Major immigration law changes for South Africa

South Africa’s Home Affairs is digitising and streamlining immigration processing, with 20,000 waivers cleared in two months and further measures being implemented to reduce visa backlogs.

Until recently, Department of Home Affairs (DHA) offices were rooms stacked to the roof with files and paperwork related to waiver and appeal applications, all awaiting adjudication.

This is no longer the case, said the Department’s Acting Deputy Director-General for immigration services, Yusuf Simons, who spoke during an Xpatweb Global Mobility Conference in Johannesburg.

Previously, waiver applications entailed a completely manual process, which resulted in plenty of paperwork and delays.

In 2025, the Department introduced a web-based waiver system where all outstanding applications were uploaded, streamlining the process.

The Minister of Home Affairs also assigned officials to handle these waivers. This allowed applications to be processed more efficiently and timeously.

These changes form part of a broader programme of immigration reforms implemented over the past two years.

The reforms are aimed at improving processing times, reducing backlogs and making the application process more predictable.

Xpatweb Managing Director Marisa Jacobs said these are encouraging milestones. However, this does not mean that all of the Department of Home Affairs problems have been resolved.

Multinationals and large corporations continue to experience disruption and uncertainty due to delays in finalising appeals against visa rejections and waiver applications.

During a panel discussion with Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber and Simons at the Global Mobility Conference, Jacobs noted that long turnaround times remain a big struggle for business.

Streamlining the waiver process

A waiver allows the Minister of Home Affairs to waive certain prescribed requirements in the Immigration Regulations. This enables applicants to apply for a particular visa category even if they do not meet all conditions.

The department implemented several practical solutions to deal with the volume of waiver applications. During the conference, Simons explained one such example.

In the case of waivers involving asylum seekers, a court ruled that where an asylum seeker applies for a mainstream visa, the Department must allow the application without requiring the person to produce a passport.

“As the case had already been decided by the courts, we realised that similar cases do not then still have to go to the Minister for a decision.”

“Bringing these matters to a lower delegation had resulted in approximately 20,000 such waivers finalised within two months. The process is now flowing.”

The position differs for appeals against rejected visa applications, although the Department has also introduced practical measures to improve turnaround times.

The Immigration Act provides for two levels of appeal. A rejected visa or permit application may initially be appealed under section 8(4), with the appeal reviewed by the Director-General.

If the Director-General upholds the original decision, the applicant may submit a further appeal in terms of section 8(6), which is reviewed by the Minister.

Simons said fast-tracking the processing of some 300,000 visas stuck in the historic backlog stretching back a decade led to some adjudication errors.

These have subsequently been appealed. Some appeals are also “frivolous”, which makes the decisions take longer.

The Department cannot delegate section 8(6) appeals to lower-level officials because the Minister’s role is prescribed by the Immigration Act.

This means that the focus must be on improving the processes around these appeals and accelerating their consideration.

The Department has been tracking the process daily, and during July, they met the processing target for Temporary Residence 8(6) and Temporary Residence 8(4) matters.

More bottlenecks being removed

The Department of Home Affairs has made strides to eradicate the historic backlog it faced two years ago.

However, during the conference, Schreiber acknowledged that overdue applications have begun to accumulate again, including appeals against rejected applications, though at a much smaller scale.

Simons explained that some applications contributing to the buildup had been awaiting verification of medical reports. However, these applications can now proceed.

This comes after the waiver, granted in July 2026, of the requirement for applicants for temporary residence visas and permanent residence permits to submit a medical report with their applications.

The requirement had long been regarded as a costly and onerous administrative hurdle. This waiver builds on earlier steps to simplify immigration requirements.

These include the waiver of the radiological report and relief granted for the requirement to provide police clearance certificates.

Previously, police clearance certificates were required from all countries where the applicant had resided for 12 months or longer after turning 18.

It is now required only in countries where the applicant has resided for 12 months or longer during the five years immediately preceding the date of application.

These measures form part of the department’s continued efforts to remove unnecessary administrative bottlenecks and keep applications moving through the system.