The South African Government is notoriously slow with regards to the introduction of new visa categories or amendments to the existing categories. An example of this is the Critical Skills list which was first introduced in 2014 and the first changes to this list were only made at the beginning of 2022.

So does that provide any hope that a Remote Working Visa may be introduced in South Africa? The Covid-19 pandemic has spurred many other countries around the world to provide Remote Working Visas and to benefit from the trend to remote working.

The concept of a Remote Working Visa for South Africa has been championed by the Western Cape Government and it has been lobbying the national government in this regard. It appears that they may have had some success as the introduction of a Remote Working Visa was discussed by President Ramaphosa in the State of the Nation Address on the 10^th February 2022.

Ramaphosa mentioned that the government was considering the introduction of a Remote Working Visa as part of an effort to attract skilled workers to South Africa. In addition to this he also mentioned that the government was considering the introduction of a start up visa, as well as advising that work was presently being done on the visa application process to make it more streamlined in order to reduce the present long processing time.

The proof with regards to all of his statements will be in the pudding, and lets hope that some concrete action eventuates from it.