The digital nomad visa South Africa is the next one on the list of digital nomad visas. South Africa, and mainly Cape Town, has become a favorite spot for European nomads who want to escape the cold in winter while remaining in the same timezone.
South Africa acknowledges the value of digital nomads. Therefore, they plan to launch the digital nomad visa South Africa.
Current Visa Situation
Many people can stay for 90 days in South Africa as a tourist. In many cases this will even be visa free access due to which you save the hassle of applying for a visa. You can find an updated overview on the website of the South African government.
However, in this case you are technically entering the country as a tourist. Therefore, it’s always questionable if you are allowed to actually work from the country.
Digital Nomad Visa South Africa
In order to get remote workers out of the grey area of working from South Africa while being there on a tourist visa the South African government announced they will launch the digital nomad visa South Africa. Furthermore, this will allow foreigners to spend more time in the country,
Apart from the digital nomad visa, also a critical skills visa will become available. With this last visa South Africa wants to attract foreign talent. With this visa they can work in sectors where there is a shortage in talent. However, this visa focuses on people who are looking to get a job with a South African company. As this will probably not apply to you, we’ll just focus on the digital nomad visa South Africa here.
Requirements
As most digital nomad visa, the digital nomad visa South Africa also has an income requirement. You will need to have a yearly income of at least one million South African Rand. At the current exchange rate this equals around €48.000. I do recommended to double check at the time of applying as in the past the exchange rate of the Rand has fluctuated a bit.
It is still to be seen which other criteria will apply apart from the income requirement. However, you can expect that you will need to provide some form of background check or criminal record and have a health insurance that is valid in South Africa.
Digital Nomad Visa South Africa: Tax Consequences
The exact tax consequences of the digital nomad visa South Africa are still unclear at the time of writing. However, the legislation would provide in an exemption for income taxes and related issues if you spend less than six months in the country. Yet, the income tax code would need some amendments to explicitly add this exemption.
Conclusion
The digital nomad visa South Africa is definitely something to look forward to. We still need to await the publication of the law in order to understand the full details and requirements. Nevertheless, I think this is an interesting option for people who want to work remotely from South Africa.
