Software engineers immigrating to South Africa

The Department of Home Affairs’ Trusted Employer Scheme (TES) has allowed nearly 250 foreign software engineers to work in South Africa.

This is according to Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber, who delivered his department’s budget vote speech to Parliament on Tuesday.

Schreiber said 246 software engineers have been accepted into the country via the scheme since it launched in late 2023.

The Minister also noted that Eskom brought 147 nuclear engineers to help restore its Koeberg nuclear facility in Cape Town.

The scheme, published in the Government Gazette in October 2023, allows South Africa to more easily attract skills and manage immigration in the case of high volumes of visa applications.

Home Affairs said the necessity for TES came from the Operation Vulindlela Work Visa Review Report, which found the country’s work visa polices create a strong foundation for skills entering the country.

However, the review found that “the unpredictable nature of visa adjudications” affects how well such policies can serve their intended function.

To solve this issue, Operation Vulindlela suggested introducing a TES to allow employers to be vetted and approved in advance, reducing the administrative challenges of visa applications.

“Under a trusted-employer scheme, an entity looking to employ skilled foreign labour would undergo a review assessing its fitness to import skills against established criteria,” Home Affairs said.

This gives the employer a simplified route to employing foreign nationals and reduces requirements for visa applications. So far, 71 companies have signed up.

Home Affairs has introduced a similar programme for groups of tourists called the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS).

In this case, tour operators are vetted and approved in advance to simplify the process of making group visa applications for clients.

Schreiber said that since launching in February, 17,000 Chinese and Indian tourists have obtained visas via TTOS, with 65 tour operators joining the programme.

Electronic visa push

Home Affairs’ latest effort to simplify the visa application process and eliminate corruption and inefficiency is the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system.

The system, which President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned in his State of the Nation Address in February, will digitise visa and entry/exit processes at South African ports of entry.

“This system eliminates the space for interference, corruption or delays by using machine learning to automate the application, adjudication and communication of all visa processes,” Schreiber said.

“To make the ETA work optimally, we must also link it to all ports of entry so that no person can enter our country unless their biometrics are recorded and match those on their applications.”

As part of the ETA applications process, travellers must provide their biometrics to Home Affairs to use the system.

Shcreiber said the ETA process will eventually replace the paper-based system and issue the traveller with a unique digital code linked to their passport information.

“Once they arrive at a South African port-of-entry, travellers must scan their ETA code and provide another copy of their biometric information,” he added. 

“This will then be verified against their passport and the information provided at the time of application.”

In its initial unveiling on social media, the Minister said the system will go live for visa applications shorter than 90 days at airports by the end of September.

This will start with travellers arriving at the OR Tambo and Cape International Airports and scale up until “no person can enter South Africa without obtaining a visa through the ETA.”

“Through our vision for digital transformation, Home Affairs is building a tech-driven service delivery revolution that enhances national security and efficiency to grow our economy,” said Schreiber.