Immigration is one branch of the Department of Home Affairs, separate from civic services such as IDs and birth certificates. There is no separate immigration call centre: the department runs a single contact centre for everything, and most visa and permit applications are lodged at VFS Global centres rather than at a Home Affairs office.
Official contact channels
- Home Affairs Contact Centre: 0800 60 11 90, the number the department publishes for its head office and nationally
- Contact centre email: [email protected]
- Visa verification enquiries: [email protected], the mailbox the department publishes for confirming whether a visa is genuine
- Department head office is in Pretoria, Gauteng
- Provincial manager and provincial office contacts are published per province on the Home Affairs contact pages
Note that the contact centre cannot give a decision on an application. It can confirm status and process, but the adjudication sits with the immigration branch.
What the immigration branch covers
- South African visas, including the critical skills visa, and the published list of visa-exempt countries
- Permanent residency applications
- Published turnaround times for visas and permits, which is the page to check before phoning about a delay
- Overstay appeals and prohibition appeals, for people declared undesirable or prohibited
- The Zimbabwean Exemption Permit and the Lesotho Exemption Permit dispensations
- Refugee status and asylum, including the schedule for asylum seekers
- Compliance and cancellation of visas, ports of entry, and repatriation refunds
Where applications are actually lodged
- Most temporary residence and permanent residence applications inside South Africa are submitted at a VFS Global centre by appointment. Home Affairs publishes the list of VFS Global offices on its own website
- Applications from outside South Africa go through the South African mission in that country. Home Affairs publishes a list of DHA service centres abroad
- Passport and smart ID services, including the online application route and participating bank branches, are civic services rather than immigration
- Take original documents plus certified copies to any appointment, and keep the receipt and reference number, which is what any follow-up depends on
Escalation
- Check the published turnaround time for your application type first. An application inside the stated window will not be escalated
- If it is outside the window, contact the centre on 0800 60 11 90 or [email protected] with your reference number, application date and the office where it was lodged, and ask for a case reference
- The department publishes a Service Delivery Charter and a PAIA manual, which set out service standards and how to request records formally
Sources
- Department of Home Affairs website, for the contact centre number, the contact centre mailbox and the visa verifications mailbox
- Department of Home Affairs head office contact page, for the Pretoria head office and the national contact number
- Department of Home Affairs immigration section, for the visa, permanent residency, critical skills, exemption permit, appeals, asylum, ports of entry and turnaround time pages, and for the published lists of VFS Global offices and service centres abroad