25 Jun Expected Turnaround Time for Home Affairs

The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) offers a variety of services to the citizens of South Africa, as well as visitors who wish to study, work, visit, or stay in South Africa.

In an effort to ensure a smoother entry into South Africa, the Department of Home Affairs has implemented measures to improve its visa processing time. The government has acknowledged the importance of reducing the time visa applications take by prioritising better and more efficient processing systems.

Improving Processing Times

To address the prolonged turnaround time and reduce the backlog, DHA has focused its resources mainly on visa processing. This includes hiring new and qualified staff to handle the influx of applications and streamlining the processing of applications without compromising the programme’s integrity. These changes have already caused a reduction in visa applications.

Improved Visa Application Turnaround

Visa processing times have already seen improvement across most visa programmes, especially across temporary visa applications.

There are a large number of older visa applications as well as newer applications in some visa programmes. The focus has been to finalise the older applications before the newer applications. This has impacted the processing times of the newer applications, making it longer, but it has also reduced the backlog.

Median Processing Times For Key Programmes

Visa processing times vary depending on the category. In some cases, visa applications require a longer time to be processed and finalised.

Critical Skills Visa

This visa enables workers with the skills South Africa needs to live and work permanently anywhere in South Africa. This visa falls under the category “Skilled (permanent).” Due to the backlog, the processing time for the critical skills visa application is between 2 and 5 months. The focus of the Department of Home Affairs is to reduce the processing time for this visa. Because of the new systems in place to streamline visa applications, the processing time may vary from month to month.

Temporary Resident Visa

A temporary resident visa is for those who wish to stay in the country for longer than three months. The minimum processing time for the temporary resident visa is meant to be between 8 and 10 weeks. However, there have been cases where applications have taken much longer to process. If applicants wish to extend their visa, it is advised to do so at least 60 days before the visa expires. There are various temporary visa categories to apply for, from studying to spousal visas.

Passport Processing

The processing time for South African passports is 7–21 working days. Even though there is a backlog, passports are usually available for collection in 7 working days. Applicants can track the progress of their application on the Department of Home Affairs website or by sending an SMS with the letter P followed by your identity document number to 32552.

A South African passport is valid for 10 years. Passports are not renewable. Once the passport expires, a new passport application will need to be lodged.

The Department of Home Affairs is making the necessary effort to enhance visa and passport application processing times for a more efficient and investor-friendly environment.

At June Luna Immigration Attorneys, we are committed to guiding individuals through the often complicated aspects of the South African visa process. For more information contact us today.