A faster way to get a Smart ID card is now available to South Africans, with online applications taking just minutes as Home Affairs expands access to the service.

South Africans can now replace their green ID books with Smart ID cards at participating bank branches, in a move aimed at bringing Home Affairs services closer to communities.

Applications are expected to take between five and 10 minutes, with no need to queue at Home Affairs offices or book an appointment in advance. Instead, applicants can simply walk in, with 17 branches set to launch the service this week.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber says the department delivered on all of its major priorities in 2025 and is now preparing to roll out even bigger reforms in 2026, including Digital ID and expanded Smart ID and passport services at bank branches.

Speaking during the debate on the State of the Nation Address, Schreiber said the Home Affairs ecosystem had committed in 2025 to build the first components of a Digital Identity system, conclude a new digital partnership model with the banking sector, enable naturalised citizens and permanent residents to obtain Smart IDs, and build an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) system using AI and machine learning for tourist visa processing.

According to Schreiber, Home Affairs delivered on each of these pledges and exceeded expectations.

He announced that reforms to the Online Verification Service and upgrades to internal systems had reduced turnaround times for Smart ID and passport applications by 66.7%.

Schreiber said this improvement helped Home Affairs issue a record four million Smart IDs in 2025, describing it as nearly double the previous annual average in efficiency.

He also pointed to the Constitutional Court’s May 2025 ruling, which affirmed that Home Affairs must reinstate the citizenship of South Africans who had been unconstitutionally deprived of it.

Schreiber said that, instead of requiring affected people to stand in long queues and complete extensive paperwork, Home Affairs created an online system that allowed South Africans to verify and confirm the reinstatement of their citizenship through facial recognition within one hour.

He said the technology developed for that portal would also form a key part of the Digital ID system being rolled out in 2026.

Referring to the department’s digital reforms, Schreiber said South Africans can already get “a taste of the future” through the Home Affairs online platform.

He said Digital ID would be the department’s showpiece reform for 2026. With the core biometric technology already live through the citizenship portal, the focus would now shift to developing the front-end user interface.

Through Digital ID, South Africans will be able to access their enabling documents on their mobile phones and remotely verify their identities using secure facial recognition, he said.

Schreiber added that there would still be a need for greater access to secure physical documents such as Smart IDs and passports, even in a digital environment.

He said the first set of bank branches offering these services through the new digital partnership model would be launched within the next few weeks.

According to Schreiber, this would mark “the beginning of the end” for long queues at Home Affairs offices, with people able to walk into local bank branches, including in rural and underserved areas, and apply for a Smart ID in as little as three minutes.

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