Immigration and relocation services in South Africa
A move can put family plans or a new colleague’s start date on hold. We help you assess your options, prepare your immigration case, and find the professionals you need to settle in.
A consultant will contact you.
What does Intergate Immigration do?
We manage your South African immigration case from assessment to outcome, and introduce you to independent professionals for banking, medical aid, tax, company structure, property, schooling, foreign exchange, and insurance.
How do we handle your immigration case?
The immigration service covers the whole case, from the first assessment to the outcome and the renewals after it.
We quote for the work after we understand your circumstances.
Assess your options
Assessment and strategy
We establish which route you realistically qualify for before any money is committed, and we tell you when the answer is that you do not qualify yet, and what would change that.
Route selection across the full statutory range
Temporary residence (critical skills work, general work, intra-company transfer, business, study, visitor, spousal and accompanying spousal, relative's) and permanent residence under Sections 26 and 27 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002.
Prepare your case
Evidence and document preparation
We build the document set the Department requires, in the form it requires, and identify the gaps early, while there is still time to fix them.
SAQA guidance
SAQA does not deal with third parties, so you submit your foreign-qualification evaluation yourself. We review your documents before you do, advise on timing against your submission window, and track progress against the rest of your case.
Document legalisation guidance
We do not perform apostilles, notarisations or authentications. We tell you which documents need which treatment, in which country, and by when.
Business plans for Business Visa cases
Prepared on your commercial inputs and against the requirements of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), which is the gatekeeper for the recommendation letter and for any application to reduce the prescribed investment. A generic or template plan will not be accepted.
Employer compliance review
For sponsored routes we review the employer's existing compliance documents and identify shortfalls so they can be corrected before submission.
CIPC and company-document support
For business and investor cases we support you with company registration evidence and the corporate documents Home Affairs requires at submission.
Submit and follow through
Submission accompaniment
See below: who actually submits my application.
Read about your submission appointment ↓Escalation
Where a case has stalled unreasonably.
Renewals, status changes and permanent residence
Including the post-approval compliance duties that catch people out. A Business Visa holder, for example, must be able to prove the prescribed capital contribution after approval and again periodically thereafter, which is a separate duty from proving the required local employment. We confirm what applies to your case at consultation.
Who actually submits my application?
You do, in person. South African visa and residence submissions are made in person by the applicant. That is how the system works, and no consultancy can submit in your place. If you are our client, we can personally accompany and support you at the VFS centres in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg. If you are outside the country and submit at a South African mission abroad, we prepare you fully and guide you through the process, but we cannot attend with you.
What we do is everything on either side of that counter: the strategy, the evidence, the preparation, the accompaniment, and the follow-through until there is an outcome. Processing and adjudication timelines vary by case type and by the authority handling it. Medical requirements are confirmed at consultation.
What happens when Home Affairs is slow to decide?
We stay on the file until there is an outcome. Processing times at the Department of Home Affairs vary by case type and by the office handling the application, and some cases take far longer than they should. Your named client manager keeps track of where your application stands, escalates it where it has stalled unreasonably, and aims to reply to your calls and emails within 24 hours while you wait.
Twenty years of South African cases mean a delay is rarely the first of its kind we have seen. That experience also shapes how we build an application from the start: complete, in the form the Department requires, and with as few reasons as possible for it to come back with questions, since every query adds time.
Who will I be working with?
You will work with a named client manager and a dedicated file administrator, within a team of more than 20 people in Cape Town. We work in English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Afrikaans.
Intergate Immigration has practised since 2005. The Intergate group has assisted 40,000+ clients across individual, family, retirement, investor, and corporate cases in South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia.
Meet the whole team
It is only when you arrive at the visa application office, that you really begin to understand how much you need a service like this. … Intergate have an outstanding attention to detail and I like the way you submit documents to them on a rolling basis until everything has been checked off and then and only then, will they sign you off for submission.
How will we support your case?
One case, one person accountable for it
You get a named client manager and a dedicated file administrator, so you know who to call about your case.
A professional network that already exists
We introduce you to accountants, brokers, conveyancers, and education consultants we have worked alongside on client files. Some relationships are formal, contracted partnerships. Others are referrals based on years of working together. Ask us which applies to anyone we introduce you to.
Experience on your file
Several of our client managers have been with Intergate for more than a decade, so the person on your file has usually handled a case like yours many times before.
Can Intergate help employers and businesses?
Plan for your new colleague while we work on their immigration case.
Applications and accompanying families
Yes. For employers moving international staff into South Africa, Botswana or Namibia, Intergate handles the immigration side of the workforce:
- route selection across critical skills, general work, intra-company transfer and corporate visa options;
- the compliance evidence Home Affairs requires from the sponsoring employer;
- review of the employer's existing compliance documents to identify shortfalls before submission;
- and coordination across multiple employees and their accompanying families at once.
Compliance beyond approval
Employers also carry obligations that outlast the approval, including, on the business visa route, the requirement that at least 60% of staff be South African citizens or permanent residents.
Non-compliance can lead to refusal at renewal, so we build the evidence trail from the start rather than reconstructing it two years later.
On the relocation side, the same professional network applies: new arrivals need banking, medical aid, tax numbers and school places, and an employee stuck in that queue is not yet productive.
How can we help you settle in South Africa?
Alongside the immigration case, Intergate introduces clients to independent, appropriately authorised professionals across the practical side of a move:
Home and schooling
- Somewhere to live
- Conveyancers and residential agents in the areas clients actually move to
- Schooling
- Education consultants covering both the international and the local school systems
Health and insurance
- Medical aid cover
- An authorised medical aid intermediary who advises you on cover and handles enrolment
- Insurance
- An authorised insurance intermediary
Banking, money, and tax
- A South African bank account
- An established banking provider experienced with newly arrived non-residents
- Bringing money into South Africa
- A provider authorised by the South African Reserve Bank to deal in foreign exchange
- Tax registration and structuring
- A registered tax practitioner or chartered accountant
Business and legal matters
- Company registration and corporate compliance
- Specialist CA and company-secretarial practitioners
- Legal matters beyond immigration
- Attorneys in the relevant field
Coordinating all of it
An Intergate coordinator who sequences the introductions in the order that works
What else needs to be in place for your move?
A bank wants proof of address. A landlord wants a bank reference. A medical aid wants a South African bank account for the debit order. A school wants an enrolment deposit and a residential address in its catchment. An employer wants a tax number. The order matters, and getting it wrong costs weeks.
We have watched clients arrive with a valid visa and lose two months to that circular queue. These practical arrangements sit outside the Immigration Act.
How these introductions work
Intergate Immigration is an immigration consultancy. We are not a financial services provider, and nothing on this page or said by an Intergate consultant is financial, tax, insurance or investment advice. Where you need a regulated service, we introduce you to a provider that is authorised in its own right, and the advice comes from them. The choice of provider is entirely yours: you are free to use your own bank, broker, accountant or attorney, and doing so has no effect whatsoever on the immigration service we provide you.
Introductions are optional. Independent providers give their own advice.
How do I start?
Start with a free eligibility check. A consultant will contact you to discuss your circumstances.
Check your eligibilityYou are not committing to anything by talking to us.
Moving employees?
Talk to us about applications for your employees and their families.
Discuss employee applicationsPrefer to speak to someone first?
Call or message our team and a client manager will come back to you.
How your first conversation works
Start with a conversation, and it costs nothing. Take the free eligibility check and an Intergate consultant will contact you, go through your circumstances, tell you which route you realistically qualify for, tell you plainly if the answer is that you do not qualify yet, and set out what the case would involve, what it would cost and how long it is likely to take. The check takes a few minutes.
You are not committing to anything by talking to us, and we do not quote a fee before we understand the case.
Frequently asked questions
Does Intergate submit my visa application for me?
No, and no consultancy can. South African visa and residence submissions are made in person by the applicant. Intergate prepares your case and can personally accompany and support you at the VFS centres in Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg. For submissions at a South African mission abroad, we guide you through the process but cannot attend. Treat any provider that offers to submit in your place with caution.
Is the first conversation free?
Yes. Take the free eligibility check and an Intergate Immigration consultant will contact you. You will be told which route you realistically qualify for, what the case involves, what it costs and how long it is likely to take, before any money is committed.
Does Intergate give financial, tax or insurance advice?
No. Intergate Immigration is an immigration consultancy, not a financial services provider. Where you need banking, medical aid, insurance, foreign exchange, tax or investment services, we introduce you to a provider authorised in its own right, and the advice comes from them. You are free to use your own provider instead, with no effect on your immigration service.
Do I have to use Intergate's partners?
No. Every introduction is optional. You may use your own bank, broker, accountant, agent or attorney, and that has no effect on the immigration service Intergate provides you. The introductions exist because most clients arriving in a new country do not have those relationships yet, and building them from scratch costs time.
What can Intergate do if my application has been sitting with Home Affairs for months?
Intergate stays on the file until there is an outcome. Your client manager keeps track of where the application stands, escalates it where it has stalled unreasonably, and keeps you informed. We aim to reply to calls and emails within 24 hours. Processing times vary by case type and by the office handling the application, which is why we tell you at the start what is realistic for yours.
Statutory references on this page are to the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 and its Regulations. Monetary thresholds and eligibility criteria for South African visas are set by Government Gazette and change; the position on this page is correct at 6 September 2026 and is confirmed for your circumstances at consultation. This page is general information about Intergate Immigration's services and is not immigration, legal, financial or tax advice.
Photo credits
Cape Town: Mimi / Pexels .
Muizenberg: Jennifer Stroh / Pexels .