Work Visas and the 100-Point System: Critical Skills, General Work and Intra-Company Transfers

Work Visas and the 100-Point System: Critical Skills, General Work and Intra-Company Transfers

The points-based system is not a draft. It is already being applied at South Africa's visa reception centres. This article sets out the full official scoring table, corrects three widely circulated misconceptions — about "age points", the ICT length-of-service requirement, and the supposed obligation to buy medical insurance for a work visa — and explains why the remote-work visa is not a work visa at all.

In October 2024 the adjudication logic for South African work visas underwent a fundamental shift: from "meet each requirement item by item" to "accumulate at least 100 points". This points-based system is not a draft, and it is not a pilot — it was published as Government Notice 5448 of 2024, made under section 19(2) and section 19(4) read with regulation 18(12) and (13), and it is already in force at the visa reception centres in China (the Critical Skills List requirements for the Shanghai consular district expressly call for a "PBS Evaluation Form" to be submitted). Anyone still preparing their documents against a pre-2023 guide needs to start again.

Part 1 — Three widely circulated errors, corrected first

A further point: there is no statutory requirement to buy medical insurance for a work visa. It does not appear in the general requirements of regulation 9(1), nor in the work-visa-specific requirements of regulation 18. Medical insurance is a statutory requirement for the study visa (regulation 12(1)(f)). Preparing it as a mandatory item for a work visa earns no points; it only adds cost.

Part 2 — The division between the three categories of work visa

Regulation 18(12) brings only the general work and critical skills categories within the points-based system; the ICT is not subject to it.

Immigration Regulations 2014, regulation 18(12): "An application for a general work visa and a critical skills work visa must be adjudicated in accordance with the points-based system determined by [the] Minister."

Part 3 — How to reach 100 points

The full official scoring table, and one misconception that must be cleared up.

Legal basis: Government Notice 5448 of 2024 (18 October 2024), made under section 19(2) and section 19(4) read with regulation 18(12) and (13). An applicant who reaches 100 points and satisfies all other statutory requirements is issued a visa: those who qualify on the strength of a critical-skills occupation receive a Critical Skills work visa; those who qualify on another combination receive a General Work visa.

South Africa's points system contains no "age" criterion. An "age points" factor appeared in the February 2023 draft but did not survive into the final 2024 version. Planning around age as a scoring factor — for example, "apply while you are still young" — has no basis under this South African regime. The three real levers are: whether the occupation is on the Critical Skills List, the level of qualification, and the level of salary.

The least-effort combination is often a single step. A critical-skills occupation on its own scores 100 points. This means that as long as the occupation is listed in GN R3934 and the remaining statutory requirements are met, the points hurdle is cleared in one move. Failing that: master's degree (50) + annual salary above R976 194 (50) = 100; or master's (50) + annual salary above R650 976 (20) + more than 10 years' experience (30) = 100. For applicants with a Trusted Employer, that 30 points is often the final piece of the puzzle.

Part 4 — Critical Skills work visa, section 19(4)

Documents required under regulation 18(1) and (5):

1. Written undertaking by the employer to accept liability for repatriation costs — regulation 18(1)(a); a requirement common to all three categories of work visa.
2. Police clearance certificate — regulation 18(1)(b). One for every country in which the applicant has resided for more than 12 months in the past five years; not older than 6 months at the time of submission.
3. Confirmation of skills and qualifications from the relevant professional body, board or council — the body must be recognised by SAQA under section 13(1)(i) of the National Qualifications Framework Act.
4. Proof of registration with a professional body — required only where the law makes registration compulsory for the occupation.
5. SAQA evaluation of qualifications plus sworn translation — foreign qualifications must be evaluated by SAQA and translated by a sworn translator into one of South Africa's official languages. South African qualifications do not require SAQA evaluation.
6. A valid offer of employment or employment contract — setting out the conditions of employment and signed by both the employer and the applicant.
7. Employer details and proof of CIPC registration.
8. Medical report (BI-811) — not older than 6 months at the time of submission.

The visa is issued for a period not exceeding 5 years (regulation 18(6)); a spouse and dependent children may be issued corresponding visas for the same duration as the main visa (regulation 18(7)).

The status of the radiological report (BI-806). Its regulatory definition was deleted by clause 2(b) of GN R4847 of 2024. However, some missions and VFS reception centres still list it on their older document checklists. Be guided by the checklist published at the reception centre on the day — carrying an extra document has never harmed anyone, but arriving without one may lead to on-the-spot rejection.

Part 5 — General Work visa, section 19(2): the Department of Labour certification has been waived

Regulation 18(3)(a) originally required the applicant to submit a letter from the Department of Labour to the prospective employer, confirming that despite a diligent search no suitable citizen or permanent resident could be found locally, that the applicant's qualifications matched the position, that the salary was no lower than the local average for a comparable position, and that the employment contract complied with South African labour standards. This was once the greatest bottleneck for the general work visa.

Current position: the provision remains, but the requirement has been waived. On 8 October 2024 the Department of Home Affairs issued a "Waiver letter – General work visa", and the official general-work-visa document checklist effective 9 October 2024 no longer lists the Department of Labour certification. Industry reporting states that applicants are "no longer required to submit a waiver application prior to applying for a General Work Visa". But note the precise wording: the text of regulation 18(3)(a) remains in the regulations. It has been waived by the Minister, not deleted. To state in formal correspondence that "the provision has been repealed" would be inaccurate.

Key points for the General Work visa:

• Validity: not exceeding 5 years (regulation 18(4)). If the SAQA evaluation has not yet been issued, a visa may first be granted for 1 year and extended once the evaluation is approved.
• Salary threshold: no independent threshold; salary is counted in the form of points (the R650 976 and R976 194 bands).
• Current documents: application form and proof of payment; passport (valid for at least 30 days beyond departure); medical report (within 6 months); police clearance certificate (for each country of residence exceeding 12 months in the past five years, within 6 months); yellow fever certificate (if applicable); written undertaking by the employer; SAQA evaluation plus sworn translation (or proof of application therefor); and employer details with proof of CIPC registration.

Part 6 — Intra-Company Transfer, section 19(5): a rule that is widely misstated

Regulation 18(8)(a) does not require a length of service. The text reads: the foreigner's contract of employment with the company abroad valid for a period of not less than six months — that is, the overseas employment contract must be valid for at least 6 months. The regulation does not require the applicant to have "served the overseas company for a number of years". Recasting the six-month contract validity as a length-of-service requirement is a common mistranslation, and it misdirects document preparation.

Key points for the ICT:

• Validity: not exceeding 4 years, and expressly non-renewable (regulation 18(10)). Renewal requires a fresh application from the country of origin or permanent residence.
• Skills transfer plan: regulation 18(9)(c) requires the employer to draw up a plan to transfer skills to South African citizens or permanent residents. Mission checklists require an "APPROVED SKILLS TRANSFER PLAN" to be submitted.
• Receiving-company obligation: regulation 18(11) requires an undertaking to reimburse repatriation costs.
• Link to permanent residence: section 26(a) requires five years on a work visa. But the ICT is capped at four years and cannot be renewed — the ICT route alone cannot, arithmetically, satisfy the five-year requirement of section 26(a). Anyone intending to settle for the long term must switch to section 19(2) or section 19(4) during the ICT period.

Part 7 — The Trusted Employer Scheme: where those 30 points come from

The Trusted Employer Scheme (TES) timeline:

• April 2023 — The President announced the TES at the South Africa Investment Conference; a call for pilot participants opened in October of the same year.
• 1 March 2024 — Phase one began operating. About 108 companies applied and 68 were approved.
• 20 July 2026 — Phase two opened for expressions of interest (now digitised), with a dedicated online application portal intended to interface with the ETA platform. It was extended to strategic infrastructure projects, regional or global headquarters companies, and qualifying entities in the financial sector.
• 4 September 2026 — Phase two closing date. Results are expected within 30 working days of the closing date (around 4 October 2026).

Key points for the TES:

• Conditions of participation: the applicant company must demonstrate substantial investment in South Africa, a workforce composed predominantly of South African citizens or permanent residents, investment in skills development, and operation in a priority sector. Three scoring pathways are used, and a company must reach 80/100 points. Assessment is by an independent inter-departmental committee.
• Benefits to the applicant: priority processing; simplified documentation (including a waiver of the SAQA certificate requirement); and, under the points system, a Trusted Employer's offer adds 30 points directly.
• Legal character: the TES has no independent Government Gazette legal basis. It is an administrative programme, not a statutory scheme. This means its rules can be adjusted unilaterally by Home Affairs and are less stable than enacted regulations.

Part 8 — The remote-work visa: not a work visa

Get the classification wrong, and the entire document set is wrong.

Its legal basis is section 11(1)(b)(iv) — it follows the visitor's-visa route. The remote-work visa (commonly called the "digital nomad visa") does not fall under section 19. It is governed by regulation 11(4) as a prescribed activity under a visitor's visa. This distinction has two direct consequences: first, it is not subject to the points-based system; second, it is subject to the in-country change-of-status prohibition in regulation 9(5) — a holder of this visa cannot, in principle, change status inside South Africa to a work visa or study visa.

Key points for the remote-work visa:

• Income threshold: annual income (pre-tax) of R650 976. This figure was reduced from the earlier R1 000 000 on 9 October 2024. Proof is by three months of bank statements.
• Duration: more than 3 months, up to a maximum of 3 years.
• Tax: tax residents of a country with a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) with South Africa must register with SARS only where they stay more than 183 days cumulatively in any 12-month period; tax residents of a non-DTA country must register in all cases.
• Restrictions: no employment within South Africa; no change of status within the country (unless the applicant falls within a regulation 9(9) exception).

A numerical conflict — rely on the text of the regulation. The extracted text of the Department's official requirements form reads "R650 796", whereas the text of regulation 11(4) and the points-system Gazette both read R650 976. Two independent primary sources agree; the official PDF appears to contain a typographical or extraction error at that point. Rely on R650 976, and leave a margin of safety.

Part 9 — Where to apply and how long it takes

Application channels and timelines:

• From abroad — personal submission and biometric capture are mandatory. Home Affairs is explicit: a temporary residence visa must be submitted by the applicant in person to the South African diplomatic mission in the applicant's country of origin. Mainland China has 11 visa centres, divided into the Beijing and Shanghai consular districts by place of passport issue. The long-stay visa fee is CNY 172 plus a service fee of CNY 343; processing takes about 8 weeks.
• From within South Africa — subject to the strict limits of regulations 9(2) and 9(5). An applicant changing status or conditions within South Africa must submit no fewer than 60 days before the expiry of the current visa, with proof of lawful entry. Holders of a visitor's visa or medical visa may not, in principle, change status in-country (subject to the regulation 9(9) exceptions).
• Timeline (Home Affairs 2026/27 service standards, applicable to in-country submissions only): Critical Skills visa 4 weeks; General Work visa 4 weeks; Business visa 8 weeks; section 26(a) worker's permanent residence 8 months; section 27(b) extraordinary-skills permanent residence 8 months. Source: Immigration Circular No. 08 of 2026.

Additional documents for the Critical Skills visa in the Shanghai consular district: identity card or residence permit; 6 months of social-insurance records; and a "PBS Evaluation Form" (points-based-system evaluation form). This last item is direct evidence that the points-based system is actually being applied at reception centres in China.

Part 10 — From work visa to permanent residence

Which route is faster?

• If the occupation is on the Critical Skills List and you have 5 years of post-qualification experience → section 27(b): no need to hold a work visa for five years first; you may apply for permanent residence directly. You must submit a certificate from the professional body, proof of 5 years' post-qualification experience, a reference letter from a former employer, a full CV, and a motivation letter explaining how your critical skills will benefit South Africa (regulation 24(3)).
• If you have held a work visa for five years and have received a permanent offer of employment → section 26(a): note that the provision requires permanent employment, not a fixed-term contract.
• If you hold an ICT visa → you cannot satisfy section 26(a) on that basis alone (capped at four years and non-renewable). You must first switch to section 19(2) or section 19(4).

Permanent-residence applicants are not protected by Directive No. 7 of 2026. Paragraph 5 of that Directive expressly provides that an applicant awaiting a permanent-residence outcome must ensure that their residence status in South Africa remains valid at all times, and that the interim measures therefore do not apply to those who have submitted a permanent-residence application. In other words: submitting a permanent-residence application does not buy you time. Permanent-residence adjudication routinely takes anywhere from 8 to 24 months, and during that period the temporary visa must be kept renewed on time by the applicant. This is the most common way in our caseload for an otherwise winning application to fail at the last moment.

The points system looks as though it has turned adjudication into arithmetic; in truth it has done the opposite. It has moved all of the discretion to the front — to the qualitative judgements of "does your occupation count as a critical skill", "how many NQF levels does your qualification translate into", "which band does your salary fall in". The score is the result, not the starting point.

Disclaimer: This article is general legal information prepared on the basis of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002, the Immigration Regulations 2014, and the Government Gazettes and Home Affairs directives published up to 24 August 2026. It does not constitute legal advice on any specific matter and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Immigration regulations, fees and processing times change frequently, and practice varies between reception centres; before submitting a formal application, be guided by the latest checklists published by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the South African missions in China and the VFS Global reception centres, or seek advice on your specific matter from an admitted attorney.

June Luna Immigration Attorneys Inc.
Cape Town — specialists in immigration and administrative law
Visa applications · refusal appeals (s 8(4) / s 8(6)) · overstay relief (s 32) · permanent residence and naturalisation · PAJA judicial review