Critical Skills

As of the 2022 Census, South Africa is home to over 2.4 million foreign-born residents, among them around 7,400 individuals originally from the United States. While Americans make up a small share of the expatriate population, signs indicate a growing interest in making South Africa a long-term home.

On 29 May 2025, the Department of Employment and Labour published South Africa’s White Paper on the National Labour Migration Policy. The document outlines government’s official approach to managing cross-border labour mobility and sets the framework for how foreign skills will be accessed in the future.

Almost 80% of multinational and large corporations in South Africa experience an ongoing struggle to recruit critically skilled individuals, highlighting the severity of the talent shortage and its impact on business development, says Marisa Jacobs, Managing Director at the immigration specialist Xpatweb.

South Africa risks shutting the door to sought-after global professionals by not allowing direct employment access to their accompanying partners or spouses.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs presented a series of sweeping enhancements to its Trusted Employer Scheme (TES), a move set to dramatically modernise the country’s corporate immigration landscape.