US visa interviews
Since 1 August 2026 the US consulate in Durban no longer offers routine visa interviews. South Africans apply in Johannesburg or Cape Town.
Where can I travel with a South African passport?
A South African passport gets you into 60 countries visa-free and 27 more with a visa on arrival. Another 42 offer an e-Visa or online authorisation, and 69 need an embassy visa or are closed for now. In Africa, 28 of the 53 other countries let you in without arranging a visa first.
Visa-free60
Visa on arrival27
e-Visa or online42
Embassy visa or no entry69
Last checkedChecked17 Oct 2026
Your passport on the map
Hover over or tap a country for details. Every country is also listed below the map.
What’s changed for South African passports
Schengen visas
5.3% of Schengen visa applications from South Africa were refused in 2025 (the worldwide average was about 15%). That’s one of the lowest refusal rates in Africa. Read the Schengen guide.
United Kingdom
South African passport holders need a UK Standard Visitor visa: £135 since 8 April 2026. Read the UK guide.
Thailand
Thailand replaced its 60-day visa exemption on 15 September 2026. South African passport holders can now stay visa-free for up to 30 days.
Kenya
South African passport holders can visit Kenya without a visa or eTA for up to 90 days (Legal Notice 93 of 2025). Kenya’s own eTA site may not show this yet, so check the IATA Travel Centre before you fly.
Sri Lanka
South African passport holders need Sri Lanka’s online ETA (US$50; not on Sri Lanka’s free list).
Easiest trips in Africa
No visa to arrange before you go:
- Cabo Verde · visa on arrival
- Gabon · up to 30 days
- Burundi · visa on arrival
- Djibouti · visa on arrival
- Ethiopia · visa on arrival
- Kenya · up to 90 days
- Rwanda · up to 30 days
- Tanzania · up to 90 days
- Comoros · visa on arrival
- Madagascar · visa on arrival
- Mauritius · up to 90 days
- Seychelles · up to 90 days
- Tunisia · up to 90 days
- Angola · up to 30 days
- Botswana · up to 90 days
- Eswatini · up to 30 days
- Lesotho · visa-free
- Malawi · up to 90 days
- Mozambique · up to 30 days
- Namibia · up to 90 days
- Zambia · up to 90 days
- Zimbabwe · up to 90 days
- Benin · up to 90 days
- Ghana · up to 90 days
- Guinea-Bissau · visa on arrival
- Senegal · visa on arrival
- Sierra Leone · visa on arrival
- The Gambia · up to 90 days
Every destination, by entry type
Visa-free 60 destinations
Southern Africa
- Angola · up to 30 days
- Botswana · up to 90 days
- Eswatini · up to 30 days
- Lesotho · visa-free
- Malawi · up to 90 days
- Mozambique · up to 30 days
- Namibia · up to 90 days
- Zambia · up to 90 days
- Zimbabwe · up to 90 days
East Africa
West Africa
- Benin · up to 90 days
- Ghana · up to 90 days
- The Gambia · up to 90 days
Central Africa
- Gabon · up to 30 days
North Africa
- Tunisia · up to 90 days
Indian Ocean islands
- Mauritius · up to 90 days
- Seychelles · up to 90 days
Europe
- Russia · up to 90 days
Middle East
- Palestine · visa-free
East Asia
Southeast Asia
- Malaysia · up to 90 days
- Philippines · up to 30 days
- Singapore · up to 30 days
- Thailand · up to 30 days
Central Asia and the Caucasus
- Georgia · up to 360 days
Central America
- Belize · visa-free
- Costa Rica · up to 180 days
- El Salvador · up to 180 days
- Guatemala · up to 90 days
- Honduras · up to 90 days
- Nicaragua · up to 90 days
- Panama · up to 90 days
Caribbean
- Antigua and Barbuda · up to 180 days
- Bahamas · up to 90 days
- Barbados · up to 180 days
- Dominica · up to 180 days
- Dominican Republic · up to 30 days
- Grenada · up to 90 days
- Haiti · up to 90 days
- Jamaica · visa-free
- Saint Lucia · up to 42 days
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines · up to 90 days
- Trinidad and Tobago · up to 90 days
South America
- Argentina · up to 90 days
- Bolivia · up to 90 days
- Brazil · up to 90 days
- Chile · up to 90 days
- Ecuador · up to 90 days
- Guyana · up to 30 days
- Paraguay · up to 90 days
- Peru · up to 180 days
- Uruguay · up to 90 days
- Venezuela · up to 90 days
Oceania
- Fiji · up to 120 days
- Kiribati · up to 90 days
- Micronesia · up to 30 days
- Vanuatu · up to 120 days
Visa on arrival 27 destinations
East Africa
West Africa
- Guinea-Bissau · visa on arrival
- Senegal · visa on arrival
- Sierra Leone · visa on arrival
Indian Ocean islands
- Comoros · visa on arrival
- Madagascar · visa on arrival
Atlantic islands
- Cabo Verde · visa on arrival
Middle East
- Iran · visa on arrival
- Jordan · visa on arrival
- Oman · visa on arrival
- Qatar · visa on arrival
- Saudi Arabia · visa on arrival
Southeast Asia
- Cambodia · visa on arrival
- Indonesia · visa on arrival
- Laos · visa on arrival
- Timor-Leste · visa on arrival
South Asia
Central Asia and the Caucasus
- Armenia · visa on arrival
- Kyrgyzstan · visa on arrival
- Tajikistan · visa on arrival
Oceania
- Marshall Islands · visa on arrival
- Palau · visa on arrival
- Samoa · visa on arrival
- Tuvalu · visa on arrival
e-Visa or online authorisation 42 destinations
East Africa
- Somalia · e-visa
- South Sudan · e-visa
- Uganda · e-visa
West Africa
- Burkina Faso · e-visa
- Côte d’Ivoire · online authorisation
- Guinea · e-visa
- Mauritania · e-visa
- Nigeria · e-visa
- Togo · e-visa
Central Africa
- Cameroon · e-visa
- Chad · e-visa
- DR Congo · e-visa
- Equatorial Guinea · e-visa
North Africa
Atlantic islands
- São Tomé and Príncipe · e-visa
Europe
Middle East
- Bahrain · e-visa
- Iraq · e-visa
- Israel · online authorisation
- Syria · e-visa
- Türkiye · e-visa
- United Arab Emirates · e-visa
East Asia
- Japan · e-visa
- Mongolia · e-visa
- South Korea · online authorisation
Southeast Asia
South Asia
Central Asia and the Caucasus
- Azerbaijan · e-visa
- Kazakhstan · e-visa
Caribbean
- Cuba · e-visa
- Saint Kitts and Nevis · online authorisation
South America
Oceania
- Australia · e-visa
- Papua New Guinea · online authorisation
Embassy visa, or not possible now 69 destinations
East Africa
- Eritrea · embassy visa
West Africa
Central Africa
- Central African Republic · embassy visa
- Republic of the Congo · embassy visa
North Africa
Europe
- Andorra · embassy visa
- Austria · embassy visa
- Belarus · embassy visa
- Belgium · embassy visa
- Bosnia and Herzegovina · embassy visa
- Bulgaria · embassy visa
- Croatia · embassy visa
- Cyprus · embassy visa
- Czechia · embassy visa
- Denmark · embassy visa
- Estonia · embassy visa
- Finland · embassy visa
- France · embassy visa
- Germany · embassy visa
- Greece · embassy visa
- Hungary · embassy visa
- Iceland · embassy visa
- Ireland · embassy visa
- Italy · embassy visa
- Kosovo · embassy visa
- Latvia · embassy visa
- Liechtenstein · embassy visa
- Lithuania · embassy visa
- Luxembourg · embassy visa
- Malta · embassy visa
- Monaco · embassy visa
- Montenegro · embassy visa
- Netherlands · embassy visa
- North Macedonia · embassy visa
- Norway · embassy visa
- Poland · embassy visa
- Portugal · embassy visa
- Romania · embassy visa
- San Marino · embassy visa
- Serbia · embassy visa
- Slovakia · embassy visa
- Slovenia · embassy visa
- Spain · embassy visa
- Sweden · embassy visa
- Switzerland · embassy visa
- United Kingdom · embassy visa
- Vatican City · embassy visa
Middle East
East Asia
- China · embassy visa
- North Korea · embassy visa
- Taiwan · embassy visa
Southeast Asia
- Brunei · embassy visa
South Asia
- Afghanistan · embassy visa
- Bangladesh · embassy visa
Central Asia and the Caucasus
- Turkmenistan · embassy visa
- Uzbekistan · embassy visa
North America
- Canada · embassy visa
- Mexico · embassy visa
- United States · embassy visa
Oceania
- Nauru · embassy visa
- New Zealand · embassy visa
- Solomon Islands · embassy visa
- Tonga · embassy visa
Detailed guides for South Africans
Visa-free
Mauritius
Visa-freeSeychelles
Visa-freeTanzania and Zanzibar
Visa-freeKenya
Visa-freeNamibia
Visa-freeBotswana
Visa-freeMozambique
Visa-freeZimbabwe
Visa-freeZambia
Visa on arrivalMadagascar
e-VisaEgypt
Embassy visaMorocco
Visa-freeRwanda
e-VisaUnited Arab Emirates (Dubai)
e-VisaTürkiye
Visa on arrivalJordan
Visa on arrivalQatar
Visa-freeThailand
Visa on arrivalIndonesia (Bali)
e-VisaVietnam
Visa-freeMalaysia
Visa-freeSingapore
Visa on arrivalMaldives
Online authorisationSri Lanka
e-VisaJapan
Visa-freeBrazil
Visa-freeArgentina
Embassy visaUnited Kingdom
Embassy visaUnited States
Embassy visaEurope (Schengen area)
Sources and checks
How current is this? Entry types come from an open visa dataset updated 17 Feb 2026, corrected where newer official notices show a change (checked 17 Oct 2026). The notes above were checked against the sources below. Rules change without notice: confirm with the embassy or official immigration site, and check your route on the IATA Travel Centre before you book.
- dataPassport Index Data (visa matrix for 199 passports, updated 17 Feb 2026) · imorte, continuing the dataset by Ilya Ilyankou (MIT licence) · published 17 Feb 2026
- secondaryState Department consolidates visa processing to regional hubs in Africa · Harvard International Office · published 28 Jul 2026
- secondaryMore than 10 million Schengen visas issued in 2025 · VisasNews (European Commission data) · published 28 May 2026
- secondaryAfrican travellers hit hard by soaring Schengen rejections (2024 data) · Africanews · published 26 May 2025
- secondarySA Schengen visa demand rises (2025 statistics) · Travelnews · published 2 Jun 2026
- officialApply for a Standard Visitor visa · GOV.UK · no date shown
- secondaryUK immigration fee changes from 8 April 2026 · Bates Wells · published March 2026
- officialNew 30-day and 15-day visa exemption rules from 15 September 2026 · Tourism Authority of Thailand · published 1 Sep 2026
- secondaryKenya broadens eTA exemptions for African and other nationals (Legal Notice 93 of 2025) · Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr · published 24 Jul 2025
- officialFree tourist visas for nationals of 40 selected countries · Department of Immigration and Emigration, Sri Lanka · published 25 May 2026
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