South African nationality law

South Africa rewrote its nationality law since the end of Apartheid in 1994 and the establishment of majority rule in the country under the African National Congress. The 1995 South African Citizenship Act did away with the previous Apartheid-era 1949 and 1970 acts which had established separate bantustan citizenship to the country's African majority and inferior levels of citizenship to the country's Asian and coloured minorities.

According to Chapter 2 of the 1995 law, anyone who was considered to be a "citizen by birth" prior to the enactment of the law or who is born in the Republic on or after the enactment of the law is a citizen by birth. Also, a person is a "citizen by birth" if they can be considered a citizen by descent and at the time of birth at least one parent was: 1) in the service of the government, 2) was employed by a person or group located in the Republic, or 3) was in the service of an international organization in which South Africa had membership.

There is an exception to the birthright citizenship provision: those born to visiting foreign diplomats or their employees, or nonresident aliens are not considered to be "citizens by birth" (unless their other parent is a citizen, in which case they are a citizen by birth).

Under the 1995 law, a person born outside South Africa to a South African parent is a South African citizen by descent upon registration of the birth under South African law.

Under Section 5 of the 1995 act, Citizenship can be acquired by adults through naturalisation if the following conditions are met:

Naturalisation of an adult also confers South African citizenship upon that adult's minor children.

Naturalised South Africans who left South Africa before 6 October 1988 and did not obtain a 'Letter of Exemption' from the South African authorities may have lost South African citizenship after seven years absence.

Visa requirements for South African citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of South Africa. In 2014, South African citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 97 countries and territories, ranking the South African passport 41st in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index.

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