Work visas, the points system, and what employers are liable for
South Africa changed how work visas are decided in October 2024. Applications are now scored, with a pass mark of one hundred points, and an occupation on the critical skills list gets you there on its own. For employers the stakes are higher than the paperwork: hiring someone whose visa does not permit the work is a criminal offence, and the sentence escalates with each conviction.
The points system
Since October 2024 general work and critical skills applications are assessed against published criteria, with one hundred points needed to pass. Reaching the mark through a critical skills occupation produces a critical skills visa; reaching it through other combinations produces a general work visa.
| Criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Occupation on the critical skills list | 100 |
| Qualification at doctorate or master’s level | 50 |
| Qualification at degree or honours level | 30 |
| Salary above about R976 000 a year | 50 |
| Salary between about R651 000 and R976 000 | 20 |
| More than ten years of experience | 30 |
| Five to ten years of experience | 20 |
| Job offer from a Trusted Employer | 30 |
| Proficiency in an official South African language | 10 |
A departmental directive applies the system to all applications received after it was published, so anyone working from pre-2024 advice is working from the wrong rules.
The main visa types
- Critical skills work visa. For occupations on the gazetted critical skills list. Needs written confirmation from a professional body recognised by the qualifications authority of your skills and post-qualification experience, proof of application for registration where a law requires it, and a signed employment contract. Up to five years.
- General work visa. For occupations not on the list. It requires a qualifications evaluation, employer particulars and company registration, and undertakings from the employer including responsibility for deportation costs and a duty to notify Home Affairs when the employment ends. The current checklist allows a one-year visa on proof that the qualifications evaluation is pending.
- Intra-company transfer visa. For an employee transferred from a related foreign company, on a contract of at least six months abroad, with letters from both entities and a skills transfer plan. Up to four years, and not renewable.
- Business visa. For someone investing in a business here. Requires an accountant’s certificate for a capital contribution of R5 million from outside the country, employment of at least sixty percent South African citizens or permanent residents proved within twelve months, a recommendation from the trade and industry department, and registration with SARS, the UIF, the Compensation Fund and CIPC. Issued for up to three years at a time.
- Corporate visa. For an employer to bring in a defined number of foreign workers, with the same sixty percent local staffing requirement proved at application and maintained afterwards.
What the employer must do
- Check the visa before the first day. Not just that it exists, but that it permits work, permits work for you, and is current. A critical skills visa is tied to the occupation, and a general work visa to the employer.
- Keep a copy on file with the passport page, and diarise the expiry well before it arrives.
- Give the undertakings you signed. On a general work visa the employer commits to notifying the Director-General if the employee does not comply or when the employment ends, and to the costs of deportation.
- Do not let someone work while a renewal is pending unless the receipt or extension they hold actually authorises it.
- Register the employee for everything else. A foreign national employee is still an employee: PAYE, UIF where they are not on a repatriation contract, the Compensation Fund, and a compliant contract and payslip.
The penalties
Section 49 of the Immigration Act makes it an offence to knowingly employ an illegal foreigner, or a foreigner in breach of the Act. A first conviction carries a fine or up to one year’s imprisonment, a second up to two years, and a third up to three years without the option of a fine. Failing the employer duties in the Act carries a fine or up to eighteen months.
Home Affairs publishes turnaround targets for in-country applications of roughly four weeks for critical skills and general work visas and eight weeks for business visas. Fees are collected through the visa facilitation service and change, so confirm them at the point of application rather than budgeting from an old figure.
What actually goes wrong
- Hiring on a visitor’s visa. It does not permit work, and both sides commit an offence.
- A critical skills visa used for a different job. The visa attaches to the occupation and the professional body confirmation. Moving the person into a different role can invalidate it.
- Letting the expiry pass. Renewals must be lodged well before expiry, and an overstay creates an undesirable person declaration that can bar re-entry for years.
- No professional body confirmation. The single most common critical skills refusal.
- Assuming a spouse may work. A spousal visa needs an endorsement authorising work before the person can be employed.
- Working from pre-2024 checklists. The points system and the current departmental checklists supersede a lot of what is still online.
Check a work permit before you hire, free
Our foreign worker check walks through what the visa type allows, what the employer must hold on file, and where the risk sits, so you know before the offer letter goes out rather than after an inspection.
Run the checkFrequently asked questions
What is the points system for work visas?
From October 2024 general work and critical skills applications are scored against published criteria with a pass mark of 100 points. An occupation on the critical skills list scores 100 on its own. Other points come from qualifications, 50 for a doctorate or master’s level and 30 for a degree or honours, from salary, 50 above roughly R976 000 and 20 between roughly R651 000 and R976 000, from experience, 20 for five to ten years and 30 for more than ten, from a job offer by a Trusted Employer, 30, and from proficiency in an official language, 10.
How long do work visa applications take?
Home Affairs publishes turnaround targets in working days for applications made inside South Africa: about four weeks for a critical skills visa, four weeks for a general work visa and eight weeks for a business visa. Those are targets, not guarantees, and applications made abroad go through the mission concerned.
What must an employer check before hiring a foreign national?
That the person holds a valid visa permitting them to work for you in that position. Employing an illegal foreigner, or a foreigner in breach of their visa conditions, is a criminal offence under section 49 of the Immigration Act carrying a fine or up to a year’s imprisonment for a first conviction, up to two years for a second and up to three years without the option of a fine for a third.
How does a critical skills visa differ from a general work visa?
A critical skills visa attaches to an occupation on the gazetted critical skills list and needs written confirmation from a recognised professional body of your skills and post-qualification experience, plus registration with that body where the law requires it. A general work visa is for occupations not on the list and historically required proof that the position could not be filled by a South African. Both are now scored under the points system and both may be issued for up to five years.
Do foreign employees pay UIF?
Yes, unless they are employed on a contract that requires them to be repatriated at the end of it, which is one of the statutory exclusions. PAYE and Compensation Fund obligations apply in the ordinary way.
Keep exploring
Sources: the Immigration Act 13 of 2002, section 49; the Immigration Regulations 2014 as amended, regulations 14, 18 and 20; the critical skills list gazetted in Government Gazette 47182 of 2 August 2022; the points-based criteria determined in October 2024 under Proclamation published in Government Gazette 51365 and the implementing departmental directive; Home Affairs checklists for the critical skills and general work visas and its published turnaround times. Salary bands are as published and are not adjusted here for inflation. Visa fees could not be verified from a current departmental schedule. Information, not immigration advice; complex applications are worth a registered immigration practitioner.