Provider fees and exchange-rate margins from the World Bank's Remittance
Prices Worldwide survey, 2025 Q1. A benchmark for
judging a live quote, not a quote.
If you are applying to join a South African partner, the hardest part of the
application is often not proving you live together. It is proving that your
money does.
The regulations ask for it directly, and most couples find out at the point of
assembling the file.
The requirement, in the regulation's own words
An applicant relying on a permanent relationship rather than a marriage must
submit, among other things:
documentation to prove — (i) the financial support the partners provide to
each other; and (ii) the extent to which the financial and other related
responsibilities are shared
Read that twice, because it is a document request, not a sentiment. Home Affairs
is not asking whether you love each other. It is asking for paper showing
money moving between you and obligations held in common.
In practice that is the evidence a couple naturally accumulates when their
finances are entangled: a joint account, a shared bond or lease, one partner's
salary paying the other's expenses, jointly held policies, shared household
bills, a cohabitation agreement.
And here is the asymmetry nobody warns people about. Keeping finances
separate is increasingly normal — sometimes on principle, sometimes because one
partner was burned before, sometimes just because two people met later in life
with their own arrangements. A couple like that is no less committed. They
simply generate far less of the documentation this regulation asks for.
If you are planning an application, that is worth knowing before the year in
which you apply, not during it. Not because you should manufacture a paper
trail — misrepresentation carries consequences set out below — but because
ordinary financial choices you are making anyway have evidentiary weight you may
not have priced in.
Two years, exclusive, and notarised
The relationship itself must be attested in a notarial agreement signed by
both parties, confirming that it:
has existed for at least two years before the date of application for a
relevant visa and that the relationship still exists to the exclusion of any
other person
and that neither of you is a spouse in an existing marriage or another
permanent relationship.
So: two years of history, exclusivity, and a notary. Where a previous marriage
existed, you also need official documents proving it was dissolved by divorce or
death. Where the relationship was concluded abroad, you need official
recognition of it from the authorities of that country.
You may be interviewed separately
Worth being ready for, because it surprises people:
Both partners ... may be interviewed separately, on the same date and time, to
determine the authenticity of the existence of their relationship
Separately, and simultaneously — which is a design intended to compare two
accounts of the same life. Couples who genuinely share a household answer
consistently without preparation. It is nonetheless an uncomfortable process to
walk into unprepared.
The obligations that continue after you are approved
This is the part most people do not realise they have signed up to, and it runs
for years.
At two years, you must report in. A visa holder in this category must, after
two years from the date of issue, inform the Director-General whether the
relationship still exists — on a prescribed form.
When it ends, you must say so immediately. The obligation is to inform the
Director-General "immediately" once the relationship ceases to exist. The
Director-General may then withdraw the visa.
And misrepresentation is not merely an immigration matter. Where a visa was
acquired through error, misrepresentation or fraud, the regulation requires the
Director-General to withdraw it and, where applicable, to cause criminal
charges to be laid against all parties implicated. Both partners, not just the
applicant.
Permanent residence, and the two years that follow it
The five-year route matters here too, and it carries a condition that outlasts
the grant.
Permanent residence may be issued to someone who has been the spouse of a
citizen or permanent resident for five years, where the Director-General is
satisfied a good faith spousal relationship exists. But:
such permanent residence permit shall lapse if at any time within two years
from the issuing of that permanent residence permit the good faith spousal
relationship no longer subsists, save for the case of death
Five years to qualify, and two more years during which the permit can still
fall away. Bereavement is expressly carved out; separation is not. For anyone
planning around permanent residence as the end of the process, it is worth
knowing the clock keeps running for two years after the certificate arrives.
If family are joining you instead
A different route with a money condition of its own, and one hard limit.
The relative's visa — for someone joining a South African citizen or permanent
resident relative — requires a financial assurance set per person, per month
by the Minister, proven by a current salary advice or a certified bank
statement not older than three months. The published figure is on our
visa financial requirements page;
it is Gazette-determined and changes, so confirm it.
Two features of it are easy to miss.
It is not required where the South African relative is a dependent child.
The regulation carves that case out expressly.
And the holder may not work. The Act is one line about it: the holder of a
relative's visa may not conduct work. A family member joining you on this basis
is not going to be contributing income, which is precisely why the monthly
assurance exists. The visa may be issued for a maximum of two years at a time.
The accompanying partner who can convert without leaving
There is one route in the regulations that treats families differently
depending on what brought them here, and it is worth knowing which side of it
you are on.
As a rule, someone in South Africa on a visitor's visa may not apply to
change their status from inside the country. The regulations then carve out
narrow exceptions — and one of them is an accompanying spouse or child of the
holder of a business or work visa, who wishes to apply for a study or work
visa.
So a partner who came to accompany someone on a work visa is expressly
contemplated as being able to apply, from here, for permission to work or study
in their own right. That is a materially different position from starting again
from abroad, and it changes the household's income arithmetic in the first
year.
The contrast is the part to notice. That exception names the business or work
visa. It does not name the study visa — so the accompanying partner of someone
here to study does not get the same in-country route, a point we set out from
the other direction in
the study visa page.
Two households that look identical from the outside — one partner working, one
partner accompanying — can therefore have quite different options depending on
which visa the first partner holds. If both of you intend to earn, that belongs
in the decision about which route the family enters on, not in a conversation a
year later.
And whichever route applies, the timing rule from elsewhere in the regulations
still governs: an application to change status must be submitted no less than
60 days before the current visa expires.
What this page does not cover
Citizenship. That sits under different legislation which we have not read,
and naturalisation is not the same question as residence.
The Ministerial amounts. Every figure in this area is set by notice in the
Gazette and moves.
Whether your particular relationship qualifies. These are evidence rules,
and how they apply to two real people is a judgement call for an immigration
practitioner — which is a much cheaper conversation before you file than after a
refusal.
About the source
Regulation 3 and regulation 17 of the Immigration Regulations, 2014
(GN R413, consolidated to GN R1328 of 29 November 2018), and sections 18(2) and
26(b) of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002.
Immigration rules and the prescribed amounts change. Confirm with
Home Affairs or a registered immigration
practitioner. This is not immigration advice.
How does this affect YOUR Money OS?
If an application like this is in your future, how you and your partner arrange
money stops being purely a private preference and becomes part of the evidence.
Worth thinking about a year early rather than a month late.
What financial proof does a South African spousal application need?
The regulations ask for documentation proving the financial support the partners
give each other and the extent to which financial and other responsibilities are
shared — joint accounts, shared bills, common obligations.
How long must the relationship have existed?
At least two years before the date of application, attested in a notarial
agreement signed by both partners, and existing to the exclusion of any other
person.
Will we be interviewed?
Possibly. The regulation allows both partners to be interviewed separately, on
the same date and time, to test the authenticity of the relationship.
Do I have to tell Home Affairs if we break up?
Yes — immediately, once the relationship ceases to exist. There is also a
two-year check-in confirming whether it still exists.
Can permanent residence be lost if the relationship ends?
Spousal permanent residence lapses if the good faith relationship no longer
subsists within two years of the permit being issued, other than by death.
Can a relative on a relative's visa work?
No. The Act states the holder of a relative's visa may not conduct work, which
is why a monthly financial assurance is required from the South African
relative.
Is that assurance always required?
It is not required where the South African citizen or permanent resident is a
dependent child.
