New Home Affairs directive waives medical certificate requirement for visa and permanent residence applications

Medical report

On 08 July 2026, the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber waived the following requirement for temporary and permanent residence applications -

Medical Certificate:

Previously a medical certificate needed to be obtained to show proof that the applicants were in good health and did not carry any infectious diseases.

The conditions of this new directive are effective from 08 July 2026. Our advice would be to add a copy of said directive to the visa as well as permanent residence applications just to be safe. This directive is also applicable to applications currently pending adjudication.

Lastly, as the directive also addresses Consular Sections and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the same is applicable to all South African missions abroad and not just the VFS offices in South Africa.

Should you require any further information about this new directive, please reach out to us via our Contact Form on www.movingsouthimmigration.com or via telephone / email on +2773 5357 534 and sue@movingsouthimmigration.com.

We look forward to engaging with you!