Cape Town Visas Guide
This section covers the various visas required for visiting, residing, working and studying in South Africa. Applications for visas of this sort need to be made from your country of origin, at the offices of the nearest South African representative, be that a consulate, embassy or other form of foreign relations department (See ‘Consulates Abroad’). Note that the application forms for the various visas change frequently and unpredictably. As such, it’s recommended that you visit your nearest South African embassy, or contact the South African department of home affairs, before attempting to fill out any potentially outdated forms found online.
However, if you are merely visiting South Africa for a short period, you may not need a visa. If you’re a citizen of any of the countries, territories and organizations listed below, you’re exempt from visa control. This means that, provided you have a national passport, you won’t need a visa when reporting to an immigration officer at the airport or other port of entry into South Africa. This ‘exemption’, however, has a time limit. Depending on your country of origin, it could be as short as one month or as long as three.
Note that this list can change without notice. To check if your country’s status has changed. This page also details special exemptions for citizens holding official or diplomatic passports, which I’ve refrained from mentioning here.
1. Citizens of the following countries can enter South African for an intended stay of 90 days or less without a visa. They will be issued with a visitor’s permit for that period.
- African Union Laissez Passer
- Andorra
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Iceland
- Israel
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Liechtenstein
- Luxemburg
- Malta
- Monaco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Paraguay
- Portugal
- San Marino
- Singapore
- Spain
- St Vincent & the Grenadines
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, British Islands Bailiwick of Guernsey and Jersey, Isle of Man and the Virgin Islands, Republic of Ireland, and British Overseas Territories
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- United States of America
2. Citizens of the following countries can enter South African for an intended stay of 30 days or less without a visa. They will be issued with a visitor’s permit for that period.
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Barbados
- Belize
- Benin
- Bolivia
- Cape Verde
- Costa Rica
- Cyprus
- Gabon
- Guyana
- Hong Kong (holders of Hong Kong British National Overseas passports and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports)
- Hungary
- Jordan
- Lesotho
- Macau (holders of Macau Special Administrative Region passports (MSAR))
- Malaysia
- Malawi
- Maldives
- Mauritius
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Peru
- Poland
- Seychelles
- Slovak Republic
- South Korea
- Swaziland
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe (only government officials)
