De Saude Darbandi Immigration Attorneys

25/08/2026

Can an ICT visa holder change status in South Africa?

An ICT visa is a work visa. The Immigration Act does not place ICT visa holders within the same change-of-status restriction that generally applies to visitor and medical-treatment visa holders.

In law, an ICT visa holder may therefore be entitled to apply in South Africa for a change of status or conditions and may also be able to apply for permanent residence if independently eligible.

The practical difficulty is that Home Affairs has not always applied the law correctly. Applicants must therefore decide whether to exercise their legal rights in South Africa and accept the risk of an incorrect refusal, or follow Home Affairs’ preferred approach by applying from their country of origin or ordinary residence.

Knowing that you have a legal right does not mean the process will always be easy but it does mean an unlawful decision can be challenged.

CriticalSkillsVisa HomeAffairs

25/08/2026

Visa rejected for applying “too late”

Home Affairs cannot lawfully simply ignore a properly motivated waiver and then reject your visa application because it was not submitted 60 days before your existing visa expired.

The advance-filing requirements are important but they are not necessarily an absolute bar. Regulatory requirements may be waived for good cause and the waiver should be considered before the visa application is decided.

If your application has been rejected on this basis, obtain advice quickly if possible, but you only have 10 working days to file your appeal and leaving South Africa after a rejection is received carries its own risks.

This is general information and not legal advice for any individual matter.

25/08/2026

A child’s place of birth and the status of their parents can affect whether the child must be registered as a South African citizen or obtain a visa.

If a South African citizen’s child is born abroad, the foreign birth should be registered with the South African authorities. If that has not happened and if the child travels to South Africa on a foreign passport, a late registration process will be required.

A child born in South Africa after January 2013 to permanent-resident parents is not born a South African citizen merely because the child was born here. The child’s immigration status must first be regularised with the appropriate visa before permanent residence is pursued.

Most importantly: maintain valid immigration status for the child while any citizenship, birth-registration or permanent-residence process is pending.

This is general information. The correct process depends on the child’s date and place of birth and each parent’s status.

18/08/2026

https://dsdlaw.co.za/news/south-african-immigration-update-new-eta-processing-fee/

The Minister of Home Affairs has published amended Regulations on Fees under the Immigration Act, effective from 17 August 2026. The main change is a new R500 electronic processing fee for each Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) application. Where the ordinary R425 visa fee is also payable, the t...

11/08/2026

A clarification for employers who are asking about hiring long-term staff without the right qualifications.

We get a lot of messages along these lines. An employer has had someone working for them for many years, maybe with a specific skill a South African doesn’t have or a close relationship built up over time, perhaps caring for a child with a disability or working with a particular skill set. The employer can show they’ve tried to recruit locally, through CVs received and interviews conducted, but simply hasn’t found the right match. Can they get a work visa for this person?

Unfortunately, the short answer is no.

There are only three types of work visas. General work visa, critical skills work visa, and intra-company transfer visa. The intra-company transfer doesn’t apply here, so realistically it’s general or critical skills. Both require meeting the points-based system, which means, among other things, a qualification at NQF level 7, 8 or 9, so a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate. The lower the qualification, the higher the salary requirement, around R1 million gross annual salary for a bachelor’s or around R700,000 at NQF level 9.

Some people ask about a waiver, referring to the waiver of the labour market test. Even with that waiver, you still need to meet the points-based system, unless you apply to waive both the labour market test and the points-based system. That requires very strong motivation and a decision like that sits with the Minister and cannot be appealed internally. Once it’s refused, that’s final unless you litigate, and you’d only litigate where there are genuine prospects of success.

So unless the person qualifies another way, for example as the spouse or life partner of a South African or the parent of a South African or there are truly compelling circumstances that could support a waiver, it isn’t going to be possible.

In the video I said not going to be possible. To be precise, I mean it’s very difficult and close to impossible in most cases, not an absolute bar in every scenario.

This is general information and not advice on your specific matter.

11/08/2026

A clarification on study visas for minor children.

A study visa for a minor cannot be applied for on its own. Either a parent joins the application as the principal applicant with the child applying as a dependent or if the parents aren’t applying for their own visas, a guardian is appointed in South Africa. The guardian must be a South African citizen or permanent resident or if foreign, must hold valid status themselves.

Requirements vary by embassy or VFS Global, so always check the specific list for where you’re applying. Generally you’ll need proof of the parents’ status, passport title pages, the child’s birth certificate, a letter from the parent confirming the guardian’s appointment and a letter from the guardian accepting the appointment along with proof of their own status (in additional to all other requirements).

On where the application can be made: If a foreign child is born in South Africa, the study visa can, as a general rule, be applied for here. That’s the principle, but it obviously depends on the facts of the case. If the family waits years without regularising the child’s status, Home Affairs may still require the family to go through a regularisation process before the study visa can be granted.

If the foreign child was born abroad and is currently in South Africa on a visitor’s visa, the study visa cannot be applied for here, unless the child is the dependent of a parent holding a work or business visa, in which case a change of status and conditions can be applied for in South Africa.

If the parents don’t have status here or aren’t in South Africa, the child will need to return to their country of origin or place of ordinary residence to submit the study visa application there.

Applications filed abroad are generally processed within one to three months, since missions handle far fewer applications. There are reports of some missions, particularly in parts of Africa, taking up to a year, though that isn’t the norm in our experience. Even where issues arise, engaging with the mission usually resolves them fairly quickly.

This is general information. Outcomes always depend on the specific facts of your case.

07/08/2026

The Births and Deaths Registration Act provides that when a child is born, the birth must be registered within 30 days of being born. Anything after that becomes a late registration.

This is different from amending a birth certificate. If a child already has a birth certificate (so birth is already registered) and you want to add a parent’s particulars, that’s an amendment and a DNA test is generally required to prove biological parentage. You apply to Home Affairs for a referral letter first, since they only work with their own panel of approved pathologists. You cannot go to just any pathologist. Once you have the referral, you attend the pathology appointment. Results usually take around three months on average. Once the results confirm parentage, you go back to Home Affairs, they schedule an appointment, take in the pathology results, conduct an interview and the birth certificate is then amended to insert the parent’s particulars.

Children born abroad to a South African citizen can apply for late registration of a foreign birth. Citizenship is conferred once that registration is completed.

Children born here, whether to a South African or to a foreigner, must still have their birth registered even if it’s late. If both parents are foreign, the child is born a foreigner and usually receives a handwritten birth certificate. If a parent is South African, the child is born South African and citizenship is conferred once the birth is registered.

For all late registration applications, reasons for the delay must be explained to Home Affairs.

This is general information and not advice on your specific matter.

07/08/2026

On retention, this is no longer necessary in most cases. Before the Constitutional Court judgment in the Democratic Alliance case, handed down on 6 May 2025, you needed the Minister’s prior permission before taking up a foreign nationality or you would automatically lose your South African citizenship. That section has now been declared unconstitutional. You no longer need that permission. This case didn’t open any new door to holding another citizenship, it simply confirmed that the right was always there. So retention applications are generally not needed anymore, unless Home Affairs specifically asks for one in your case.

A small correction from my video, I said 5 November as the judgment date. That was actually the hearing date. The judgment itself was handed down around 6 May 2025.

This is general information and not advice on your specific matter. If you have a retention application still pending with Home Affairs that is a different situation and we will be addressing that separately.

04/08/2026

Many South Africans are still confused about what the Constitutional Court’s citizenship judgment actually means.

For many years, South African citizens who voluntarily acquired a foreign nationality as adults (other than through marriage) without first obtaining the Minister’s written permission were regarded as having automatically lost their South African citizenship.

That is no longer the law.

The Constitutional Court confirmed that those who lost their South African citizenship in terms of that provision after 6 October 1995 are deemed never to have lost it. In other words, their South African citizenship has been restored by operation of law.

For many people, this changes very little because Home Affairs never updated their records. For others, however, it means correcting their status on the Home Affairs system before they can obtain South African identity documents or passports.

One practical issue still remains: where a person’s status needs to be verified (particularly if the applicant is over 16 years and a South African ID was not previously issued or issued with the old ID format), a determination of status may be required, which can unfortunately take many months.

Finally, and importantly, remember that the requirement for adult South African citizens to enter and leave South Africa using a South African passport is not new. It has existed in our law since around 1997.

If this applies to you or someone you know, watch the video for a simple explanation and feel free to share it with anyone who may benefit.

30/07/2026

One of the most common questions I get asked is:

“How can you represent someone if they’ve done something wrong?”

The answer is actually quite simple.

Everyone is entitled to legal advice and legal representation. A lawyer’s role is not to decide who deserves representation. Our role is to advise people on what the law says, what their rights are and, most importantly, whether there is a lawful remedy available.

At our firm, we’ve always operated on one simple principle: if there is no legal avenue available, we don’t accept the mandate.

Every week we meet people we genuinely wish we could help, but the Immigration Act doesn’t always provide a solution. In those cases, we tell them so. We would rather give honest advice than accept fees where there is no realistic legal basis to assist.

When we do accept a matter, it’s because we believe there is a lawful basis to pursue it. That doesn’t mean Home Affairs will always make the correct decision, but it does mean we believe the application or case has legal merit. If an application is wrongfully refused, we stand by our work and continue fighting for our clients through the available legal remedies.

For us, immigration law has never been about finding loopholes or helping people bypass the law. It’s about ensuring that the law is applied fairly, consistently and in accordance with the rights that every person is entitled to under our legal system.