South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has issued Immigration Directive No. 7 of 2026, granting travellers who have applied for visa extensions or changes—but whose applications remain pending—an automatic legal-stay “grace period” through 30 June 2027. The move effectively removes the risk of being declared undesirable for thousands of visitors whose temporary visas expired while backlogs accumulated at Home Affairs processing centres. Inbound tour operators welcomed the decision, saying the certainty it provides is a game-changer for high-spending source markets such as China, where itineraries are often arranged months in advance. Chinese arrivals reached 89 percent of pre-pandemic levels in 2025, buoyed by new non-stop services from Shenzhen and Guangzhou and by China’s own unilateral 30-day visa waiver for South Africans unveiled last year.
VisaHQ, an international visa-processing platform, can also help travellers and corporates navigate these shifting requirements. Through its dedicated China page ( users can access real-time updates, document checklists and concierge services that streamline applications for South African visas and many others worldwide, ensuring trips stay on track even as regulations evolve.
Under Directive 7, travellers who filed online or in-person renewal requests before the original expiry of their visitor or business visas may remain in South Africa and re-enter without penalty until the cut-off date, provided they carry a VFS Global submission receipt. The measure also applies to intra-company transfer visa holders awaiting finalisation of long-term work-permit conversions. For Chinese multinational firms rotating engineers to South African mining and renewable-energy projects, the directive removes the need to repatriate staff every 90 days merely to reset visa clocks. HR teams should, however, diarise the new 2027 deadline; unless further extensions are granted, all pending cases must be finalised by then, or employees will again risk overstay bans of up to five years. Home Affairs has pledged to clear the backlog—estimated at 62,000 applications—within 18 months by deploying additional adjudicators and introducing a pilot e-visa portal for corporate applicants in early 2027. If implemented on schedule, the improvements could pave the way for a reciprocal facilitation agreement with China, which has been lobbying for a formal multiple-entry, five-year business visa category.
