Gigaba announces changes to visa regulations
Foreign national minors travelling to South Africa will no longer need to produce an unabridged birth certificate as a requirement for entry to the country.
A raft of changes to the country's visa regulations have been announced.
Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba's briefed the media in Cape Town on the amendments that form part of President Cyril Ramaphosa's economic stimulus package announced on Friday.
Gigaba says the requirement for unabridged birth certificates for South African children will fall away but not immediately.
The key changes will be that all foreign national travelling minors are to carry documentation proving parental consent for the travelling minor to travel, we will rather strongly recommend that travellers carry this documentation #VisaAmendments pic.twitter.com/o9IVP4ZZmS
— HomeAffairsSA (@HomeAffairsSA) September 25, 2018
He says they want to simplify the rules for foreign minors coming into the country.
"Rather than requiring all travelling minors who are foreign nationals to carry documentation proving parental consent, and certificates of births - we would rather that the parents of these minors carry the documentation. Our immigration officers will only insist on documentation by exception - that's in high-risk situations," he said.
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Gigaba says they've also revised the requirements for highly skilled foreign workers.
"We have implemented long-term, multiple entry visas for frequent travellers namely - a three-year multiple entry visa for frequent trusted travellers to South Africa and a ten-year multiple entry visa for business people and in academics which will also assist especially for academic and research purposes," he said.