One of the hidden paradoxes of Brexit is that it is likely to stimulate South African emigration to the UK. JP Breytenbach of SA/UK legal emigration specialists Breytenbachs, reckons young skilled South Africans – and retirees with independent means – are going to be prime targets in the run-up to the UK actually closing its doors to automatic emigration from the European Union. We met on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral to talk about the way potential South African emigrants have reacted to Brexit, the recent municipal elections and the student unrest. As ever, the SA-born, UK-schooled lawyer pulled no punches when offering insights on the real emigration story. – Alec Hogg Â
JP Breytenbach, last time we spoke was in April, before Brexit and SA’s Municipal elections. Those events have an impact on demand by South Africans emigrating to the UK?
We’ve seen interesting results. With the Brexit issue looming a lot of people weren’t of course sure what was going to happen. I think the British government was caught off-guard a bit and they’re scrambling to catch up. It now seems inevitable that the UK will leave the European Union, at least in some shape or form. Of course UK immigration law and policy has to catch up incredibly quickly to negate some of the very negative effects that this could lead to. They will have to change the whole immigration system otherwise the economy’s going to go down very quickly. As far as South Africa is concerned, the result of the municipal elections caught us by surprise. But we’ve been busier than ever with enquiries as opposed to people wanting to stay in South Africa, which is what one would have expected.
So though the more competitive politics has arrived in South Africa, there are still people who want to find a future outside.
There is. I think there always will be. There are still people of course going into South Africa as well, which is positive for the country. Even though the Democratic Alliance won many more municipalities than a lot of people expected, there have been many other things that have caused concern. Of course, most recently the student protests about fees, (Finance Minister) Pravin Gordhan, and that kind of stuff that has been happening. The warm glow of the municipal election results have faded much quicker than we thought.
A week is a long, long time in South African politics. If people are still considering finding a new home in the UK, the area where you specialise, what questions should be asking themselves?Â
I think one should always examine your motives before you emigrate. Be rational about it, don’t just act on a knee-jerk reflex. The majority of our clients don’t approach us because they’ve decided overnight they want to emigrate, to move abroad. A lot of our clients have some form of history with the United Kingdom. It’s an excellent place for a lot of South Africans to come to because they’re it’s similar to South Africa in so many ways.
A lot of cultural similarities, pretty much the same time zone, legal system very similar, tax system different but easily understandable and of course a good support network of other South Africans that could assist them in business.
There’s something like a million South African-born people in the UK?
Easily yes. Very much so.
So before someone in SA decides to join them, best to examine if your motives are rational. Then what?
Then one has to look at one’s options. I think if you’ve decided to make the leap, you should get a plan of action that would actually work. It’s incredibly important not to shoot in the dark, so to speak – plan the work, and work the plan. That’s of course where we would come in or companies like us with proper experience, qualifications to give immigration advice. We will be able to tell it to our clients straight, whether or not they will qualify for a visa and what their prospective future in the UK immigration-wise would look like.
You guys are lawyers – last time we spoke in April, five lawyers in London, four in Cape Town. Have you expanded your team?
We have actually. We have a UK barrister now and we have an excellent Italian solicitor with a doctorate in European law as well, to a large extent to counter any potential negative effect of the whole Brexit issue on European migrants in the UK. Of course no one knows exactly what’s going to happen yet, but when the fireworks start we’ll be as prepared as anybody to assist our clients.
There a lot of South Africans in the UK on EU passports?
Yes. There have traditionally always been a lot of Portuguese citizens in South Africa. A lot of those have become our clients through the years having met and married a South African spouse and then come across with their children. German, Dutch as well of course. And there are lots of South Africans who came to the UK on a two-year holiday visa and then met a European husband or wife and then stayed in the UK. If that husband or wife now has to leave, then they and their children have to leave as well and their children – and they might have been here for 10, 15 years. So we need to be able to protect their position once we know what’s going to happen.
There is an upside to Brexit for South Africans. As we discussed in April, because of the EU relationship with the UK, they’ve been a little harder on accepting non-EU citizens. With new laws or after Brexit, perhaps South Africans would find it easier to get into this country?
Yes, if you look at UK immigration law historically, Commonwealth citizens always had it easiest and then the rest of the world. Of course, Europeans have it easiest at this point in time, even easier than Commonwealth citizens. We’ve already seen the impact of the proposed legislation on European citizens and of course UK businesses who rely on European citizens. A lot of UK businesses employ European citizens either because it’s slightly cheaper labour or because they can get the expertise they want from European citizens. Therefore, they don’t have to employ Commonwealth or non-Commonwealth citizens, it’s just easier for them.
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What we are seeing already is a trend where the large UK businesses can’t recruit the European talent they originally would have because those European citizens are concerned with what’s going to happen to them. There’s no point, say, if you have a successful career in France as a chartered financial analyst to now come to the UK with your wife and kids because in a year’s time you might be kicked out. That would also lead to an obviously disastrous effect for that business then relying on you. So businesses are reverting back to trying to employ non-EU citizens on work permits. It’s actually more of a security for them now than anything else.
What about entrepreneurs? We have seen the Americans trying to get South African entrepreneurs to go there. Is there any kind of incentive from the UK?
The UK is now more than ever is looking for foreign direct investment. We are doing a lot of work for corporate clients who want to start businesses or send representatives of their businesses to the UK to open branch offices or subsidiaries to hedge against what a lot of people feel is the inevitable fall of the Rand. Of course, the Pound’s not that strong at this point in time, but everybody feels that will correct in time.
It’s relatively straightforward, depending on the type and size of business to actually come and open up a branch or subsidiary in the UK. There’s only an upside for the UK. In terms of entrepreneurs, we have many South African clients pursuing that route because the £200 000 they need is a lot less Rands than it was a while ago and what it might be in a years’ time.
So that’s the number, £200 000?
ÂŁ200 000 – yes. You can do anything except invest in property effectively, as an entrepreneur. As a sole representative you can come represent any business. We are at the moment acting for many companies from one that sells bathroom accessories, to a hedge fund that is going to open up offices in the UK.
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What do you suggest to them?
I suggest go for it. I think South African companies don’t have to stand back for anybody. You know, South Africans have amazing skill sets and are generally very successful in my experience. It makes a lot of sense for companies who can have a back office or a support office in South Africa with salespeople in the UK. We have quite a few IT-related companies which do that kind of stuff where they support their UK business, remotely from South Africa and they’ve only got a sales staff in the UK. Of course, they bill in Pounds and keep the money in the UK or whatever they wish to do.
I think South Africans have always been quite bold and brave and I think we should continue to be like that. But get the right advice, plan things very carefully because at the same time as well as there being excellent opportunities it’s also something that can be very expensive if you make a mistake. You’ve got to really get the right tax advice, immigration advice, and business advice generally.
So don’t just stick someone on a plane and say, “Come, and build our business here”. Do the planning first?
Very much so. We’ve seen a direct correlation between the companies who’ve planned very carefully and the success they’ve achieved and those companies which just went for it without a real distinct plan and goals in place.
We chatted earlier on the student unrest in South Africa. Are you seeing more demand for finding a way to educate kids offshore?
Yes, since last year actually we started to see more and more people, either sending their children to UK universities or planning to do so over the next couple of years. UK education is world-renowned, universities here are excellent. In comparison to the US and some other countries it’s affordable, and the students who come to the UK seem to be very happy. Edinburgh has traditionally had many South African students for one reason or another. It’s certainly a trend that we see increasing, definitely.
How does a student get accepted in the first place; are there particular visas that you need?
Yes, any clients with direct questions can always contact us by email, we’d be happy to help out. It’s quite involved, but yes, in short you need to be accepted by a UK university or get a sponsor’s licence. All the good universities have them. The UK government rely on foreign students to a large extent to subsidise domestic students. Even though now that the UK government doesn’t really help domestic students as much, the difference in course fees would be for local students, say ÂŁ9 000 and for a foreign student ÂŁ12 000/13 000, so it’s not that big a difference.
Once you’re accepted you apply for what’s called a Tier 4 student visa and generally speaking your folks, if you’re an 18-year old, would be the ones standing surety for you. They have to have X amount of money in their bank account, depending on what it is you will be studying. There are a few bits and bobs, but yes, it’s a process that we can assist with and we tend to get all of those visas applications issued.
Is there an exchange control issue from a South African perspective?
Not now with the amount of money involved to educate your children. It’s relatively straight forward. There’s also an added benefit that the UK government wants to keep foreign students in the UK once they’ve successfully completed their studies. I think they’ve realised that if you do well in your undergraduate studies, instead of you going back home wherever you originally came from or going onto Canada or US or other countries like that, they want to keep you as talent. So there are various programmes in place once you’ve graduated, to stay in the UK. That makes it a lot easier than if you were to be a new entrant coming to the UK in the first instance.
Many South Africans came to the UK in years gone by on the two-year working holiday and they stayed. Is there any chance that would be resuscitated? Also is it likely South Africans will able to come to the UK without a visa some time in future?
We don’t see why the UK government would change back to where South Africans never used to have a visa. They make a few bob out of it every time they process a visa – that they charge at cost apparently. I don’t think that’s going to change. But what will have to change, depending on how they deal with the whole Brexit issue, would be the amount of categories open to foreigners to come to the UK. The two year working holiday was very successful for the British government in many ways. It was replaced by the Youth Mobility Scheme which South Africa effectively opted out of. The South African government didn’t like the fact that so many South African youngsters were leaving and are not coming back.
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How did the Youth Mobility scheme work?
Effectively it was a two-year working holiday. If you are a Commonwealth citizen wanting to go to the UK, you can do so for two years and you could have worked during that time. There was a stage when you could work for a year, you could travel for a year and so forth. That was replaced by the Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa, as they called it, but they closed it for South Africans. So if you’re an Australian or even a Japanese citizen, for example, you can still do the equivalent of the two-year working holiday. But South Africans at this point in time can’t. Now what those South Africans traditionally would have done would’ve been young people doing bar jobs or working at Starbucks or whatever. The majority of those jobs were filled by former Eastern European country citizens when they joined the EU, the so-called Succession State nationals or A8 states (Czech, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia).
With Brexit looming, if they can’t come in here to do those jobs, there aren’t enough UK citizens to do them or who would want to do them. So the UK is going to have to make a plan. So yes, the two-year working holiday or the equivalent could very well be opened up for South Africans again. More likely, however, we’ll see the first type of categories opened, something like the Highly Skilled Migrant Permit Programme, where highly qualified, high earner young folk, especially professionals, would be able to come to the UK. Because those would be the guys and girls who would be filling holes that’ll be made by European citizens leaving, especially in the City of London, where they’d rely on so much on foreign talent and also in the NHS, where they rely on foreign doctors so much.
We believe also maybe something like a retired person of independent means where traditionally if you could show you had passive income of £21 000 a year you could come and live in the UK and after five years, get settled status and British citizenship. Because that was a win-win for the UK government. You didn’t need any recourse to public funds, but you had to spend your money in the UK. So there’ll be more and more categories like that which we believe will have to open up.
So paradoxically, Brexit might favour of those South Africans who wanted to go and live in the northern hemisphere and on a day like today when the sun is shining, London’s not too bad a place to be….
No, it’s actually a wonderful place to be. It is a beautiful day specifically today, we’ve been blessed. I think one thing that is very important to note with Brexit, potentially those clients of ours who originally would have been able to come in because they had European links might not be able to do so. We advise our clients in the UK who are EU citizens to get their permanent residency as soon as they can or their British citizenship. And  our clients abroad who want to make that move, if Europeans, to make that move as soon as they can before that option would be taken away from them.
