Are you struggling to find local South African labour to fill positions in your company? Does your company want to transfer employees from abroad? Or is it just that you have a suitable candidate for a position that happens to be a foreign immigrant?
You will most likely find that one of the South African corporate visa options meets your needs. The summaries below will help you understand all the options available to you when you want to employ foreign workers. Click on the headings to go to the relevant pages for more in-depth information.
Corporate Visa
A corporate visa allows a company to apply for permission to recruit a large number of foreign workers. Once the visa is obtained, individual certificates are issued. These certificates provide a cost effective method of obtaining visas for individual workers and fast-tracks the applications too.
Intra-company Transfer Work Visa
The intra-company transfer work visa is applicable to companies that have operations abroad and in South Africa, as well as to companies setting up in South Africa. It allows for the temporary transfer of staff between the two entities for a set period of time.
Critical Skills Work Visa
South Africa has skill shortage areas that can be filled by the recruitment of foreign workers. The visa is applied for by the individual worker, but foreign workers who meet the criteria of the critical skills visa, i.e. their occupation is on the South African skills shortage list, are good candidates for employment. No job offer is needed in order to obtain the visa and foreign immigrants can change jobs on a critical skills work visa, which puts less obligation on the South African employer.
General Work Visa
If the company is not a holder of a corporate work visa, is not a subsidiary, sister branch or affiliate of a company abroad, or where the foreign worker is not eligible for a critical skills visa, the remaining option is a general work visa. In order to employ a foreign worker on a general work visa, a South African employer must be able to show that suitable efforts have been made to recruit a South African citizen or permanent resident.
Contact Intergate Immigration today
For specific advice based on your company’s needs, call Intergate Immigration today to speak to one of our experienced consultants. Our team has helped thousands of corporates with immigration and employment of foreign workers.
You can reach us at +27 (0) 21 424 2460. Alternatively, complete our free online assessment or request a call back and we will contact you to further discuss your South African corporate visa options.