A foreign person that wishes to work in South Africa for a South African company presently has the option of the following visas available:
The Intra Company Transfer Visa is used for the purposes of multinational companies transferring a foreign employee from the overseas company to the South African subsidiary or branch. The Critical Skills Work Visa is where the applicant’s occupation is on the Critical Skills List and they meet the minimum academic qualifications. Finally, the General Work Visa is available to applicants that meet the 100-point requirement in terms of the Points Based System.
The White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection has proposed that a new work visa be introduced. This will be the Skilled Worker Visa. The details with regards to this visa are fairly scant at this stage, but it is proposed that this visa will consolidate the current critical skills work visa and the general work visa into a single visa. The visa will be adjudicated on the Points Based System.
From the above proposal it can be inferred that it is likely that the listing of specific occupations will be done away with and that an applicant that can show they have excellent academic qualifications and / or work experience and will be working at a certain salary level will be eligible for the Skilled Work Visa
