The news:
- South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has invited the public to offer feedback on proposed significant changes to the country’s immigration law by March 29, 2024.
- The document, titled “Draft Second Amendment of the Immigration Regulation, 2014,” proposes to issue digital nomad visas and introduce a point-based system for assessing work visas, among other recommendations.
- Individuals and businesses that wish to submit comments must forward them to the Department before the deadline using the provided official channels: delivered by hand to the DHA office, via mail, or through email.
After the set deadline for submission, the Department will thoroughly review the comments and potentially revise the amendments where necessary based on the comments. Afterwards, the amendments will go on to become law.
According to the proposed amendments, a Digital Nomad visa, currently unavailable in South Africa, would be available to foreign remote workers who earn at least R 1 million (~$52,575) a year, offering them an immigration pathway.
So, a remote worker who wants to live in South Africa while working as an employee of a foreign company will be eligible to receive such visas. Highly skilled individuals in the information technology (IT) field are usually whom this visa targets.
This digital nomad provision is a move by the DHA to attract highly skilled foreign nationals to help grow the Southern African economy and boost tourism and investment.
On Monday, February 12, 2024, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa noted in his weekly newsletter that the country needs more people with the necessary skills to thrive in the constantly evolving global economy.
The president stressed that specific immigration changes like the ones proposed by the Department will ensure that South Africa’s economy remains competitive even as it grows and creates more employment opportunities.
South Africa will become the fifth nation in Africa to grant visas for digital nomads if this bill becomes law, following Namibia, Cape Verde, Mauritius, and the Seychelles, where the legislation is currently in place.
