South Africa · Business & founder
Business Visa and Permanent Residence (section 27(c))
Open. ZAR 5m capital contribution, waivable or reducible for prescribed priority sectors. Requires a Department of Trade, Industry and Competition recommendation.
For an operator genuinely building something in South Africa this works, and the sector waivers can take the capital requirement to nil. For a passive UHNW family it is strictly worse than the Financially Independent Permit — more money, more conditions, more scrutiny, and an ongoing 60% local employment obligation.
Qualifying routes
must be capital introduced from abroad; roughly USD 270-290k
capital requirement may be reduced or waived for ICT, clothing and textiles, chemicals and biotechnology, agro-processing, metals and minerals refinement, automotive manufacturing, tourism and crafts
The facts
- Minimum investment
- 5M ZAR
- Total landed cost
- ZAR 5m of capital actually deployed, plus roughly ZAR 150-400k in DTIC application work, business plans, chartered accountant certification and legal fees. Permanent residence adds the ZAR 120,000 outcome fee.
- Timeline
- 8–30 months — the DTIC recommendation alone commonly takes 6-12 months, then DHA adjudication follows
- Physical presence
- Expected to actively run the business; the temporary visa is issued for up to 3 years
- Family
- spouse or life partnerdependent children
- Permanent residency
- Section 27(c) permanent residence available where the capital is invested and the business criteria are met
- Citizenship
- Naturalisation after 5 years of permanent residence plus physical presence tests
- Language test
- must be able to communicate in one of the 12 official languages
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- ZAR 5m capital contribution from abroad certified by a chartered accountantDTIC recommendationbusiness planundertaking that 60% of staff will be South African citizens or permanent residentsregistration with SARS, UIF, Compensation Fund and the relevant professional body
- The 60% local employment condition is a permanent operating constraint: at least 60% of total staff must be South African citizens or permanent residents in permanent positions, and it is audited on renewal.
- The DTIC recommendation is a discretionary bottleneck with no service standard and is the most common point of failure.
- If the capital is not yet invested at application it must be introduced within two years and evidenced — a chartered accountant must certify the ZAR 5m is available and sourced from abroad.
- The FIP dominates this route for passive families: ZAR 12m of net worth you already own, versus ZAR 5m you must actually spend, employ people with, and justify to two departments.
- Business visa renewals are refused for non-compliance with the employment ratio and the business plan more often than the initial grant is refused.
- Full South African tax residence follows, with worldwide taxation at 45% and the section 9H exit charge on the way out.