With less than three months until the festive season, the clock is ticking for South Africans planning to travel overseas.
New Zealand has issued an advisory informing travellers to submit their tourist visa applications at least two months before their planned trip, especially during the peak summer season. On top of this, the cost of a holiday visa will go up from R2,315 to R3,740 on Tuesday.
Lynette Machiri of Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa said: “We expect to see a significant Christmas backlog for New Zealand visa applications, which is why the proposed visa application deadline for Christmas travel is 15 October.”
VFS Global, an international company that manages visa, passport and consular services, said this week that its 2024 data on the volumes for all visa application it processed in South Africa showed that demand is at the same levels seen last year and in 2019.
A spokesperson for the company told the Sunday Times that Canada was the top outbound travel spot, followed by Schengen countries such as Italy and the Netherlands.
“With the upcoming launch of our UK visa application centres and Australia biometric collection centres in South Africa in the coming months, we expect outbound travel demand in 2025 to exceed pre-pandemic levels,” he said.
Key drivers were pent-up demand from 2022 and the reopening of in-campus classes by overseas universities.
But while Canada continues to be a top destination, there is a significant backlog in the processing of visas.
The average processing time for a Canadian visitor's visa is now 224 days, more than seven months, from the date of biometric collection, according to Flight Centre. The Canadian government website and agency Visas Unlimited says the average is 154 days, or just over five months. A tourism visa costs R1,297.
“It’s a bucket list destination for many South Africans, but it definitely isn’t worth attempting to holiday in Canada this year,” Machiri said. “Give yourself at least eight to nine months ahead of your travels to ensure all necessary visa processing can be factored in.”
Travel agent Mandy Peacock of Travelstay, who has been in the industry for 23 years, said the long wait for Canadian visas was a challenge and agreed that people wanting to travel there should apply well over six months in advance.
“It’s been like this for couple of years and I don’t really know why. It’s crazy, because even a US visa that’s also very strict takes less than a week these days,” she said.
“I have a client family where the son was getting married in August. The mom and daughter already had valid visas, so the dad, son and his girlfriend applied. They did their biometrics at the beginning of May. They ended up missing the wedding and their visas still haven’t come through and it’s almost October,” Peacock said.
I have other clients in Australia who applied six months in advance for Canadian visas. It took well over 200 days to finally get the visa on the day before she flew out
— Travel agent Mandy Peacock
“I have other clients in Australia who applied six months in advance for Canadian visas. It took well over 200 days to finally get the visa on the day before she flew out.”
Repeated efforts to reach the Canadian High Commission were unsuccessful.
Trade publication Travel News reported in January last year that Canadian High Commission representative Chris Cooter said CA$85m (about R1.1bn) had been earmarked to deal with the delays, and that more staff were being trained and the process had been digitised.
As of this week, the processing of UK visa applications was taking up to four weeks from the date of biometric appointment, which can be secured within a week or two through online bookings, with priority options available. The holiday visa costs from R2,798.
Australian holiday visas cost R2,326. The process takes about four or five weeks, with processing from the biometric appointment being 14 days.
UAE visas cost R379. According to Machiri, it’s one of the most hassle-free application processes, taking up to seven days for the granting of a single-entry visa and 10 days for multiple entries.
Europe’s Schengen visa is priced from R1,572. Processing times are standard at about 15 days, though how quickly a biometric appointment can be booked depends on the popularity of the destination. Sweden, Denmark and Croatia offer appointments quicker than Belgium, Italy and France — with the availability of appointments changing hourly based on demand.
Machiri advised travellers to plan well in advance.
She said savvy South African travellers were turning to visa-free destinations such as Bali and Thailand as affordable, accessible meeting points to spend time with loved ones scattered across the globe.
“Swapping pricey London trips for adventures in Turkey with UK relatives is a great option, as is enjoying a tropical Mauritian getaway with Aussie family members.”
These countries, she said, offered value in terms of rand exchange and no complex visa processes.
Those opting out of the visa process for their holidays are heading to Singapore, the Maldives, Thailand, Bali and Zanzibar — with Mauritius topping the list year-round as the top international holiday spot favoured by South Africans, according to Flight Centre.
“The rand is currently stronger than the Indonesian rupiah, the Tanzanian shilling, and the Thai baht, which means greater affordability even when travelling during the peak holiday season,” said Machiri.
