Naturalised South Africans can now apply for Smart Card IDs online

For the first time in the history of South Africa, naturalised South African citizens and lawful permanent residents can apply for Smart Card IDs through the eHomeAffairs platform.

“This step marks the single most significant milestone yet in Home Affairs’ exciting journey of digital transformation - with much more still to come,” said the Department of Home Affairs in a statement on Monday, May 12.

“This follows months of Information Technology (IT) reforms. For years, IT failures forced South Africans born abroad, as well as permanent residents, to continue using only the insecure green bar-coded ID book and excluded them from obtaining the more-secure Smart ID. It also prevented them from using the eHomeAffairs platform to make bookings.”

In rare cases, a small number of naturalised citizens were able to obtain Smart IDs only after being granted permission by the Minister and following a tedious manual process. But the department’s digital transformation drive has now changed all of this and has delivered change for over 1.4 million eligible South Africans and lawful permanent residents, the department said.

Home Affairs Minister, Leon Schreiber, described it as a breakthrough in the department’s digital transformation reforms. 

“Thanks to diligent work by our team, guided by our apex priority of digital transformation, we have now brought about this major reform within just a few months,” Minister Schreiber said. “The benefits of rectifying this inequality extended beyond the 1.4 million direct beneficiaries. This is also a victory for improved national security. Naturalised citizens and permanent residents were the last remaining groups of people eligible for South African ID documents, who were excluded from obtaining Smart IDs.”

He added that thanks to their redress of this long-standing injustice, every eligible person in South Africa is now able to obtain a Smart ID for the first time. The Minister said this takes us much closer to fully adopting the Smart ID and doing away with the green bar-coded ID book, eliminating the fraud linked to this document.

Minister Schreiber said now that all citizens and lawful permanent residents are eligible for the Smart ID, what remains is to geographically expand access to all. 

“The department is already hard at work to also deliver on this objective, by dramatically increasing the number of bank branches that take applications for Smart IDs and passports. It is clear that we are making ever more rapid progress in using digital transformation to deliver Home Affairs @ home,” he said.

To further support naturalised citizens and permanent residents to obtain their Smart IDs, and to manage the expected increased volume, the department will operate for extended office hours on the following weekends:

Saturday May 17: 8am to 1pm 

Saturday May 24: 8am to 1pm 

Saturday May 31: 8am to 1pm