Can you apply for your SA passport and Smart ID via your banking app soon?

No more visits to Home Affairs

South Africans may soon be able to apply for passports and smart ID cards directly through their banking apps from home, as the Department of Home Affairs works to expand digital access to these services.

Responding to a MyBroadband inquiry, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber explained that while integration with digital banking apps is the long-term goal, the current focus remains on rolling out these services at physical bank branches first.

“Our goal is to enable our services to be available virtually, including through banking apps, so that clients can access those services from the comfort of their own homes,” Schreiber said, as per MyBroadband.

“This is all part of the same process, as integrating Home Affairs services onto banking platforms in branches is the logical precursor to delivering those same services online and on apps.” the Minister added.

If all goes according to plan, this would mean that digital bank users will have access to a variety of Home Affairs services via their banking apps, as well as no longer needing to stand in long queues at Home Affairs offices or at banks.

While we wait…

While this may not happen as soon as we’d like, there are now even more bank branches which offer passport and smart ID card applications in South Africa. Take a look…

Standard Bank (9 branches)

• Canal Walk, Century City
• Centurion Lifestyle Centre
• Jubilee Mall, Hammanskraal
• Kathu Mall, Postmasburg
• Killarney Mall, Johannesburg
• Kingsmead, Durban
• Mitchell’s Plain Promenade
• Newton Park, Port Elizabeth
• Simmonds Street, Johannesburg

FNB (7 branches)

• Burgersfort, Twin City Complex
• Centurion Lifestyle Centre
• Cornubia, Durban
• Glen Shopping Centre
• Lynnwood
• Merchant Place
• The Grove Mall

Absa (6 branches)

• Centurion Lifestyle Centre
• Key West, Krugersdorp
• Sandton City
• Stellenbosch
• Towers, Cape Town
• Stellenbosch Square

Nedbank (6 branches)

• Arcadia
• Constantia Kloof
• Rivonia
• St George’s Mall, Cape Town
• Newton Park, Port Elizabeth
• Kathu

Investec (1 branch)

• Sandown

Discovery Bank (1 branch)

• Headquarters, Sandton