Visa-on-Arrival is a Viable Option Available to Stimulate Investment and Tourism in South Africa

The South African immigration system has undergone several changes in recent times, but these changes have not been far-reaching enough to enable business travellers and tourists from many Sub-Saharan African countries to reach South Africa with ease.

The adoption of a visa-on-arrival policy could potentially enable the country to realise intra-regional trade and mobility beyond the Southern African Development Community (SADC) area. The benefits of such a policy are immense - not only for South Africa, but also for its neighbouring countries. As a result, tourism would likely benefit, as these travellers would potentially have built-in visits in their schedules and could even encourage others to visit the country and the region with them.

Importance of Visa-on-Arrival

A visa-on-arrival involves receiving a visa that could have been issued in the country of origin at the airport in the destination country. Generally, it involves completing a standard form and then paying the requisite fee before admission into the country.

According to the African Development Bank’s Visa Openness Report of 2021, 24 percent of African countries currently utilise a visa-on-arrival policy. It could go a long way in easing the workload of South Africa’s diplomatic staff by ensuring that they focus on other initiatives like raising awareness of the opportunities that South Africa has in study, tourism and even investment.

Some Issues Cause Delays in Issuing Visas to Eligible Travelers to South Africa

Over the years, several factors have been raised as contributing to the delays in issuing visas to eligible travellers by the South African diplomatic missions. Chief among them is a lack of staff at South African diplomatic missions abroad. A solution here could be when the delivery of services are implemented in a way that enables those services to fund themselves. Such a measure can go a long way in enabling the state to have enough funds to hire more staff and even invest in much-needed technology to improve services.

The other factor is the internal checks that missions must undertake to confirm the authenticity of documents provided to them. This is vital, especially in countries where a high level of fraud is experienced. Generally, it takes time, as the issuing institutions may be either slow to respond or even unable to confirm the authenticity of the documents. Normally, an effective stakeholder relationship with institutions that regularly issue supporting documents can help in this regard. In some countries, such a relationship has resulted in banks developing specific letters to confirm one’s financial standing. Such letters are easy to verify with the issuing banks within a stated timeframe. Another solution is to empanel organisations that can be used in specialist areas, such as health.

Trends in Implementing Visa-on-Arrival

A visa-on-arrival policy is a simple way to boost a country’s tourism and investment. Decisions can be made easily so that travellers from countries that are members of a specific regional body qualify for visas-on-arrival. A classic example of this approach is in countries like Benin, Ghana, Mauritania, Namibia, Rwanda, and even Zimbabwe when such a visa is for countries which are members of the African Union. Additionally, in a case where it is targeted at business and other critical travellers from certain countries, such a system can be accompanied by a pre-registration programme for eligible travellers meeting set requirements.

Further, the country’s airports, where such a visa can be issued, would need to be designated and equipped to provide such a visa. This is purely a control measure, as the country’s airport may not have enough staff to support those who need visas-on-arrival. If implemented, several counters could be designated for this purpose to ease congestion on arrival at the airport.

Although an eVisa system is not in place in South Africa, nationals who were permitted to enter the country through visa-on-arrival could be moved to the eVisa system once it is fully operational. An example of this approach is Kenya, which had a visa-on-arrival before the implementation of the eVisa system. Once the eVisa system was fully operational, all the countries that were initially eligible for visas-on-arrival were migrated to the eVisa system.

How It Can Help South Africa

The adoption of the visa-on-arrival policy would be beneficial to South Africa in terms of intra-regional trade, mobility and tourism. The country could save the costs of extending its diplomatic representation abroad, thereby enabling it to redirect it to initiatives such as the promotion of the country abroad. Additionally, it would likely help to foster intra-regional mobility and trade, and perhaps motivate other countries in the region to adopt similar policies.

Need to Know More?

For further information on this topic, please contact Johannes Tiba at [email protected]. This blog was published on 12 July 2022, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please visit our dedicated COVID-19 site, subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.