After years of speculation about when the new Critical Skills List will finally come into effect it appears that this will now happen at the end of September 2021. This was confirmed during the course of a presentation by the Department of Home Affairs to the National Economic Development Council (NEDLAC) within the past month.

According to the presentation the draft new Critical Skills List had now been finalized and would be due to be gazetted by the end of September which would mean that it would come into effect at the beginning of October 2021.

At this stage the 2014 Critical Skills List is still applicable, but the final release and gazetting of the new list would be extremely helpful in order to provide certainty for those wishing to apply for Critical Skills Visas. Although the present list of Critical Skills does not differ significantly from the new draft list many people have been hesitant about whether to start the process prior to the final list being released.

Here’s to hoping that everything proceeds smoothly and that the final list is indeed released shortly.