The South African business visa: for investors who will live here

Do you need a visa at all?

It depends on whether you will be in the business or only own it.

South Africa's exchange control rules, run by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), say non-residents "may freely invest" here, provided the deal is at arm's length, at a fair market-related price, and paid for in an approved way, usually money brought in through a South African bank. Our exchange control guide explains that paper trail.

The business visa, by contrast, is written for a foreigner who will establish or invest in a business "in which he or she may be employed" (section 15(1) of the Immigration Act), and a holder may do no work except for that business (section 15(2)). Whether owning a business from abroad, without working in it, needs any visa depends on your structure and plans, so ask an immigration attorney before you sign.

• Owning from abroad: exchange control, company law and tax apply, and someone with the right to work in South Africa runs the business day to day. See buying a business in South Africa as a foreigner.
• Moving here to run it: you need the business visa described below, or another visa that lets you work.

Living here can also make you a South African tax resident: either because South Africa becomes your ordinary home, or under the physical presence test of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), which counts more than 91 days here in the tax year and in each of the five years before it, and more than 915 days in total over those five years (SARS Interpretation Note 4). Tax residents are taxed on their worldwide income, subject to certain exclusions, so take tax advice before you move.

This guide does not cover what a visitor may do on a short trip, such as viewing a business or attending a board meeting: ask the South African mission or your adviser before you travel.

What the law requires

The rules sit in three places: section 15 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002, regulation 14 of the Immigration Regulations, 2014, and a notice in the Government Gazette that sets the amount. The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) decides the application. In short, the applicant must:

1. invest the prescribed financial or capital contribution in the business, and that contribution must form part of the business's intended book value;
2. undertake to comply with registration requirements under laws administered by SARS, the national tax authority;
3. employ the prescribed share of South African citizens or permanent residents within 12 months of the visa being issued (regulation 14);
4. prove to Home Affairs that the contribution was invested within 24 months of the visa being issued, and every two years after that (section 15).

Members of your immediate family can be issued an appropriate visa for the same period. Three kinds of business are listed as undesirable, and no business visa can be issued or renewed for them: businesses that import second-hand motor vehicles into South Africa for export, the exotic entertainment industry, and the security industry.

The R5 million: how much, and how it is shown

A 2014 notice by the Minister of Home Affairs (Government Notice 560) sets the amount at R5,000,000 in cash, originating from outside South Africa, invested in a new or an existing business. It adds that the capital contribution must be new machinery or equipment. We found no later notice changing the figure. The rand (R, or ZAR) is South Africa's currency; check the exchange rate on the day you transfer.

The business visa checklist of South Africa's embassy in Copenhagen, published by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), reads the notice as R5 million in cash, or R5 million in cash plus a capital contribution in new machinery or equipment. Do not assume equipment can replace part of the cash without advice.

How it is proved

The application must include a certificate or a "factual finding report" (a report in which the accountant states what they checked and found) from a South African registered accountant: a chartered accountant registered with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), a professional accountant with the South African Institute of Professional Accountants (SAIPA), or a business accountant with the institute the regulations call the South African Institute for Business Accountants (SAIBA), which the dtic lists as CIBA (the Chartered Institute for Business Accountants). Home Affairs' own web page names only SAICA and SAIPA, so confirm with your adviser before relying on a CIBA member's report. The dtic publishes templates. Bring the money in through a South African bank, so the inward payment record and, if you buy shares, the "non-resident" endorsement on the share certificate exist when you need them.

If you are buying an existing business

Settle this before you sign: there is no official guidance on it that we could find. The Act requires the contribution to form part of the business's intended book value. In a share purchase, the price goes to the seller and not into the company, which may not meet that test. In a going-concern purchase (buying the business as a working whole, with its staff and contracts) through your own South African company, the money you put in pays for a business whose assets then sit in that company's books. The 2014 notice also says any capital contribution must be new machinery or equipment, so second-hand assets bought with the business may not count as one. If the money goes into the company as a loan from you rather than for new shares, the loan needs the Reserve Bank's prior written approval (section G(C)(i) of its Currency and Exchanges Manual); your bank applies for it. Ask your immigration adviser and accountant how your structure will be treated.

Reductions and waivers

Under section 15(3), the Director-General of Home Affairs may reduce or waive the amount for businesses prescribed to be in the national interest, or when the dtic asks. Do not plan on it: in June 2026 the Minister told Parliament that waiver applications moved to a digital system in October 2025 and that none had been granted on it for the R5 million. The same reply gave 33 business visas approved in 2025/26, and 57 applications rejected that year for not meeting the capital requirement. Home Affairs' published turnaround table gives 120 working days for visa waivers and exemptions.

The 60% rule for staff

Regulation 14 turns "the prescribed percentage" into a number: at least 60% of the total staff in the business's operations must be South African citizens or permanent residents, employed permanently in various positions.

• A new business: you give a written undertaking with the application, and must prove compliance within 12 months of the visa being issued (regulation 14).
• An existing business: you prove that 60% already are.
• Either way: within 12 months of the visa, you send Home Affairs a letter from the Department of Labour (now the Department of Employment and Labour) confirming the report on that undertaking (regulation 14(4)).

When you buy a business as a going concern, section 197 of the Labour Relations Act moves the existing staff to the buyer automatically, with their contracts, accrued rights and length of service intact, unless a written agreement is reached with the employees or their representatives in the way the section allows. The buyer may employ them on different terms only if those terms are, on the whole, not less favourable, and that latitude does not apply where any of their conditions are set by a collective agreement. So the staff list you inherit is usually the starting point for the 60% test. Ask for it, by role and by citizenship or residence status, during due diligence. See also going concern sales.

Documents, and who issues each one

For a renewal or extension, the dtic also asks for audited financial statements for the two previous years. The medical report was waived for every visa and permanent residence application by a ministerial directive signed on 8 July 2026, and the radiological (chest X-ray) report was removed from the regulations in May 2024 (GN R4847). Some published embassy checklists still list both, so confirm with the mission. The Home Affairs application fee is R1,520, including renewals, under the fee regulations amended on 17 August 2026; missions abroad may charge in local currency.

Where and how to apply

You apply in person at a South African embassy, high commission or consulate in the country where you normally live or of which you are a citizen (regulation 9(2)). The mission may ask you to an interview. A visa issued abroad is stuck into your passport and takes effect from the date it is stamped on arrival.

Do not plan to switch while visiting. Section 10(6) of the Act stops the holder of a visitor's visa applying for a change of status inside South Africa, except in prescribed exceptional circumstances. Those cover emergency medical treatment and certain family members of citizens, permanent residents and visa holders, not investors as such. If you already hold another kind of visa, such as a work visa, the Act does allow a change of status from inside South Africa: apply at least 60 days before your current visa expires (regulation 9(5)(a)).

A sensible order:

1. Take advice and settle the structure: new company or existing one, shares or a going concern purchase, and how the R5 million gets in.
2. Agree the deal. In a private sale you can ask for it to be conditional on the visa, with a date by which the visa must be granted. On an auction the conditions of sale are set before bidding opens, so read them and settle the visa route with your adviser before you bid.
3. Bring the money in through a South African bank, and have the accountant's report done.
4. Apply for the dtic recommendation, and complete the registrations an existing business needs.
5. Order police certificates last, because each must be under six months old when you submit (GN R4847).
6. Lodge the application at the mission.

How long it takes, and what follows

No one publishes an end-to-end time. What is on record:

• The dtic letter: no turnaround time is published.
• Home Affairs: its published target is 8 weeks for a business visa lodged inside South Africa (by people already here, such as renewals), and 8 months for business permanent residence, counted in working days. Applications lodged at missions abroad are not covered. Its 2025/26 annual report says 75 of 82 business visa applications lodged inside South Africa were decided within eight weeks; the Auditor-General could not verify that figure. The last audited figure is 92 of 95, in 2024/25.
• Missions abroad: times vary and are not published in one place. At least one mission (Copenhagen) says it gives no progress reports, offers no express service, decides complete applications in order of receipt and does not take in incomplete ones.

Once issued, a business visa runs for up to three years at a time (regulation 14(5)) and can allow multiple entries. The deadlines that follow:

• within 12 months: proof of the 60% staff rule, and the labour department's letter (regulation 14);
• within 24 months, and every two years after: proof that the contribution is invested (section 15);
• at renewal: a fresh application, lodged in person in South Africa at least 60 days before your visa expires (regulation 9(8)(c)), with a South African police clearance and audited statements for the dtic.

Permanent residence on business grounds (section 27(c) of the Act) uses the same R5 million figure. That permit lapses if the holder cannot show, two years after it is issued and three years after that, that the contribution is still invested.

Rules that may change

In April 2026 Cabinet approved a Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection. Home Affairs said it would now draft and table the legislation to put it into effect, and the government's announcement lists a start-up visa among the new categories. A white paper is policy, not law, and its wider changes need an Act of Parliament.

The details of the business visa do not. The Minister of Home Affairs sets the R5 million figure by notice in the Government Gazette, and the 60% rule and the document list sit in regulations the Minister can amend. Any of them can change without new legislation, as the 2024 and 2026 notices on police clearance, medical reports and fees show. Check the Gazette, or ask your adviser, just before you apply, especially if a deal will take a year or more to complete.

Some official and professional sources describe a start-up route inside the current business visa. We found no gazetted rule for one in the 2024 amendments, so until regulations are published, treat the R5 million rules above as the ones that apply, and ask your adviser.

Getting advice, and where we fit

Use an immigration attorney or an experienced immigration practitioner, and ask about their record with business visas. The Act no longer has a section regulating immigration practitioners (section 46 was repealed by the Immigration Amendment Act of 2011), so ask for their professional registration and for references from business visa clients. Expect to need a South African accountant and a bank too; our guide to exchange control covers the bank's side.

We sell businesses; we are not immigration advisers. Dynamic Business Sales sells trading businesses as going concerns, by auction with a reserve or by private treaty. In a private sale, a buyer signs a non-disclosure agreement before learning the business's name, and shows proof of funds before seeing the books. If you are not a South African citizen, you can open an account in our online auction room with your passport number. Like every bidder, you complete FICA (anti-money-laundering) verification before you can bid, and bids, deposits and fees are in South African rand: see how to register and bid online. For buyers abroad, start with buying a South African business from abroad, browse businesses for sale, or read about buying a lodge or guest house.

Selling to a buyer who will move here? Have your staff list ready by role and by citizenship or residence status, because the buyer's visa turns on the 60% test, and expect a private buyer to ask for the sale to be conditional on the visa, with a date by which it must be granted. See selling your business to a foreign buyer, or start with business sales.