How to apply for a spousal visa in South Africa

If you are married to, or in a permanent life partnership with, a South African citizen or permanent resident, you apply for a relative's visa based on the spousal relationship. People call it a spousal visa, but the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 does not use that name. It is a temporary residence visa issued to the spouse or life partner of a citizen or permanent resident, and Home Affairs may add an authorisation that lets you work, study or run a business while you hold it.

The application turns on one thing: proving that the relationship is real. Home Affairs is looking for a good-faith spousal relationship. For married couples that starts with the marriage certificate. For life partners it means proof that you live together and share your finances and your lives. Everything else in the bundle, the police clearances, the medicals and the forms, is standard.

Who qualifies

You qualify if you are the spouse of a South African citizen or permanent resident. Spouse includes a person in a civil marriage, a civil union, a customary marriage recognised in South Africa, and a permanent life partnership, which covers unmarried couples including same-sex couples.

For a life partnership Home Affairs looks for a relationship that is exclusive and intended to be permanent. The regulations have at various times required the relationship to have existed for a minimum period before the application, so check the current position. The couple usually signs a notarial agreement, sworn before a notary, confirming the partnership and the absence of any other marriage or partnership.

Your South African partner does not have to be employed or wealthy. Proof of financial support is still asked for, and it can come from either of you.

What the visa allows

On its own a relative's visa lets you live in South Africa with your partner. It does not automatically let you work. You ask Home Affairs to authorise work, study or business activities on the visa, and if that authorisation is granted, it is printed on the visa. In practice most applicants ask for it at the outset, because getting it added later means another application.

The visa is issued for a period, and it can be renewed from inside South Africa while it is still valid. It stays tied to the relationship. If the relationship ends, the basis for the visa ends.

How the application works, step by step

1. Confirm the basis. Civil marriage, civil union, customary marriage, or life partnership. Get the certificate or, for a life partnership, the notarial agreement.
2. Gather proof of the relationship. This is the core of the bundle and is described below.
3. Apply for police clearance certificates from every country in which you have lived for twelve months or more since age eighteen.
4. Have the medical and radiological reports done by registered practitioners.
5. Prepare the financial support documents. Bank statements from you or your partner, or a written undertaking of support with proof of the partner's means.
6. Decide where to apply. If you are outside South Africa, you apply at the South African mission in your country of residence, through VFS Global where the mission uses it. If you are lawfully inside South Africa, the regulations have allowed the spouse of a citizen or permanent resident to apply from inside in many cases, including from a visitor's visa. This is one of the categories where inside applications have been permitted, but the rules on changing status have been amended, so check the current regulations. Read can I change my visa status from inside South Africa.
7. Attend the interview. Home Affairs may interview both partners, separately, about the relationship. This is normal. It is looking for consistency, not perfection.
8. Wait, and keep your current visa valid. Do not let your existing visa expire while the application is pending. See what happens if my visa expires.

Proving the relationship

Home Affairs wants evidence that builds a picture over time. A single document proves little. A file of small things proves a lot.

• The marriage certificate, or the notarial life partnership agreement
• A joint lease or a bond in both names, or a lease in one name with proof that both of you live at the address
• Joint bank account statements, or statements from separate accounts showing transfers between you and shared expenses
• Utility accounts, insurance policies or medical aid showing both of you at the same address or as beneficiaries
• Photographs together over a period, with dates, and travel records showing trips together
• Sworn affidavits from family and friends who know you as a couple
• Birth certificates of children you have together

For a life partnership, cohabitation and shared finances are what the regulations focus on. Two people who love each other but keep entirely separate homes and money will struggle to prove a permanent life partnership in the way Home Affairs wants to see it.

A worked example

The facts here are illustrative only and are not a real case.

Lucas is from Brazil. He has been living in Cape Town with Zanele, a South African citizen, for three years. They are not married. He is on a visitor's visa that has four months left.

They go to a notary and sign a life partnership agreement. Lucas applies for a police clearance from Brazil, which takes seven weeks to arrive, and from the United States, where he studied for two years in his twenties. He books a medical and a chest X-ray. Zanele gathers their lease, which is in both names, twelve months of bank statements showing rent split between their accounts, their joint medical aid, and photographs going back three years. Her sister and two friends sign affidavits.

Lucas submits through VFS Global in Cape Town with three months left on his visitor's visa, and asks for authorisation to work as a graphic designer. Home Affairs calls both of them in for interviews a few weeks later. Zanele is asked where they met and when they moved in together. Lucas is asked the same questions separately. Their answers match. Some months later the visa is issued with work authorisation.

If Lucas had waited until his visitor's visa had two weeks left, or worse, had let it expire, the same application would have been far harder. And if Lucas and Zanele had kept separate flats and separate money, the life partnership would have been hard to prove regardless of how real it was.

What to do this week

1. Get the certificate. Marriage certificate from Home Affairs, or book the notary for a life partnership agreement.
2. Start the police clearances. They are the slowest item and you need one from every country where you lived for twelve months or more since eighteen.
3. Open a shared folder and start putting every joint document into it: lease, bank statements, accounts, photographs with dates.
4. Check how long is left on your current visa. Work backwards. You want to submit while it has comfortably more than a month to run, and the current regulations may require more.
5. Ask for affidavits from three or four people who know you as a couple.
6. Decide whether you need work authorisation and, if you do, get a job offer or a description of your business to attach.

Documents to gather

• Passport valid for the required period, with blank pages
• Marriage certificate, civil union certificate, proof of a customary marriage, or a notarial life partnership agreement
• Your partner's South African identity document, or permanent residence permit and passport
• Proof of a good-faith relationship as listed above, and for life partners proof of cohabitation and shared finances
• Police clearance certificates from every country lived in for twelve months or more since age eighteen
• Medical report and radiological report
• Proof of financial support: bank statements or an undertaking from your partner with proof of means
• Birth certificates of any children applying with you
• Job offer or business details if you are asking for authorisation to work or run a business
• Completed application form and passport photographs

Foreign documents may need to be apostilled or authenticated, and translated by a sworn translator.

A realistic timeline

Home Affairs processing times vary widely and change often. These are broad ranges only.

• Preparation: one to three months, driven by police clearances.
• Decision after submission: several weeks to many months. Interviews add time. Applications made inside South Africa during a backlog period have been known to take much longer.
• Renewal: apply well before expiry. Renewals go through VFS Global and are subject to the same variability.

Common mistakes and what they cost

• Thin relationship evidence. The most common reason for refusal. A refusal costs the fee and months, and you may have to appeal. See how to appeal a visa rejection.
• Inconsistent interview answers. Two people who cannot agree on when they moved in together raise a red flag.
• Not asking for work authorisation. You then hold a visa that does not let you earn, and adding the authorisation later is a further application.
• Letting the visitor's visa expire while waiting. You become undocumented, and an expired visa cannot be renewed.
• Assuming marriage alone is enough. A marriage certificate proves a marriage. Home Affairs still wants to see that it is a real relationship.
• Applying from inside the country when the rules require applying from abroad. The application is rejected without being considered on its merits.

If you cannot afford an attorney

Most spousal applications are made by the couple themselves through VFS Global or the mission abroad, and the checklist is published on the VFS and Home Affairs websites. The Department of Home Affairs contact centre answers questions about requirements and the status of an application. University law clinics advise on immigration matters at no charge. Lawyers for Human Rights and the Scalabrini Centre assist refugees and asylum seekers under the Refugees Act 130 of 1998. If you are ever detained, Legal Aid South Africa on 0800 110 110 deals with detention and deportation matters. See legal aid and what immigration costs.

Frequently asked questions

People ask whether a spousal visa leads to permanent residence. It can. After five years of the spousal relationship with a citizen or permanent resident you may apply for permanent residence, and the relationship must still exist when it is granted. Read how to get permanent residence and try the permanent residence and citizenship calculator. They ask what happens if the relationship ends. The basis for the visa falls away, and Home Affairs may withdraw it. They ask whether a same-sex partner qualifies. Yes. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 prohibits unfair discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation, and civil unions and life partnerships are recognised for this visa.