On December 21, 2023, the South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA) extended the temporary measures it originally implemented in September 2022, to address delays in visa, waiver and appeals application processing.
Key Information
- Visa holders who have applied for a long-term visa, a waiver or an appeal via VFS Global and the application was still pending as of November 30, 2023 are granted a further extension until June 30, 2024 to enable DHA to process the applications and applicants to collect their outcomes and submit further applications if required.
- Applicants are not allowed to engage in any activity other than what the visa conditions provide for.
- Those who wish to abandon their applications and depart from South Africa should be allowed to exit at a port of entry on or before June 30, 2024 without being declared undesirable.
- Visa holders who need to travel but are awaiting the outcome of an application should be allowed to exit and re-enter at a port of entry on or before June 30, 2024 without being declared undesirable.
- Non-visa-exempt applicants who travel out of the country with an application receipt are required to apply for a port of entry visa to allow re-entry.
- All appeal applicants are required to produce a copy of the rejection letter with a receipt for the appeal application on departure and re-entry in to South Africa.
Important: Holders of short-term visas which were still valid up to and including November 30, 2023 who have applied for a renewal of the visa but have not received their visa renewal outcome by February 24, 2024 must make the necessary arrangements to depart from South Africa on or before February 29, 2024 to avoid being declared undesirable.
Erickson Insights
Erickson Immigration Group will continue to monitor developments and share updates as more news is available. Please contact your employer or EIG attorney if you have questions about anything we’re reporting above or case-specific questions.