Following the withdrawal of the draft amendments, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has published the regulations on the new points-based system for the General Work Visa. Once implemented, the new system will reduce documentary requirements (i.e., a letter from the Department of Labour is no longer required) and instead use criteria based on factors such as age, qualifications, language skills, work experience, an employment offer and salary to determine visa eligibility for foreign nationals. It is anticipated that the DHA will provide more details on the allocation of points for each criterion and the implementation date of the new system in the coming months in an official gazette, at which time we will publish an alert. This development is aimed to streamline South Africa's immigration processes to attract skilled foreign nationals.
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