Foreign nationals in SA urged to keep abreast of latest visa concessions

Foreigners residing within South Africa are being urged to keep their eye on the latest visa concessions to ensure they do not find themselves on the wrong side of the law. Zahida Ebrahim, the Director of Immigration and Dispute Resolution Executive at ENS Africa informed the Business Hour team regarding some of those visa concessions which now apply to foreigners in South Africa. According to Ebrahim a foreigner who was inside South Africa during the national state of disaster and had entered South Africa since 15 February 2020 and holds a visa which was issued for a period of less than 90 days which expired during the national state of disaster will benefit from the automatic extension of their visa to 30 June 2021. This extension of the validity of visas does not apply to visas issued for more than 90 days up to three years, such as study, treaty, business, medical treatments, general work, critical skills, work, retired persons and exchange visas which expired during the national state disasters. Holders of such must apply for new visas on or before 31 July 2021.