How to get a passport
Travelling around South Africa and to other countries is exciting, but if you do not have a passport you cannot leave the country.
Passports take time to get ready, so if you are planning a trip, make sure you give yourself enough time to get your passport issued to you.
South African passports and travel documents are printed only in Pretoria, from where they are dispatched to the offices of application.
Applications made in South Africa can be submitted to any office of the Department of Home Affairs, while applications made outside of the country can be submitted to your nearest South African embassy or mission.
“Applicants should note that in terms of section 26(B) of the South African Citizenship Act, 1995, it is a punishable offence for a South African citizen of 18 years and older to leave or enter South Africa on a foreign passport,” says Dirk Janse van Noordwyk from the Nigel branch of Home Affairs.
It is important to know that when you apply for a passport, whether in South Africa or overseas, you must apply in person because the passport officer must be satisfied that your identity is legal and valid, the passport officer must check that your photograph is a true image of yourself; and your fingerprints must be taken for people who are aged 16 years or older and checked against the National Population Register.
If a family is applying for passports, each family member must fill out a different form and they must all be present when applying.
If you are over 16 years old, you must present your ID book and if you are under 16 your birth certificate must be provided.
If you don’t have a valid regular passport and you need to travel urgently, you can apply for a temporary passport or an emergency travel document.
“Some countries don’t accept temporary passports or emergency travel documents. You must check this with the relevant authorities of the country you intend to visit before applying for one,” says Janse van Noordwyk.
There is a fee applicable for all travel documents but if the passport is lost, stolen or damaged and is done so through the owner’s negligence, an amount double the normal fee is charged. If the passport has been lost, you must provide a loss of passport report and confirmation that you reported it to the police.
Passports and maxi tourist passports are only issued to SA citizens 16 years or older. These are valid for 10 years. Maxi tourist passports for people under 16 are only valid for five years.
“Passports cannot be renewed. Once the validity period of a passport expires you will have to submit a new application for a passport,” says Janse van Noordwyk.
Temporary passports are issued to people who urgently need to travel, have applied for a passport and the passport is still being processed.
If you are a South African permanent residence permit holder and you can’t get travel documents from your country of origin, you can apply for a document for travel purposes. This is only valid for five years.
“If you need to urgently travel out of the country for reasons of death, sickness or other emergency or urgent matter, you can apply for an emergency travel certificate which will only be valid for nine months and only for a single trip,” says Janse van Noordwyk.
To get an emergency travel document you need to adhere to very specific rules on what to submit.
You need to give written motivation for the issuing of it along with any proof of the urgency of the trip such as confirmation of funeral arrangements, or a doctor’s letter confirming sickness, as well as a schedule of your travel arrangements.
