On September 23, 2025, the Department of Home Affairs issued an extension of its temporary concession granted to foreign nationals affected by delays in the processing of applications for visa waivers and visa appeals. The concession is now extended until March 26, 2026.
However, the department states that the backlog in visa and permit processing has been eradicated, so it has not extended the previous concession for pending visa applications.
The previous temporary concession was published on March 28, 2025 and extended the validity of current visas and visa waivers until September 30, 2025.
The following measure apply under the newly extended concession.
Pending visa waiver applications
- Visa holders, who have applied for a waiver and whose waiver application is still pending as of September 23, 2025 are granted a further temporary extension until March 31, 2026, to enable the Department to process the applications, as well as to allow for applicants to collect their outcomes and submit applications for the appropriate visas.
- Those applicants who wish to abandon their waiver applications and depart from South Africa should be allowed to depart before or on September 30, 2025, without being declared undesirable.
- A visa holder who needs to travel but is awaiting the outcome of a waiver application should be allowed to depart and re-enter the country at a port of entry up to and including March 31, 2025 without being declared undesirable. However, non-visa exempt applicants who travel out of the country with a waiver application receipt are required to apply for a port of entry visa, which would allow them re-entry.
Pending visa or permanent residence appeal applications
- Visa holders who have appealed a negative decision on an application for a long-term visa, who have appealed a negative decision on a permanent residence application, are granted a temporary extension of their current visa status until March 31, 2026. Applicants are not allowed to engage in any activity other than what the visa conditions provide for.
- Appeal applicants who need to travel but are awaiting the outcome of an appeal application for a long-term visa should be allowed to depart from the country and re-enter up to and including March 31, 2026, without being declared undesirable
- All appeal applicants are required to produce a copy of the rejection letter, together with a receipt and/or confirmation indicating that such a person has submitted an appeal application, on departure from and re-entry into the country. Non-visa exempt appeal applicants who travel out of the country with an appeal application receipt and/or confirmation, are required to apply for a port of entry visa, which would allow them re-entry.
The above temporary measures will apply only to those foreigners who have been legally admitted into South Africa. This concession is also only applicable to applicants who have submitted an application via VFS Global and who can produce a verifiable receipt for such application against the VFS Global tracking system.
Any other person from the categories not listed in this Directive who might not have received his/her outcome and the application was made before March 7, 2024 and remains pending is advised to urgently inquire with the Home Affairs Contact Centre.
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