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Your occupation is not on the Critical Skills List, and a South African employer wants to hire you anyway. Whether you qualify depends on a points total. Since October 2024, the two main skilled work visas have been decided on a 100-point test set by the Minister of Home Affairs, in its current form Notice 5448 of Government Gazette 51416, dated 18 October 2024. An employer weighing a candidate works through the same table.
What the points-based system is
The notice is made under sections 19(2) and 19(4) of the Immigration Act, read with regulation 18(12) and (13) of the Immigration Regulations, 2014. It applies to two visas only, the General Work Visa and the Critical Skills Work Visa, and it replaced the labour-market test that General Work Visa applications went through before. The Department’s General Work Visa checklist, effective 9 October 2024, no longer asks for a Department of Employment and Labour certificate.
A first notice was published on 9 October 2024 and withdrawn on 18 October “to correct a typing error”, which is why older figures are still quoted in places. The reissued notice is the one in force and the source of every figure below. As at September 2026, no amendment to it has been published. The government’s revised White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection proposes merging the two visas into a single skilled worker category; that needs legislation before it changes anything.
The points table, as at September 2026
| Criterion | Band | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Occupation | On the Critical Skills List | 100 |
| Qualifications | NQF levels 9 and 10 | 50 |
| Qualifications | NQF levels 7 and 8 | 30 |
| Offer of employment (mandatory) | Above R976,194 gross per annum | 50 |
| Offer of employment (mandatory) | Between R650,976 and R976,194 gross per annum | 20 |
| Work experience | 10+ years | 30 |
| Work experience | 5 to 10 years | 20 |
| Employment status | Offer from a Trusted Employer | 30 |
| Language skills | Proficient in at least one official language | 10 |
Every applicant must earn 100 points. The offer of employment is mandatory, so no points total rescues an application without one. And the route follows from how the 100 is reached: through a Critical Skills List occupation, the visa issued is a Critical Skills Work Visa; through any other combination, it is a General Work Visa.
Without the list, the most anyone can score is 170. An offer below R650,976 scores nothing on the salary line.
NQF levels come from South Africa’s National Qualifications Framework. A bachelor’s degree sits at level 7 (level 8 for a four-year professional bachelor’s), an honours degree or postgraduate diploma at level 8, a master’s at level 9 and a doctorate at level 10. For a foreign qualification, the level that counts is the one in the SAQA evaluation certificate, which the applicant applies for directly with the South African Qualifications Authority.
Three worked profiles
None of the occupations below is on the Critical Skills List, so each has to reach 100 without the 100-point entry.
Profile A: a marketing manager with a master’s degree. SAQA places the master’s at NQF 9 (50 points). The offer is R1,050,000 a year, above the top salary band (50). Eight years’ experience adds 20, and English adds 10.
Total: 130. This profile clears the threshold on qualification and salary alone. The experience and language points are headroom.
Profile B: a hotel operations manager with an honours degree. The honours degree sits at NQF 8 (30). Twelve years’ experience scores 30, the offer of R820,000 falls in the lower salary band (20), and English adds 10.
Total: 90, and 10 short. The same offer from a Trusted Employer adds 30, for 120. A master’s degree evaluated at NQF 9 would lift the qualification score from 30 to 50, for 110. An offer above R976,194 would lift the salary score from 20 to 50, for 120. A second official language would not help, because the language line scores once.
Profile C: a journalist at the edges of two bands. A bachelor’s degree at NQF 7 scores 30, and English 10. The offer is exactly R976,194. The top band is for salaries above that figure, so this offer scores 20, not 50. The experience runs to ten years. The notice’s two experience bands meet at ten years (“5 to 10” and “10+”), so the history is worth documenting in full rather than rounding.
At 20 points for experience the total is 80, and at 30 it is 90. Either way it needs a Trusted Employer offer, the top salary band or a qualification evaluated at NQF 9 to reach 100. We would plan this case around the salary band first, because it is the only line an employer and applicant can change before the offer is signed.
What the score does not settle
Reaching 100 is only one of the conditions. The notice itself says an applicant “must meet all other prescribed requirements”, such as a police clearance, for the visa concerned. Each point also has to be evidenced in the submission: the SAQA certificate for the qualification level, the signed offer for the salary, and employer references for the experience.
Two practical points follow from that. Start the SAQA evaluation early, because it fixes the qualification score and nothing else does. And check whether the employer holds Trusted Employer status before you model the case, since 30 points can decide it.
Critical skills or general work
If there is any chance your occupation is listed, check that first. A listed occupation scores the full 100 on its own, which is why our guide to the Critical Skills List and its 142 occupations is the first thing to read. A match sends you to the Critical Skills Work Visa. Without one, the table above is your route to the General Work Visa, where we score and prepare the case before anything is submitted.
To have your own profile scored line by line against this table, start with our South Africa immigration eligibility assessment.
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