The Department of Home Affairs has committed to finalising the implementation of new visa types in June of this year, with the State Law Advisor approval process already underway.
In its annual performance plan for 2023/24, published in April, the department made it clear that the groundwork for new visas was being laid.
In the plan, Home Affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that the department is currently exploring new visa categories, including start-up visas and remote working visas.
The minister has long responded to inquiries about these visas by saying that the current regulatory framework to introduce them does not exist, and had indicated the department had no plans in place to change this.
However, these visas, and a wider push to draw skilled labour to South Africa, have been key points in president Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) for the last two years.
“A comprehensive report on the review of the work visa system was recently handed over to the President by the Operation Vulindlela Team, lead by former Director-General of Home Affairs, Mavuso Msimang,” it said.
“The report makes recommendations with regards to the possibility of new visa categories that could enable economic growth.”
Home Affairs has drafted and implementation plan for the introduction of these visas, as recommended by the report.
The department has now confirmed that it intends to have the specific requirements for remote work visas and start-up visas detailed in three months’ time, setting a target for the end of June.
To accomplish this, the department will have to amend regulations 11 and 14 of the Immigration Regulations, it said. This is also set against a three-month timeframe.
A consultation document (green paper) is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of the financial year (end June), with a whitepaper expected to be submitted to cabinet by the end of the fourth quarter (April 2024).
e-Visas
In the meantime, the DHA said it will also continue rolling out an e-Visa system, which will place technology at the centre of operations by making it easy and secure to enter and depart South Africa.
According to the department, the e-Visa system has been in place for 14 countries, including Kenya, Cameroon, Iran, Egypt, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, DRC, Mexico, India, China, Nigeria and Uganda, for nationals that enter via OR Tambo International airport.
It said that up to the end of March 2023, a total of 12,377 visa applications have been processed on this platform.
The department has run into some challenges, it said, particularly with slow network speeds which resulted in backlogs. However, the establishment of an e-Visa hub has assisted in clearing up applications.
Following a series of enhancements on the system, the department said it is now planning to roll out the e-Visa platform to 20 more non-visa-exempt countries.
These new countries include:
- Albania
- Algeria
- Belarus
- Bulgaria
- Cuba
- Comoros
- Congo
- Croatia
- Ghana
- Guinea
- Indonesia
- Ivory Coast
- Lithuania
- Liberia
- Mali
- Morocco
- Niger
- Romania
- Senegal
- Slovak Republic
South Africa is reworking its visa regime in a bid to draw critical skills to the country. However, despite its best efforts, Home Affairs has been hit with multiple issues creating backlogs in visa processing which have made it difficult for companies to do so.
In March, the department announced that it would extend the validity of some standing visas while it tries to process over 62,700 applications and waivers that have backed up.
To put the extent of the backlog in context, the department aimed to have most critical skills visas processed within four weeks of application in 2022, but has estimated that it only managed to process 20% of these applications in that time.
This is down from 57% in 2021. The DHA has now set a lofty goal of having 90% of these visas processed in 2023 – however it anticipates only being able to clear the current backlog some time in 2024, so this is looking unattainable.
Read: New visas planned for South Africa
Artmotion S.Africa
