Immigration Directive 7 of 2026
DHA Immigration Directive 7 of 2026, issued 1 April 2026, extending the lawful stay of foreign nationals with pending Visa, waiver, or appeal applications to 30 June 2027 and granting waiver applicants re-entry rights.
Immigration Directive 7 of 2026 keeps foreign nationals with pending South African Visa, waiver or appeal applications lawfully in the country until 30 June 2027, buying Home Affairs 15 months against a backlog it admits it cannot clear on time.
Last refreshed: 3 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Does South Africa's 15-month directive actually fix the visa backlog, or just delay the crisis?
Timeline for Immigration Directive 7 of 2026
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Nomads & CommunitiesExtended lawful stay of foreign nationals with pending applications to 30 June 2027
Nomads & Communities: DHA buys 15 months on visa backlogBackground
Immigration Directive 7 of 2026 is an instrument of South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, issued on 1 April 2026 under the Immigration Act. It deems foreign nationals with pending Visa, waiver or appeal applications lawfully present until 30 June 2027, up to 15 months beyond their previous expiry.
The cohort it covers runs across Visa categories, including remote-work applicants, intra-company transfers and work-permit holders waiting on decisions or appeals. Home Affairs has published no count of them.
Directive 7 of 2026 bridges two regimes without reforming either. Cabinet approved a revised immigration White Paper on 3 April 2026, but it has no legal force until Parliament enacts the Acts it needs. Until then the October 2024 Visa framework governs new applicants, and the directive keeps the existing backlog lawful while the department works through it.
The directive buys fifteen months
South Africa's Department of Home Affairs issued the directive on Wednesday 1 April 2026. It extends the lawful stay of every foreign national with a pending Visa, waiver or appeal application to 30 June 2027, and from 1 April lets waiver applicants leave and re-enter the country while they wait. In issuing it, the department admitted it cannot decide applications within the deadlines the law sets.
The directive protects status, not outcomes. Immigration specialist Jaco Brits told EWN that when decisions arrive they are often rejected for unclear or nonsensical reasons, creating a new backlog of appeals. The Helen Suzman Foundation and the Scalabrini Centre continue to litigate the department's delays before the Constitutional Court, and the directive is the department's own written admission of missed deadlines.