Shubra Singh’s Saturday night dinner at a bar in Pittsburgh was ruined by the White House. Her eight Indian friends at the table, all techies on H-1B visas, were glued to their phones as they tried to get more information about U.S President Donald Trump’s latest move to raise fees for H-1B visa applications. Their…
Tyme Group CEO Coen Jonker TymeBank is engaged in discussions with the department of home affairs and its minister, Leon Schreiber, after the parties’ very public spat over a big hike in the fees to access a critical government database. This comes about six weeks after TymeBank warned it was considering legal action in an…
Visitors to the United States will need to pay a “visa integrity fee,” according to a provision of the Trump administration’s recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The fee applies to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas to enter, and cannot be waived. However travelers may also be able to get the fees…
The United States has announced a new $250 Visa Integrity Fee that will apply to most non-immigrant visa categories beginning in fiscal year 2025. The new surcharge will be charged in addition to existing visa application fees, significantly raising the total cost for many applicants seeking to visit, study, or work in the United States….
The decision by home affairs minister Leon Schreiber to hike the fees companies must pay for live access to the National Population Register database by more than 6 500% “does not make sense”. This is according to Marius Coetzee, CEO of Ideco Biometrics, a company that has helped some of the largest institutions in South Africa,…
Prepaid mobile subscribers will be affected by increased verification costs, says the Association of Comms and Technology. South Africa’s mobile network operator umbrella body has slammed the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for its 6 500% increase in the cost of biometric verifications. It says the move is contrary to government’s own socio-economic endeavours. This…
There are alternatives to government’s biometric checks. Sectors that depend on biometric identity verification – including financial services, mobile network operators and credit providers – are under pressure after the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) implemented a steep fee increase for access to its database. Identity verification company Ideco says these industries are well-positioned to…
Cheslyn Jacobs, TymeBank chief commercial officer. TymeBank has warned that a proposed increase in biometric verification fees, from 15c to R10, could result in the financial exclusion of its low-income clients, particularly grant recipients, from formal banking. This, after the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) yesterday rolled out its new National Population Register (NPR). This…
Home affairs minister Dr Leon Schreiber and TymeBank co-founder Coenraad Jonker. The home affairs minister and TymeBank’s co-founder are involved in a public squabble over the price of a biometric check increasing from 15c to R10. TymeBank argues that the poor will bear the brunt of the hike, as it cannot afford to absorb the…
Tyme Group CEO Coenraad Jonker Pressure is mounting on the minister of home affairs over a decision to impose huge increases in the fees for companies wanting to run checks against a national database for client verification. The move, which has already drawn fire from the telecommunications industry, has now been harshly criticised by Coen…
