How to get permanent residence in South Africa

Permanent residence is the right to live in South Africa indefinitely, without needing to renew a visa. You apply for it under the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 on one of several routes. The most common are five years on a work visa with a permanent job offer, five years of a spousal relationship with a South African citizen or permanent resident, and the critical skills route. There are also routes for retirees, financially independent persons, business owners, relatives of citizens and permanent residents, and refugees who have held that status for a set period.

Permanent residence is not citizenship. You keep your own nationality and passport, you cannot vote, and you cannot hold a South African passport. It can also be lost. Home Affairs may withdraw it if you are absent from South Africa for three years or more unless an exemption applies, and for serious criminal convictions or for fraud in the application. It is, however, the gateway to naturalisation.

The routes

Work visa for five years with a permanent job offer. You have held a work visa for five years and you have an offer of permanent employment. Time on an intra-company transfer visa does not normally count.

Spouse or life partner for five years. You have been the spouse or permanent life partner of a South African citizen or permanent resident for at least five years. The relationship must still exist when the application is decided, and the Act allows Home Affairs to withdraw the permit if the relationship ends within a period after it is granted. Home Affairs looks at the whole history of the relationship, not just the last five years.

Critical skills. You hold a critical skill as defined in the current critical skills list and can show the post-qualification experience the regulations require. This route does not depend on the five-year clock.

Business. You have a business visa and the business is operating and meets the investment and employment requirements.

Retired persons. You can show the regular retirement income, from a pension, annuity or irrevocable investment, that the regulations require. The Act does not set a minimum age for this route, and it is used by people who are not retired in the ordinary sense.

Financially independent persons. You have a net worth above the amount set in the regulations and pay the prescribed fee. The amounts change.

Relatives. Immediate family members of a citizen or permanent resident, within the degree of kinship the regulations set, including dependent children.

Refugees. A person who has held refugee status for the period the Refugees Act 130 of 1998 and its regulations require, and who has been certified as likely to remain a refugee indefinitely, may apply.

Home Affairs may refuse any application if you are a prohibited person, an undesirable person, or if you have a conviction of the kind the Act lists.

How the application works, step by step

1. Confirm the route and the date you become eligible. The permanent residence and citizenship calculator helps you count the years.
2. Check that your current visa will remain valid for the whole time the application is pending. Permanent residence applications take a long time. You must hold a valid temporary residence visa throughout, and renewing it while the permanent residence application is pending is normal.
3. Gather the route-specific proof: five years of work visas and the permanent job offer, or the marriage certificate and five years of relationship evidence, or the critical skills documents.
4. Apply for police clearances from every country where you have lived for twelve months or more since age eighteen, and get a South African police clearance as well.
5. Have the medical and radiological reports done by registered practitioners.
6. Submit through VFS Global in South Africa if you are here lawfully, or at the South African mission abroad. Pay the fee.
7. Wait, and keep renewing your temporary visa. When permanent residence is granted you receive a permanent residence permit, and you should then apply for a South African identity document as a permanent resident.

A worked example

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

Priya is from India. She came to Johannesburg on a general work visa in March five years ago, renewed it once, and has worked for the same logistics company throughout. In February the company gives her a letter confirming a permanent position.

She uses the calculator to confirm that the five years is complete in March. She gathers copies of every work visa, her employment contracts, her payslips for the last twelve months, the permanent offer letter, and a letter from the employer confirming her employment history. She applies for police clearances from India and from the United Arab Emirates, where she worked for eighteen months in her twenties, and she gets a South African police clearance. She does her medical and X-ray.

Her current work visa expires in September of the following year. She submits the permanent residence application in April through VFS Global. By the following June the application is still pending, so she renews her work visa. The permanent residence permit is issued some months after that. Had she not renewed the work visa, she would have become undocumented while waiting, and the permanent residence application could have been refused on that basis alone.

What to do this week

1. Count your years on the calculator and confirm your eligibility date.
2. Check your temporary visa expiry and diarise a renewal several months before it.
3. Start police clearances from every country where you lived for twelve months or more since eighteen. Start the South African one too.
4. Ask your employer for the permanent offer letter if you are on the work route, or start pulling together five years of relationship evidence if you are on the spousal route.
5. Make a document register listing every visa you have held with its dates. Gaps have to be explained.
6. Cost the application. See what immigration costs.

Documents to gather

• Passport, and copies of every South African visa you have held
• Police clearance certificates from every country lived in for twelve months or more since age eighteen, plus a South African police clearance
• Medical report and radiological report
• Proof of the job for the work route: permanent offer of employment, contracts, payslips, and an employer letter confirming history
• Proof of the relationship for the spousal route: marriage certificate or notarial life partnership agreement, and evidence of a good-faith relationship going back five years, including proof of cohabitation and shared finances
• Your spouse's identity document or permanent residence permit
• Proof of funds where the route requires it, such as the retired person or financially independent routes
• Birth certificates of children included in the application, and a marriage certificate if a spouse is included
• Critical skills documents where relevant: SAQA evaluation, professional body registration, and proof of experience
• Completed application forms and passport photographs

A realistic timeline

Home Affairs processing times for permanent residence vary widely and have changed dramatically in recent years. Backlogs have at times run into years. Treat these as broad ranges.

• Preparation: two to four months, driven by police clearances.
• Decision after submission: many months to a few years. There is no reliable average.
• After a refusal: an appeal or review, which adds further months. See how to appeal a visa rejection.

Because the wait is long, keeping your temporary visa valid is not optional. It is the main job during the waiting period.

Common mistakes and what they cost

• Letting the temporary visa expire while the permanent residence application is pending. You become undocumented. The permanent residence application can be refused, and an expired visa cannot be renewed. Read what happens if my visa expires.
• Applying before the five years is complete. A refusal, a lost fee and a wait to reapply.
• Counting intra-company transfer time as work visa time. It usually does not count.
• Gaps in the visa history that are not explained. Any period without a valid visa is a problem and can lead to refusal.
• Weak relationship evidence on the spousal route. Home Affairs needs five years of proof, not a certificate and a few photographs.
• Leaving the country for a long stretch after permanent residence is granted. Absence for three years or more allows Home Affairs to withdraw it unless an exemption applies.
• Relying on a consultant who promises a quick result. Nobody can speed up Home Affairs, and false documents lead to withdrawal of the permit and criminal charges.

If you cannot afford an attorney

Permanent residence applications are made by the applicant through VFS Global in South Africa or at a mission abroad, and the requirements are published. The Department of Home Affairs contact centre answers questions on requirements and on the status of a submitted application. University law clinics advise on immigration matters at no charge. Lawyers for Human Rights and the Scalabrini Centre assist refugees and asylum seekers, including with the refugee route to permanent residence. If you are ever detained for deportation, Legal Aid South Africa on 0800 110 110 helps in detention and deportation matters, and you should read what your rights are if you are detained for deportation. See legal aid.

Frequently asked questions

People ask whether they can work while the application is pending. Yes, on whatever your current visa allows, which is why you keep it valid. They ask whether permanent residence means they can stay away for as long as they like. No. An absence of three years or more allows Home Affairs to withdraw it unless an exemption applies. They ask whether their children get permanent residence. Dependent children can be included in the application or can apply as relatives. They ask what comes next, and the answer is naturalisation once you have been ordinarily resident for five years, which in most cases is counted from the date permanent residence was granted. Read how to become a South African citizen by naturalisation.