Load of Questions Advice Appreciated

[BuddyBoris]

Me and my girlfriend are looking to come to Cape Town in the New Year, we have family already there and accommodation available. We are looking to stay for 12 months and intend to be financially self supporting. I have written to the South Africa High Comission in the UK to find out about visas, the home affairs section is being updated at the moment so no info there. So any visa guidance appreciated. My enquiries so far seem to indicate that as long as we can prove that we can support ourselves we should be able to stay for quite a while but I don't know how long. What I want to avoid is returning to the UK every 3 months to renew my visa. How are you expected to demonstrate your finances? Bank Statements?

Healthcare. Need to investigate jabs required before we leave but what is the state of the health service in SA. I assume that foreigners do not qualify for anything like the NHS so what is the advice? UK based medical travel insurance or private medical insurance in SA?

Banking. Need to be able to transfer money from the UK to SA. What is the best advice?

Cost of living. What is the average salary for the Cape Town resident? One of the great benefits of SA at the moment is the value of £sterling, but realistically what level of Rand income does a resident need to live an average existence in Cape Town.

Local taxes? What can I expect to have to pay?

Any help with these questions very much appreicated and if you can think of anything I have missed please feel free.

[sbergman]

Healthcare... Ours is excellent - provided that you go to a doctor and NOT a sangoma. Go someplace that looks trustworthy, if your family has been here for a while then they should know of a nice doctor. Otherwise I'll refer you to mine.

Banking... All of our banks would be able to do this type of transaction. The big banks we have here are Absa, First National Bank, Standard Bank, Nedbank, NBS. You should get in touch with them through their websites - which shouldn't be hard to find if you use a SA search engine like http://www.ananzi.co.za

Cost of living... Well that depends on what you regard as an "average existence". Look, you're definitely gonna do some travelling when you get here and I'm sure that your main reason for coming is related to tourism. I also know that in Europe and the US, young people can do and practically tour the entire continent simply by taking on a casual job for a few days and then living it up for a few days. That system doesn't really work here. Though our cost of living is low - so is the pay. AND AS A FOREIGNER YOU ARE BOUND TO BE EXPLOITED. Dont get me wrong - I'm not trying to paint a dismal picture of my country, it's just that you should have a backup plan (like the UK -> SA banking transaction you mentioned). Save some cash just in case. Spend some time on http://www.voetsek.co.uk , these are people that left SA for the UK... maybe you could meet with them and I'm sure they'll point a few things out as you need someone who's been in both countries to answer this.

Taxes... sorry, cant help. Try and send a 'contact me' from http://www.sars.gov.za

Something you forgot... dont get exploited too badly, we recently had a UK couple pay R700 for a taxi ride that should've costed R20. It's easy to avoid this kind of thing if you DONT ADOPT A GUNG-HO ATTITUDE and rely on your family to show you around for a few weeks at least.
Also, you must take advantage of our weather and jump out of an airplane.... as in 'skydive'. It's really cheap here and you get some great views if you dont pass out.