{"id":325277,"date":"2019-06-25T09:52:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-25T07:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=325277"},"modified":"2019-06-25T09:52:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T07:52:21","slug":"new-south-african-e-visas-expected-to-launch-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/325277\/new-south-african-e-visas-expected-to-launch-in-october\/","title":{"rendered":"New South African e-visas expected to launch in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s new e-visa system is expected to launch in October 2019.<\/p>\n

Speaking to eNCA<\/a><\/strong>, Home Affairs acting director-general Thulani Mavuso said that the system will better enable investment in the country and make it more efficient to admit people with sought after skills.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re now at the stage where we\u2019re doing functional testing, once that\u2019s done we\u2019ll do a proper pilot with a few countries,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Once that\u2019s completed we\u2019ll go into production.”<\/p>\n

Speaking to BusinessTech<\/a><\/strong> earlier this year, Department of Tourism spokesperson Blessing Manale said that South Africa\u2019s visa regime had previously been one of the constraints for tourism, and the roll-out of the e-visas will be beneficial for both tourists and for the local economy.<\/p>\n

“They provide predictability, people will be able to stay longer in South Africa, people will be able to study etc.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe realisation of the visa regime will literally allow us to double our tourism numbers internationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manale said that the system will also save people a lot of time as they spend much less time at airports and waiting for administration approval.<\/p>\n

New e-gates<\/strong><\/p>\n

Home Affairs is also planning to pilot new e-gates at a number of South African airports in 2019.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson told BusinessTech that the gates will first be piloted at Cape Town International Airport and will form part of the implementation of the Biometric Movement Control System (BMCS).<\/p>\n

He added that a further rollout will be done in a phased approach, with OR Tambo, and King Shaka International airports to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe broad objective of the project is the facilitation of movement of low-risk travellers through a self-service solution, hence freeing capacity for the assessment of high-risk categories by an immigration officer,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn line with the risk-based approach to managing migration, the first phase will focus on South African passport holders (excluding minors).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: These 30 jobs could get you a visa for the UK, New Zealand and Australia<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s new e-visa system is expected to launch in October 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":233187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-325277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325277"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325313,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325277\/revisions\/325313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}