Dear Mr. Roos,

My wife is currently stuck in South Korea with an expired passport (expired in May). She applied for a renewal of her passport at the beginning of February and has not yet received her renewed passport.

We have been in close communication with the South African embassy in Seoul and they have been trying to help us get information from DHA. Unfortunately we have not been able to get any information from the DHA apart from stating that my wife's passport is ready for processing. We do not know what this means and how long we will still have to wait for her passport to actually be processed. We have also offered to pay for DHL fees in order to get the passport delivered ASAP, but we received no feedback from DHA about this.

We are not seeking to return to South Africa as we have secured teaching jobs in Shanghai, China with an international school there. On Monday, July 27th 2020, we received a letter of invitation from the Chinese government to apply for her visa. We also have two letters verifying employment with the international school in China. Unfortunately, she cannot apply for her Chinese visa since her passport is expired.

We are now at the point where my wife and I will need to separate as I have managed to secure a Chinese visa and need to leave Korea and go to China in order to take up employment. She will then be stuck in South Korea on her own and be at the mercy of the good graces of the South Korean and South African governments. Unfortunately, at some point my wife will likely lose her job due to being unable to take up employment in China.

So far the South Korean government have been very gracious and extended our stay here, but they have also stated that we will need to produce a renewed passport ASAP.

If there is anything that you can do to help us, it would be greatly appreciated.

We are in a total state of desperation and we are not getting feedback from DHA.

Thanks in advance,

Sean and Vicky Deetlefs