By Kagiso Bonoko
In recent months, South Africa has introduced a number of reforms to its strict VISA regime that include the temporary concession for certain VISA and waiver applications for students, skilled workers, and tourists; the Remote Work Visitor VISA; and the new Points-Based System for Work VISAs, which is a major shift to the nation’s work permit regulations to attract more professionals to its economy and to grow tourism numbers to the country.
Under the revised rules published by the Department of Home Affairs in the official Government Gazette, a new points-based system will be introduced to allocate work VISAs. The system will be faster and easier to navigate than its predecessor, will favour those who have critical or scarce skills, a job offers and can speak at least one of the country’s official languages.
These reforms are set to overhaul South Africa’s VISA regime to attract skills and investment while growing the tourism sector. The remote work visitor VISA aims to attract talent and investment to the country’s tourism sector. It also seeks to lure highly paid individuals who are employed abroad to spend their money in South Africa, dine at South African restaurants, and buy South African goods and services.
The initial focus is to rapidly grow the tourists from China and India market, to remove some of the key obstacles standing in the way of South Africa becoming a favoured tourism destination. This was in response to industry consultations highlighting VISA inefficiencies as a barrier to tourism growth, which means that red tape will be removed to improve efficiency for tourists from non-VISA-exempt countries.
Recent developments, include the discussions to grant VISA-free access to the country for Ukrainian holders of diplomatic, official, and service passports.
The revision of immigration and migration policies has never become more pressing than now due to increased movements into and around the country in the past 30 years, since the birth of South Africa’s democracy.
The Department of Home Affairs is steadily moving towards a fully digital system for VISA applications, and with the new Points-Based System for Work VISAs, this will reduce corruption, especially fraudulent documentation, and improve inefficiency by streamlining the application process.
Home Affairs has made significant strides toward modernising its systems, with the new regulations being lauded pivotal in positioning South Africa as a leading continental destination for both investment and tourism.
All these reforms are a step in the right direction for South Africa and will create thousands of new jobs.
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