It was recently announced that the South African work visa regime would be changed to a points-based system. There was general confusion though with regards to how this would be implemented, and which visa categories would be affected. This confusion has now been cleared up.
The points-based system will apply to the Genera Work Visa. The General Work Visa is applicable where a company wishes to employ a person but the company has not been able to find a South African citizen with the required qualifications and experience. One of the existing requirements is that the company must obtain a Certificate from the Department of Labour (DoL) confirming that there is not a South Arican citizen that is able fill the position. The Department of Labour considers itself to be the guardian of South African job opportunities and invariably will not issue the Certificate which means that the General Work Visa application cannot get out of the blocks. The Department’s reluctance to issue such Certificates over the past few years has basically made the General Work Visa obsolete.
The requirement that the company must obtain a Certificate from the DoL has been done away with, and instead the prospective foreign employee must qualify in terms of the points-based system. Exactly what criteria will be applied, and their respective weightings has not been finalised yet, but the recommendations contained the following criteria:
It has been confirmed that the “ability to adapt within the Republic” will not be used as a criteria, but the rest are still unsure. The General Work Visa is likely to be aimed at high level employment so it is possible that one of criteria will be that the salary available must be above a certain threshold. The above is a welcome change and opens up new possibilities for companies that are struggling to find South African citizens with the rights qualifications and experience for positions they have available.
