South Africa permanent residence for financial independent person

[JohnnyDoe]

Law reference: SECTION 27(F) - FINANCIAL INDEPENDENT APPLICANT​

Requirements:
- Net worth: R12 million ($630k)
- Application fee: R120,000 ($6.3k)

Key Benefits:
- Immediate permanent residency
- Can work, study, or run business
- No age limits
- Must visit SA once every 3 years minimum
- No need to permanently live in SA
- Can include spouse

Processing time: Around 8 months

This seems a good option for a real paper residence, to be used with banks and within a tax planning strategy.

Last edited: Dec 1, 2024
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[daniels27]

Yes, that is correct. But please bear in mind that most applicants normally pay another 100k ZAR for either a lawyer handling the application or the immigration guy to "speed up" the application. Also, you can expect them to ask for pretty much any police certificate where you lived recently or hold a passport from as well as some references from your bank at home. Apart form that it is mostly true, for the processing time, you can expect a bit more than the 8 months. I would say minimum 1 year, can be 2 years too.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

daniels27 said:
Yes, that is correct. But please bear in mind that most applicants normally pay another 100k ZAR for either a lawyer handling the application or the immigration guy to "speed up" the application. Also, you can expect them to ask for pretty much any police certificate where you lived recently or hold a passport from as well as some references from your bank at home. Apart form that it is mostly true, for the processing time, you can expect a bit more than the 8 months. I would say minimum 1 year, can be 2 years too.
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Thanks, do you have direct experience?

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[toums]

JohnnyDoe said:

Law reference: SECTION 27(F) - FINANCIAL INDEPENDENT APPLICANT​

Requirements:
- Net worth: R12 million ($630k)
- Application fee: R120,000 ($6.3k)

Key Benefits:
- Immediate permanent residency
- Can work, study, or run business
- No age limits
- Must visit SA once every 3 years minimum
- No need to permanently live in SA
- Can include spouse

Processing time: Around 8 months

This seems a good option for a real paper residence, to be used with banks and within a tax planning strategy.
Click to expand...

If you dont want to live there (or at least pretend to live there sometimes) what's the real benefit for example if you compare with UAE ?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

toums said:
If you dont want to live there (or at least pretend to live there sometimes) what's the real benefit for example if you compare with UAE ?
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It's a real country, not some psycho Bedouin circus. You can make it part of a solid and credible tax planning strategy.

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[void]

JohnnyDoe said:
It's a real country, not some psycho Bedouin circus. You can make it part of a solid and credible tax planning strategy.
Click to expand...

would you say it has better credibility that let say Mexico where you can achieve the same (probably cheaper)?

 

[toums]

OK we can like or not UAE but South Africa seem like :

• No tax benefit
• Long process
• Ok you have permanent residency but If you dont have any ties there and dont spend any time or little time He doesn't help for tax residency, home country or other one you spend time.

I see only maybe the possibilities to give your SA address for some banks for the CRS.. but what else?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

void said:
would you say it has better credibility that let say Mexico where you can achieve the same (probably cheaper)?
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No doubt

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[JohnnyDoe]

toums said:
OK we can like or not UAE but South Africa seem like :

• No tax benefit
• Long process
• Ok you have permanent residency but If you dont have any ties there and dont spend any time or little time He doesn't help for tax residency, home country or other one you spend time.

I see only maybe the possibilities to give your SA address for some banks for the CRS.. but what else?
Click to expand...

Think outside the box 😉 Not everything can and should be told.
8 months doesn't seem a long processing time anyway.

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[daniels27]

JohnnyDoe said:
Thanks, do you have direct experience?
Click to expand...

Yes. Applied in April 2023. Requests for documents in April 2024. Government changes in 2024, nothing since then.

 

[daniels27]

JohnnyDoe said:
Think outside the box 😉 Not everything can and should be told.
8 months doesn't seem a long processing time anyway.
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It is more than 8 months. But you can still go there on a study visa / tourist right now. I think I mentioned the benefits of ZA in another thread some time ago. There are many reasons to be there and the tax rate normally does not pose a big problem. Go there talk to people and then figure out yourself where taxes are paid and where not.

 

[JohnnyDoe]

daniels27 said:
Yes. Applied in April 2023. Requests for documents in April 2024. Government changes in 2024, nothing since then.
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What documents were requested?

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[daniels27]

JohnnyDoe said:
What documents were requested?
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They wanted some letters from the bank at home to conirm the money and the relationship.

 

[toums]

daniels27 said:
Yes. Applied in April 2023. Requests for documents in April 2024. Government changes in 2024, nothing since then.
Click to expand...

African 'bureaucracy'

 

[daniels27]

toums said:
African 'bureaucracy'
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Yes, normal there. Was what was expected in any case. But not really an issue. If you have no business outside, you can still do border runs every one and then, but normal people won't stay there indefinitely without leaving the country once in a while.

 

[JackAlabama]

daniels27 said:
Yes, normal there. Was what was expected in any case. But not really an issue. If you have no business outside, you can still do border runs every one and then, but normal people won't stay there indefinitely without leaving the country once in a while.
Click to expand...

how do you need to show net worth? Is crypto accepted too?

 

[Marie Manila]

AFAIK you are not allowed to have offshore bank accounts in foreign currency if you live in ZA. If you want to have an FCY account, it has to be approved by the government.
I'm not sure if this rule applies to you if you are a ZA tax resident, have a ZA passport or residency.

I turned my back on ZA when I heard that.

 

[polonieth]

Hire this guy if you need a ride from the airport to the immigration office:

 

[myshufflemix]

JohnnyDoe said:

Law reference: SECTION 27(F) - FINANCIAL INDEPENDENT APPLICANT​

Requirements:
- Net worth: R12 million ($630k)
- Application fee: R120,000 ($6.3k)

Key Benefits:
- Immediate permanent residency
- Can work, study, or run business
- No age limits
- Must visit SA once every 3 years minimum
- No need to permanently live in SA
- Can include spouse

Processing time: Around 8 months

This seems a good option for a real paper residence, to be used with banks and within a tax planning strategy.
Click to expand...

Did you gave up on your plans to relocate to Russia ?

 

[JohnnyDoe]

myshufflemix said:
Did you gave up on your plans to relocate to Russia ?
Click to expand...

No.
Residence permits are like bank accounts, you must always have multiple backups and a dynamic strategy.

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