The Department of Home Affairs has opened five additional centers in China, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba announced on Wednesday.
“We now have established centers in Wuhan, Xi’an, Shenyang, Hangzhou and Jinan. This brings to nine, the total number of visa facilitation centers in China, marking South Africa as the second highest footprint after Britain and the highest among the BRICS partners,” Gigaba said. He added that the department has seen an increase in visa application volumes from China. “These new visa application centers will help us to cater to the growing demand while making application processes easier for applicants.”
The department announced last month that it has 25 visa applications centres in nine high-volume tourism markets around the world.
“This poses a challenge to all of us to begin the real work of promoting South Africa as a prime tourist destination despite various positions we adopted when we introduced the immigration regulations,” he said. “The onus is on all of us to strive towards creating an environment conducive for our economy to thrive amidst this difficult global outlook whilst balancing our security imperatives.”
