Home Affairs tests doorstep delivery of passports for SA expats
South Africans living overseas will no longer need to make multiple trips to embassies or consulates to collect their passports.
From the start of next month, South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs will begin offering door-to-door passport delivery to citizens abroad – a first in the Department’s history.
The new service was announced by Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber during a visit to the South African community in The Hague, Netherlands.
It forms part of a broader push to bring “Home Affairs @ home” to citizens, wherever they live.
Slashing passport waiting times
Until now, South Africans abroad have had to visit a mission twice – once to apply, and again to collect the passport, often months later. In some cases, waiting times were as long as 18 months.
But Home Affairs’ newer service centres abroad have already reduced processing times to about five weeks. The courier option now eliminates the need for a return trip altogether.
From November, applicants at any of the global Home Affairs service centres will be able to choose courier delivery when applying for a South African passport.
Delivery will take 24 to 72 hours once the passport is issued, and will cost between US$30 and US$60 (R520 and R1040*), depending on the country.
An eventual roll-out to all South Africans
This doorstep system will first be tested on the expat community – described by Schreiber as a “sandbox phase” – before expanding to passport applicants inside South Africa.
Future plans include delivering documents directly to South Africans’ homes and partnering with local banks to streamline the process.
“Once we are comfortable that doorstep delivery is working smoothly and securely for the relatively small population of South Africans living abroad, we will scale-up this reform to provide all South Africans with the option to have their documents delivered to their doorstep,” Minister Schreiber said.
Calling it a “watershed moment”, Schreiber noted that the reform aims to end long queues, expensive travel and slow turnaround times that have long frustrated South Africans living abroad.
He added that the move signals Home Affairs’ shift toward becoming a tech-driven, globally competitive service provider.
Locations already offering the service include London, Dubai, Perth, Auckland, New York, Ottawa, Berlin, The Hague and others.
More details are available on the Home Affairs website.
*exchange rate as at 22 October 2025