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Travelling While Your South Africa Visa Application Is Pending

By The Expat Club · Updated October 2026

Leaving South Africa while a visa application is pending is not automatically safe: a pending application does not protect your status on its own. Since the old directive that allowed this was withdrawn in 2014, protection has come only from temporary measures, first COVID-19 relief for people whose visas expired during lockdown and, since late 2022, a series of concessions for people caught in Home Affairs' backlog. The current one, Immigration Directive No 7 of 2026, runs until 30 June 2027. It lets people whose long-term visa, waiver or appeal application was lodged through VFS Global and still pending on 30 March 2026 depart and re-enter without being declared undesirable, provided they carry proof of the pending application. It does not cover permanent residence applicants or applications lodged after that date.

If you have a South African visa, waiver or appeal application sitting with Home Affairs or VFS Global and a trip home, a work commitment or a family event is coming up, the answer is: it depends, and it is worth checking properly before you book anything. Here is what the current rules and the concession say.

The default position: a pending application does not protect your status

It helps to start from the baseline, because this is where people get caught out. Submitting an application to extend, renew or change your visa before it expires does not, by itself, give you the right to leave South Africa and come back while Home Affairs is still deciding it. A directive that used to allow this, Directive 43 of 2010, was withdrawn by the department in February 2014. Since then, your status has depended on your actual visa conditions, not on the fact that an application is in the system. The exceptions have been temporary: COVID-19 relief in 2020 and 2021 let people whose visas had expired during lockdown leave without being declared undesirable, and since late 2022 Home Affairs has run the backlog concessions described below.

In practice this means: if your current visa is still valid on the day you leave and the day you return, your pending application is mostly irrelevant to the trip itself. If your current visa has already expired, or will expire while you are away, you are relying entirely on whichever temporary concession is in force at the time, and on meeting its specific conditions.

Worth knowing: leaving after your visa has expired, without a concession that covers you, can get you declared an "undesirable person". Under regulation 27(3) of the Immigration Regulations, an overstay of 30 days or less can bring a 12-month ban, a second overstay within 24 months a two-year ban, and an overstay of more than 30 days a five-year ban. The Border Management Authority says you can re-enter only once the ban has lapsed.

The 2026 concession: who it covers

Since late 2022, Home Affairs has issued a series of temporary concessions for people caught in its own processing backlog, extending them several times. The current version is Immigration Directive No 7 of 2026, dated 30 March 2026 and in force from 1 April 2026, with its protections running up to and including 30 June 2027.

It applies only to people who were lawfully admitted to South Africa, who lodged their application through VFS Global and can produce a receipt that can be verified on VFS Global's tracking system, and whose application was still awaiting an outcome on 30 March 2026, the date the directive was signed. It covers three groups:

• Pending long-term visa applications (sections 11(1)(b) to 20 of the Immigration Act, including section 22). The directive extends the applicant's current visa status until 30 June 2027 and lets them depart from and re-enter South Africa at a port of entry until then without being declared undesirable. They may not do anything their current visa conditions do not allow.
• Pending waiver applications. The same extension and the same departure-and-return allowance apply.
• Pending appeals against a refused visa. To travel, appellants must show a copy of the rejection letter together with a receipt or confirmation that the appeal was lodged.

Applicants whose passports are not visa-exempt for South Africa must apply for a port-of-entry visa before returning, even while covered. The concession ends for each applicant as soon as they receive an outcome. If you are not sure whether your nationality is visa-exempt for South Africa, check the current list with a South African mission or VFS Global before you travel, since this changes from time to time.

Who the concession excludes

Two groups sit outside this concession, and this is the single most important thing to check before assuming you are covered:

• Permanent residence applicants. The directive says people awaiting a permanent residence outcome must keep their residence status valid at all times while they wait, so its temporary measures do not apply to them. If that is your situation and your temporary visa status has lapsed or is close to lapsing, do not treat the pending permanent residence application as travel cover. Our guide to permanent residence in South Africa covers the routes and the long processing times involved.
• Visitor's visa extensions and some visitor's visa appeals. The directive's long-term categories start at section 11(1)(b), so an extension of an ordinary visitor's visa under section 11(1)(a) is not covered. It also excluded appeals against a refused section 11(1)(a) visitor's visa renewal that had been pending for more than three months; those applicants had until 30 April 2026 to leave without being declared undesirable. If you are on a visitor's visa and waiting on an extension or appeal, this is a category where getting current, specific advice matters more than most.

Because these concessions have been extended and reworded several times, check the current directive's exact wording and your own category directly with VFS Global, a South African mission or a registered immigration practitioner before you book, rather than relying on a summary, including this one.

What to do before you book anything

• Check when you lodged your application. The current directive covers only applications that were already pending when it was signed on 30 March 2026.
• Check your current visa's actual expiry date. If it is still valid for the whole trip, the pending application question matters far less. If it has expired or will expire while you are away, stop and get advice before booking.
• Confirm which category your application falls under: a long-term visa, a waiver, an appeal, or a permanent residence application. The concession's terms differ by category, and permanent residence is excluded entirely.
• Get your paperwork together: your VFS Global receipt or acknowledgement, and, if relevant, your rejection letter and appeal receipt. Keep digital and printed copies.
• Check whether you need a port-of-entry visa to return, which non-visa-exempt nationals need even under the concession.
• Call before you fly. VFS Global, your nearest South African mission, or a registered immigration practitioner can confirm whether the current directive covers your specific situation on the date you intend to travel, which a guide written months earlier cannot guarantee.

Why this keeps changing

Home Affairs has acknowledged a large processing backlog across visa, waiver and appeal applications, which is the reason this concession exists at all and the reason it keeps being extended rather than made permanent. Our guide to how to immigrate to South Africa covers the main visa routes and what tends to slow them down. A separate directive, Immigration Directive No 13 of 2026, dated 2 October 2026, waives the rule that extension and change-of-status applications must be lodged at least 60 days before a visa expires, provided the application is submitted while the existing visa is still valid. It says nothing about travel, so the two should not be confused, and when we checked on 21 October 2026 Home Affairs had not published it on its website.

The practical reality is that a concession built to manage a backlog can be extended again, left to lapse, or tightened at short notice, as nearly happened in March 2026, when the previous concession, due to end on 31 March, was extended by a directive dated 30 March. Anyone planning international travel around a pending South African application should build in a buffer and check the live position close to the travel date, not months in advance.

Frequently asked questions

Sources, checked 21 October 2026

These are the official directives, regulations and government statements behind the facts above, checked on 21 October 2026.

• Immigration Directive No 7 of 2026: extension of temporary concession (Department of Home Affairs): who is covered, the 30 March 2026 cut-off, travel without being declared undesirable, the appeal documents, the port-of-entry visa, and the permanent residence and visitor's visa exclusions.
• Immigration Regulations, 2014 (as updated) (Department of Home Affairs): regulation 27(3), the 12-month, two-year and five-year overstay bans.
• Entering and leaving South Africa (Border Management Authority): the same overstay bands, and re-entry only once a ban has lapsed.
• Overstay appeals (Department of Home Affairs): making representations to lift an overstay ban.
• Home Affairs on immigration matters during the COVID-19 lockdown (South African Government, 14 April 2020): the COVID-era protection for people leaving on expired visas.
• Home Affairs extends blanket concession for long-term visa or waiver applicants (South African Government, 29 March 2023): the backlog concession already running and being extended by early 2023.

General information only, not immigration/legal/financial advice: confirm current rules and consult a qualified professional.