visas

President Cyril Ramaphosa has sent a clear and uncompromising message to employers across South Africa to comply with immigration and labour laws or face the consequences.

South Africa has taken a welcome step toward easing long-standing restrictions that make it difficult for spouses of Critical Skills Work visa holders from working in the country. Excluding accompanying partners — many of whom are highly skilled in their own right – from the labour market has long been seen as undermining the country’s competitiveness in attracting scarce global talent.

Demonstrating economic merit and contribution to South Africa is set to become a central requirement in immigration policy, with proposals to assess applications for work visas, and permanent residency on criteria strongly linked to how foreign nationals contribute to the country’s economy.

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) is the bearer of good news for South Africans whose citizenship was unconstitutionally withdrawn: it has just launched the new Citizenship Reinstatement Portal, a first-of-its-kind online platform that allows affected individuals to verify and reinstate their South African citizenship through a simple digital process.

Ahead of the peak holiday season, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has issued a timely reminder encouraging all travellers to use the SARS Online Traveller Declaration System before entering or leaving South Africa, to help streamline processing at ports of entry.