The saga of South Africa’s visa backlog is never ending. Each time the Department of Home Affairs appears before Parliament it states that is it making progress with the visa backlog, but yet always reports higher number of visas in the backlog process. At this stage many applicants have now been waiting for in excess of 2 years to have their applications processed. The one ray of hope is that a new Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, has been announced, and he has committed to ensuring that the backlog is addressed.

DHA has been managing the backlog by issuing a series of directives that allow applicants that have submitted visa applications to travel outside South Africa without being declared undesirable on their departure despite the fact that their existing visas have expired. This directive has now been extended until the 31^st December 2024.

The directive also states that short term (tourist) visa holders that have submitted extension applications may stay in South Africa while their applications are being processed but should not stay longer than 90 days beyond the expiry date of their present visas.

The most notable feature of the latest extension which was announced on the 4^th July 2024 is the tone of the statement. The tone clearly illustrates that the visa backlog is not desirable and that it must be fixed as soon as possible. The Minister notes that the visa system must be fixed in order to ensure that South Africa is an attractive destination for foreign investment, tourism and job creation. This is a welcome change from the attitude of the previous Minister.