New jobs added to South Africa’s critical skills list
The Department of Home Affairs has gazetted a revised critical skills list for South Africa, which now includes veterinary jobs.
The department has added veterinarians and veterinary nurses to the list, which now comprises 142 skilled positions overall.
Vets diagnose and treat diseases and injuries or dysfunctions in animals. The listing does not specify any particular field and would apply to all veterinary specialisations.
To qualify for expedited visas on a critical skills basis, a vet would need a Bachelor of Veterinary Science (NQF level 8) or a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery (NQF level 8).
These qualifications have to be recognised by the relevant professional body or council.
For veterinary nurses to qualify for the process, a national diploma of veterinary nursing (NQF level 6) is required, which also has to be recognised by the relevant bodies.
People who meet the requirements can apply for a critical skills visa or a permanent residence permit.
According to the department, critical skills visas are not work-seeker visas and must be accompanied by an offer of employment from employers who are verifiable and in good standing with the Department of Employment and Labour.
The critical skills list was last updated in August 2022, when 39 jobs were added to the list, mostly related to healthcare.
This included dental specialists, medical specialists, nurses and pharmacists.
The newly revised critical skills list can be read here.
The critical skills list was updated in 2022 for the first time since 2014 as part of the government’s drive to draw skilled professionals to South Africa to address the local skills shortage.
However, the list is not perfect, according to immigration experts, and needs to be constantly revised to keep up to date with the country’s shifting needs.
It also becomes moot in the face of the country’s ongoing visa application crisis, where the Department of Home Affairs is stuck with a backlog of over 70,000 visas that need to be processed.
In September, the DHA’s Acting Chief Director of Permits Phindiwe Mbhele said the department’s backlog has increased to over 74,000.
This is a large increase from the backlog of over 60,000 flagged by the department last year. The department previously said that it was expecting to clear the backlog by mid-2024 at the earliest.
Despite a backlog eradication project, Mbhele admitted that the number of outstanding permits is increasing.
Xpatweb Managing Director of Xpatweb Marissa Jacobs noted that there has been an improvement in the issuing time of visas and that many corporate employers and international employees are satisfied with the results.
However, she stressed that there is a much higher first-time rejection rate of work visa applications.
Xpatweb said that many of these applications are rejected for unlawful reasons, with applications then having to go through an appeal process. This results in a huge backlog of appeals at the DHA, leading to further delays.
However, Mbhele argued that the rejection rate has only slightly increased from below 25% to 26%.
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