Tag: Critical Skills Work Visa

With South Africa getting closer to rolling out a digital nomad visa, it is a mix of good news for the economy but also a cause for concern about how it might affect our local coders. Remote work is gaining popularity, allowing individuals to combine travelling the globe with maintaining full-time employment.

Navigating the various work visa applications is quite tricky. Individuals and HR professionals assisting employees in applying for their work visas often face lengthy qualifying criteria and a complex application process that can be difficult to get right the first time around. 

For the many Zimbabwean nationals living in South Africa – and their employers – the upcoming expiry date for the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP), has been a cause for major concern. The ZEP was initially established to allow Zimbabweans in South Africa, legal and illegally living and working here, to come forward and regularise their stay – without the need to apply for regular visas.

On 18 August 2022, we published an opinion piece regarding the decision of the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) to no longer extend the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEPs), which are set to expire on 31 December 2022.

Following a shift towards global recruitment processes, many South Africans have succumbed to the lustre of opportunities that lie in wait in foreign countries. Eager to find international career advancement, or simply to earn a foreign salary, they put their skills and qualifications on the line and begin applying for work overseas.

The Department of Home Affairs is currently calling for public comment on the draft of a new Critical Skills List. However, Foreign Language Speakers, a role that featured in the previous list, has been omitted from the draft List. Foreign language employees are more valuable than the language they speak and are critical to job creation inside South Africa’s borders.

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has submitted its preliminary Critical Skills List to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for review. The list is publicly available from the DHET’s website and companies should start reviewing it in anticipation of a round of public commentary before it is finalised.