Draft visa regulations open doors
South Africa’s new draft work visa regulations are a milestone in efforts to attract investment and promote job creation, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter yesterday.
Last week, the department of home affairs released the draft second amendment of the immigration regulations for public comment. These deal with remote work and critical skills visas.
“The publication of the new draft regulations are part of our ongoing drive to reform the visa system, making it easier to attract the skills our economy needs and promoting innovation and entrepreneurship. An efficient, agile, responsive visa regime is key to attracting business investment and boosting economic growth.
“International experience shows that employees with critical skills contribute to improved productivity, enhanced innovation and improving the competitiveness of the firms they work for,” Ramaphosa said.
The new remote working visa is a response to “the rapidly evolving world of work, where skilled workers… are attracted by the lifestyle benefits of working from a remote location”.
“It also caters to digital nomads, who are able to work virtually from any location in the world. A remote worker who wants to work in South Africa while being employed by a foreign company will be able to receive such a visa.
“The draft regulations propose a points system for critical skills visas that will take into account age, qualifications, language skills, work experience and having an offer of employment, among others,” he said.
“To succeed in an everchanging global economy, SA needs far more people with the right skills. It will be some time before we can produce enough skilled people to enable our country to grow rapidly.”
He added that attracting these skills to SA was important as the country is “fast becoming an attractive destination for industries like business process outsourcing and customer experience”.
“The new work visa regulations are a milestone. They are part of high-impact structural reforms to improve the business operating environment.”
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