Stricter rules for the acquisition of South African citizenship have been proposed in a draft revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. The draft was published on Friday in the Government Gazette by home affairs minister Leon Schreiber for public comment. It revises the White Paper, which was approved in April 2024.
A new merit-based approach to the granting of citizenship is proposed as opposed to basing qualification solely on the number of years a foreigner has lived in South Africa. A points-based system will be applied for economic pathways to citizenship. “This new system will operate in parallel to the existing principle that a child with at least one parent who is a South African citizen at the time of birth automatically becomes a citizen, while a child born to non-South African parents [will] have to apply for naturalisation,” home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said in a statement.
An annual window period for the submission of citizenship applications will be introduced to prevent backlogs, and a Citizenship Advisory Panel will consider them. The priorities of the government of national unity (GNU), the visa review undertaken through Operation Vulindlela, and the department of home affairs’ digital transformation agenda had all been incorporated into the revised version of the White Paper, he said. The document says there is a need to review the current visas under the Immigration Act.
Read Full Article on Business Day
[paywall]
Visas such as the relatives visa, corporate visa and intra-company visa will be abolished. Additional limited-duration permanent residence visas linked to minimum investment should be introduced as well as tourist e-visas and remote work visas. “The introduction of a limited-duration permanent residence visa with minimum investment will add impetus to the economic stimulus,” the document says.
Reforms to the immigration system include the introduction of new visa categories for remote work, start-ups, skilled workers (which combines the existing critical skills and general work visas into one category), sports and culture, and the replacement of corporate visas with sectoral work visas for specific industries. It also introduces a new, merit-based points-based system for certain visas and permanent residency and supports the rollout of the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to record biometrics for every foreigner in South Africa. With regard to refugees, the “First Safe Country Principle” is refined. This principle states that asylum seekers who have been granted refugee status or lawful protection in another country, or who pass through safe third countries to reach South Africa, are ineligible for asylum in South Africa.
[/paywall]
