South Africa has two kinds of arrival, and which one you get depends on your passport. If you hold a passport from a visa-exempt country, which includes the United Kingdom, most of the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, you can enter without a visa for up to 90 days with nothing more than a valid passport, a return ticket and an address. If you do not, you need a visa, and increasingly that means an electronic travel authorisation applied for online before you fly.
The rules around the edges are where people come unstuck, and there are three of them: how long the passport must be valid, what children need, and whether a yellow fever certificate is required because of where you have been.
The passport, and the electronic authorisation
The passport must be valid for at least a month from the date of arrival, which is a shorter requirement than the six months many countries in the region ask for, and it needs a couple of blank pages for the stamp. Check the rules for anywhere you are travelling to after South Africa as well, because assuming that every country in Africa wants six months is as bad as assuming none of them do.
For visa-required nationalities, South Africa has been moving to an electronic travel authorisation handled by the Department of Home Affairs. It was launched in September 2025, opened to the first group of countries later that year, and has been extended since, so the position for your nationality is worth checking on the official portal rather than on a blog, including this one. Apply early: processing times move, and the system has been through several changes in a short period.
Travelling with children
This is the requirement that most often stops families at the gate, and it is worth reading twice. Children travelling to South Africa may be asked for an unabridged birth certificate, which is the version that lists both parents, and a child travelling with only one parent, or with an adult who is not a parent, may also be asked for a letter of consent from the absent parent, with copies of their passport.
The rules have been amended more than once, so the current position is worth confirming before you travel, but the practical advice does not change: carry the originals, not photographs; carry the certificates for every child; and if you are travelling with somebody else’s child, sort the paperwork out well in advance. This is not something that can be resolved at the airport, and families have been turned away for want of a document that takes minutes to produce and weeks to obtain.
Health, return tickets and what you will be asked
A yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from a country where yellow fever is present, which matters for anyone combining South Africa with a stop in West or Central Africa. The vaccination takes ten days to become valid, so plan it with the rest of your travel medicine.
At the desk you may be asked for a return or onward ticket, an address for your first night and evidence that you can support yourself for the trip. Have all three ready: the booking on your phone, the hotel address written down as well, and a rough itinerary, especially if you are arriving on a one-way ticket and leaving from a different city.
At the border, and the things worth knowing
Arrival at OR Tambo or Cape Town International is a queue, a passport check and a stamp, and the queue is the part to plan for: an hour is normal on a busy morning, and two is not unknown. Have the address of your first night ready, have the return ticket accessible without a working data connection, and keep the passport in your hand rather than in a bag in the hold.
Two habits make the process easier. Fill in any arrival form before you reach the desk, and keep it with the passport rather than folded into a pocket. And be sceptical of anybody who offers to help you through immigration for a fee: informal porters and drivers are a normal part of an airport, but nobody legitimate charges for a queue, and the people in uniform do not need paying.
South Africa collects biometric data from arriving foreign nationals at its main airports, which means a fingerprint scanner as well as a stamp, and the process is quick. Keep the entry stamp in mind, because it states the date you must leave by, and that date, rather than the duration on any website, is what matters. If you plan to leave and re-enter, check whether your visa or entry permission allows it, because a single-entry visa does not, and the difference is discovered at the border of a neighbouring country rather than at home.
Extensions and overstays
If you want to stay longer than your permitted period, extensions are handled inside the country by the Department of Home Affairs, and they need to be applied for before your current permission runs out. Overstaying is treated seriously, with bans on re-entry that range from a year to several, and the way to avoid the whole subject is to check the stamps you were given when you arrived and count the days properly.
South African entry is straightforward for most visitors and fiddly for a few, and the fiddly cases are predictable: visa-required nationalities, families with children, and anybody arriving from a yellow fever country. Deal with those before you book the flights, and the border itself will be a queue and a stamp.