South Africa digital nomad visa & residency (2026)

The National Council of Provinces passed the Immigration Amendment Bill on 17 December 2025, after the National Assembly had passed it on 11 September 2025. The bill aligns the Immigration Act with a 2017 Constitutional Court ruling by requiring that detained foreign nationals be brought before a court within 48 hours, completing the first legislative overhaul of the Immigration Act since 2011.

The Department of Home Affairs began accepting Remote Work Visa applications through South African embassies and VFS Facilitation Service centres globally from 3 March 2025, making the visa fully operational; the operative income threshold is ZAR 650,976 per annum and the visa is issued for up to 12 months, renewable to a maximum of three years.

The Department of Home Affairs published Directive 10 of 2024, setting out detailed operational implementation rules for the new Points-Based System including revised annual gross salary benchmarks, scoring for Trusted Employer Scheme status, and transition arrangements for existing visa holders.

Minister of Home Affairs Dr. Leon Schreiber gazetted the Third Amendment to the Immigration Regulations, launching a Points-Based System (minimum 100 points) governing Critical Skills and General Work Visas, and simultaneously reducing the Remote Work Visa annual income threshold from ZAR 1 million to ZAR 650,976 to broaden eligibility.

After withdrawing the procedurally flawed March 2024 gazette, the Minister re-promulgated the Second Amendment on 20 May 2024, formally establishing the Remote Work Visitor's Visa as a new species of visitor's visa under section 11(1)(b) of the Immigration Act, requiring a ZAR 1 million annual income and prohibiting local employment.

The Department of Home Affairs withdrew the 28 March 2024 gazette of the Second Amendment following criticism that it had been published one day before the public comment period closed, bypassing due process; no substantive changes were made to the content when the amendment was later re-promulgated in May 2024.

The Department published the final Second Amendment to the Immigration Regulations effective 28 March 2024 — one day before the public comment deadline — introducing the first-ever Remote Work Visitor's Visa in South African law with a ZAR 1 million income floor; the procedural irregularity led to a rapid withdrawal in April.

The Department of Home Affairs gazetted the Draft Second Amendment of the Immigration Regulations, 2014, formally proposing a new remote-working visa category and a Points-Based System for work visas; the public was invited to submit written comments by 29 March 2024.

In the 2023 State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa renewed the commitment to introduce a remote-work visa, signalling continued political intent as delays from the 2022 promise mounted and effectively setting a fresh deadline for the Department of Home Affairs.

In the 2022 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa explicitly flagged the government's intent to explore new visa categories including a remote working visa, marking the first formal political commitment to a digital nomad visa and launching a multi-year legislative process.

Amendments to the Immigration Act took full effect, renaming all temporary residence permits as visas and consolidating the thirteen temporary-residence categories; this established the legal architecture — including the visitor's visa sub-categories — within which the future digital nomad visa was later created.

The Immigration Act 13 of 2002 replaced the Aliens Control Act and built South Africa's modern immigration framework, establishing the temporary-residence visa system and permanent-residence pathways that continue to underpin all subsequent visa categories, including today's Remote Work Visa.