experience with the Consulate in New York was amazing! Everyone I met at the Consulate was extremely kind. The waiting area was spacious, clean and quiet. I was given a number during check in, and waited for about 20 minutes before I was called. The lady at the visa window thoroughly checked my documents, and told me it would take 5-10 days to process my visa. I applied on a Tuesday and received my passport within 10 days. I applied a little later than I should have (couldn't book an earlier appointment), so my travelling date was getting close. I was really stressed out over whether I could get my passport back before my travelling date. However my anxiety turned out to be unnecessary because South Africa Consulate is highly efficient and truly exceeding my expectations. A couple of recommendations to people who will be applying for a visa: Try to book an appointment as early as possible. They get filled up very quickly. Print out the list of required documents from the Consulate visa service site, and use that as the guidance to prepare for the application. That was what I did and I didn't run into any issues at the Consulate. If you forget anything, there is a Fedex store downstairs so you can go there to use their printers and copy machines. The lady at the visa window would tell you what's missing. She is super friendly and kind. I rarely write reviews but feel compelled to write one for the South Africa Consulate and hopefully correct some of the negative...

Never do business with South Africans. I made the mistake of visiting South Africa on vacation. I DO NOT RECOMMEND. Every business I dealt with there tried to scam me one way or another. It is worse than Florida. The worst company by far was EUROPCAR South Africa, a division of Imperial Group. They will keep adding bogus nonsense fees to your credit card months after you return. They hide them and use different names, thinking you might not notice and they will get away with theft. On investigation, my credit card company has reversed all the charges as bogus, but this arrogant practice of local South African companies putting their claws into their customers tells you something about how hostile South African businesses are to tourists. If you go, then expect to cancel your credit cards on return because no other step will stop this. You have a choice in where you spend your holiday dollars. Go to Namibia, Kenya, or Uganda instead. Even as corrupt as Zimbabwe is, it is way better than South Africa. BOYCOTT SOUTH AFRICA until the corrupt government takes reasonable steps to end the corporate culture of deceptive trade practices against tourists. Nelson Mandela would be ashamed of what the country has become and the weakness and poor business acumen that its leaders now...

As a South African I didn’t expect much from the kind of customer service I’ll get, I anticipated the worst as experienced back home with such public institutions. But, I was pleasantly surprised! from the guy at the reception, he was very friendly and helpful to Edith dela Merced who was also very helpful, friendly and competent. I first called for an appointment and to my surprise again they picked the call, transferred me to the relevant department only to find an answering machine so I thought, what the heck! let me leave a message regardless thinking nobody will get back to me but hey! She did, she called me back in less than 5 minutes and we set up an appointment. On the day of my appointment, I got there, the guy at reception directed me where to go and called Edith who observed me in signing some important documents in her presence to authenticate. She then told me they’ll mail back the documents and authenticate them accordingly. Few days later I received the documents in the mail and they were binded, authenticated, signed, witnessed and stamped. Thank you for a great customer service experience and well...