South Africa opens international leisure travel – with restrictions.

South African Department of Home affairs crest - img

The South African Government has officially opened up international travel to and from South Africa under its level 1 restrictions. There are however restrictions on leisure travel from a number of countries that still pose a higher risk. For all approved countries, if you are looking to skip a mandatory 14-day quarantine, you will need to provide a negative COVID-19 certificate, not older than 72 hours (before departure) and that has been certified by a registered medical practitioner.

Countries still under restrictions

Albania Argentina Armenia
Austria Bahrain Belgium
Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil
Chile Colombia Costa Rica
Croatia Czech Republic Denmark
Ecuador France Georgia
Greece Guatemala Guyana
Honduras Hungary Iceland
France Georgia Gibralta
India Iran Iraq
Ireland Israel Jamaica
Jordan Kuwait Lebanon
Luxemborg Maldives Malta
Mexico Moldova Montenegro
Nepal Netherlands Morth Macedonia
Oman Palestine Panama
Parguay Peru Portugal
Puerto Rico Qatar Romania
Russia Slovakia Suriname
Switzerland Ukraine United Emirates
United Kingdom United States Venezuela

Any person from a country listed as having a high COVID-19 infection and transmission rate, who wish to undertake business travel into South Africa, may with effect from 01 October 2020, in writing, apply to the Minister of Home Affairs and demonstrate reasons for their request to enter the Republic for business purposes during the period of the national state of disaster.

Such applications must be directed to email Covid19BusinessTravel@dha.gov.za 

*updated 30 September 2020