South African Citizenship

South Africa Citizenship General information:
Achieving South African citizenship, when immigrating to South Africa, is often a ‘three step’ process. An immigrant cannot simply apply for citizenship straight away but must first hold permanent residency. As permanent residency can take up to 30 months (in some cases longer) to achieve, immigrants mainly first apply for temporary residency, whilst waiting for their permanent residency to be approved.

Please remember that South African citizenship is not a right it’s a privilege

Citizenship can be applied under the following categories:

• Birth
• Decent
• Naturalisation
• Civic Services

• Re-register a child born out of wedlock.
• Change forename and surname of a minor.
• Change gender.
• Correction of error(s).
• Death Registration.
• Application for a death certificate.
• Marriage registration.
• Application for a marriage certificate.
• Register a birth (late registrations):
• Application for a birth certificate
• Registration of Foreign Birth
• Application for Naturalization
• Application for Retention of citizenship
• Application for resumption of citizenship
• Application for renunciation of citizenship
• Passport applications