South African Department of Home Affairs

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Wednesday, July 09, 2008

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South African Passports and Travel Documents

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South African Passport and Travel Documents Act, 1994, (Act No 4 of 1994) hereinafter referred to as "the Act", and the Regulations issued in terms of the Act regulate the issuing of South African passports and travel documents.

Types of documents

The following passports and travel documents are issued:

Tourist passport	Issued to South African citizens 16 years and older Valid for a maximum period of 10 years Processing period: 6 weeks Tariff: R176.00(32 Page) R352.00 (64 Page)
Child passport	Issued to children under 16 years Valid for a maximum period of 5 years Processing period: 6 weeks Tariff: R133.00
Temporary Passport	Issued only to South African citizens who must travel urgently for a valid reason and cannot wait for their proper passports to be issued Valid for a maximum of 12 months Processing period: 1 week Tariff: R85.00
Official passport	Issued to officials attached to government institutions who have to travel on official business Valid for a maximum period of 5 years Tariff: Free
Document for Travel Purposes	Issued to South African permanent residence holders who cannot obtain travel facilities from their countries of origin,and stateless persons lawfully residing in South Africa Valid for a maximum period of 5 years Processing period: 6 weeks Tariff: R128.00
Crew Member Certificate	Issued to South Africans who are crew members of an airline registered in South Africa Valid for as long as they remain a crew member of the airline Tariff: Free
Emergency Travel Certificate	Issued to South African citizens and the categories listed under Document for Travel Purposes where circumstances necessitate urgent travel and there is not enough time to wait for a proper passport or travel document to be issued Valid for a maximum period of 9 months and only for a single journey Processing period: 1 week Tariff: R64.00

Application procedures

All applications must be on a duly completed on BI-73 application form and must be lodged personally at a Home Affairs domestic office or a South African Embassy or Mission, if abroad. The applicant must satisfy the passport officer of his or her identity, his or her photographs will be checked to ensure that they are a true image of the applicant, and his or her fingerprints (applicants 16 years or older) will be taken for checking against the Population Register.

The instruction page to the BI-73 contains further information on the application processes and prescribed fees.

Security features

To curb fraudulent applications, compulsory fingerprint checking of all applicants 16 years and older was introduced in 1994.

To further protect the integrity of South African passports and travel documents, high tech machine readable passports and travel documents containing advanced security features were introduced with effect from 22 May 1996.