New regulations make it easier for foreigners to work in SA

Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the remote work visa is for people who are employed in other countries but want to perform that work remotely while staying in South Africa. File photo.
Image: Trevor Samson

Amendments to immigration regulations are important to make it easier for foreigners to obtain visas for tourism, business and work, and this will in turn promote investment in South Africa, said home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Tuesday.

He made this remark during a media briefing in which he outlined proposed amendments to the regulations.

President Cyril Ramaphosa had in 2022 announced the country would be reviewing its visa regime to make this possible. Ramaphosa appointed Mavuso Msimang, a former director-general in the department of home affairs, to lead an operation aimed at reviewing the work visa system.

Motsoaledi said Msimang’s report made a number of recommendations and on February 8 the department published draft immigration regulations for public comment with a closing date of March 29.

Motsoaledi said the regulations dealt with the introduction of the remote work visa, the introduction of the Trusted Employer Scheme, the introduction of the point-based system for general work visas and the frequent updating of the critical skills list — which was previously updated only every four years.

Motsoaledi said the remote work visa is for people who are employed in other countries but want to perform that work remotely while staying in South Africa.

“These will be people in IT, auditing, finance and any other job which allows you to work remotely. But the catch here is that none of them must earn an equivalent of less than R1m. The offer to them is that they do not have to pay tax for employment of six months.”

Motsoaledi said the introduction of the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES) for qualifying companies was a means to provide a flexible pathway for employers to obtain work visas expeditiously in line with best practices.

“In this, the responsibility of collecting documents locally and globally is given to the prospective employer with the proviso that when a random check is done an employer will not be found to have committed misrepresentation.”

Motsoaledi said this would enable the visa to be finalised within 20 days whereas before the scheme it was eight weeks.

“In other words, you are running your own game. The speed with which you will get people from other countries depends on how fast you collect that information to bring to home affairs.”

The TES became active from March 1. Out of the 108 companies that applied, 70 were successful and are now part of the scheme.

Motsoaledi said the criteria for participating in the TES include that the company must make an investment of R100m in the country and must have 100 or more employees, 60% of whom are South Africans. Priority is given to companies in the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Motsoaledi said previously that the frequency of gazetting changes to the critical skills list demanded by the Immigration Act was four years.

“The new thing in the amended regulations is that we have changed the frequency from four years to when it is necessary or when the need arises.”

He said the list was updated twice in 2023. The first was in February with reference to doctors, and the second was in September regarding veterinary services.