Last night, in his ultimate wisdom and without any further explanation, Home Affairs Minister Motsoaledi amended the existing Directions issued in terms of Regulation 4(8) made under s27(2) of the Disaster Management Act. The notice was gazetted and regulates all Visa to South Africa issued and expired or about to expire.
As per the 4th Amendment issued earlier this year (31 July 2020) those Visas remain valid until 31 October 2020, but under the new amendment, this validity will be extended now until 31 January 2021.
The extension means, that Visas may expiring, or Visas which that have already expired during Lockdown, remain valid. If you are leaving the Republic with an expired visa, no penalties will be imposed and the departing Visa-holder will not be declared undesirable even without filing a Good Cause Letter (Form 20).
This goes hand in hand with the reopening of the borders and the three major airports in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, which resumes in and outbound travel and also extends in point 6 of the Notice, the reopening of Immigration and Visa Services for all Visa through VfS and the Department of Home Affairs.
New applications as well as extensions or changes of conditions can now be applied for again and we invite our clients to contact their closest Into SA office for further details.