Where can South African citizens move to?
Ranked by what the move actually takes on a South African passport specifically, not in general. Every rating below comes from the same verified data as the full guide it links to.
You keep your South African passport if you naturalise in 9 of these 12. Naturalising in Japan, the Netherlands and Spain would mean giving it up.
No working-holiday route is open on a South African passport in any of these 12. That shortcut is not on the table.
Easiest to keep driving on in Costa Rica, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal and Thailand. Each guide has the exact terms. Elsewhere expect more steps, often a full local test.
An apostille is accepted in 11 of these 12. Thailand still needs the full consular legalisation chain, so start earlier.
Straightforward 1 of 12
Moderate 10 of 12
- AustraliaSouth Africans arrive overwhelmingly through skilled visas (189/190/482), particularly in healthcare, trades, and finance, reflecting one of the most ‘migration-ready’ English-speaking source populations.Moderate
- CanadaSouth Africans arrive largely through Express Entry, skewed towards healthcare and skilled trades.Moderate
- IrelandSouth Africans arrive mainly through employment permits in healthcare (nursing especially), engineering and skilled trades.Moderate
- ItalySouth Africans relocating to Italy are relatively few, typically using the Elective Residency Visa, an EU Blue Card for skilled professionals, or the jure sanguinis ancestry route where a parent or grandparent who holds (or held at death) exclusively Italian citizenship, or a parent who lived in Italy for 2 continuous years after becoming Italian and before your birth qualifies under Law 74/2025.Moderate
- JapanSouth Africans typically move via English teaching, the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa, or corporate transfers in trading firms.Moderate
- New ZealandSouth Africans move to NZ heavily via the Skilled Migrant Category and Accredited Employer Work Visa (trades, engineering, healthcare, farming) — one of the most established migration corridors to NZ.Moderate
- PortugalSouth Africans move mostly on D7 and D8 visas, plus a smaller Golden Visa-linked investor stream, drawn by the climate and cost-of-living contrast with Canada, the UK, and Australia — the more commonly chosen destinations.Moderate
- SpainThe Non-Lucrative Visa and Digital Nomad Visa cover most retirees and remote workers; some South Africans instead use an ancestry-based EU passport (Portuguese or Italian) to bypass Spanish immigration entirely.Moderate
- ThailandSouth Africans relocate mainly through the DTV/remote-work route, the retirement visa, or a Thai-employer work permit in hospitality and diving/tourism industries.Moderate
- United StatesA mix of H-1B, employment-based green cards (notably in healthcare and tech), and the Diversity Visa lottery; a longstanding pattern of skilled-worker emigration.Moderate
Complex 1 of 12
Ratings weigh entry class, working-holiday access, licence exchange, dual citizenship and document legalisation. Each is checked against the issuing government. Open any destination for the full guide written for South African citizens.