Digital Nomad Visa and other visa changes – This time to stay
On 12 April, after having to withdraw the latest Amendment Regulations because of having ignored public comments, the Minister promised a revised version within a week. On 20 May, more than a month later, that version was published, with a few significant improvements but sadly also major uncorrected and new errors. Be that as it may – the Digital Nomad Visa is here, this time apparently for real. Read on for key changes:
1. The Digital Nomad Visa is available to persons working remotely in South Africa for foreign employers, or who otherwise derive an income from a foreign source through remote work. Their gross income must be R 1 million per annum or more. The visa will be issued for up to three years. Details (e.g. how the income can be proven when there is no fixed salary) will have to emerge in the coming weeks as the new system is tested.
2. Critical Skills Visa: Those who have been struggling to secure the required professional body membership for their skills category (such as engineers, scientists, and medical professionals), may be in for a slight relief. The Critical Skills Visas can now be issued for 12 months whilst the registration process is ongoing, and for five years once it is completed. Other onerous requirements remain, and the impact may therefore be less significant than anticipated.
3. Points-based work visa system: Replacing the current (dysfunctional) General Work Visa with a points-based system is an important change, and will hopefully make it easier for employers to recruit much-needed foreign skills and experience. Considering factors like age, qualifications, language skills, work experience, offer of employment, and salary, should allow for greater flexibility and make the system more modern and responsive to developments in the labour market.
There was some confusion as to what visa category exactly this system is supposed to replace. Although the Minister assured the public in several interviews that the change targets only the General Work Visa, and specifically its requirement of input from the Department of Employment and Labour, the wording of the final Regulations is still misleading and suggests that the points-based system applies to all work visa types. Details of the new system are still to be gazetted, and hopefully any ambiguities will be clarified then.
4. Parents of SA citizen or permanent resident children can now apply for all visas in-country, without having to be separated from their children for long periods of time. This applies even if they last entered the country as tourists or previously held a spousal work visa.
5. The Regulations still contain a number of inconsistencies and contradictions where not all changes were translated into the forms (For instance, the points-based system, the option of a Critical Skills Visa for 12 months, or the Digital Nomad Visa). Teething problems are therefore to be expected.
For individual advice and support, feel free to reach out to our immigration specialists.