Discontinuation of Temporary Passports | Department of Home Affairs (DHA) – South Africa
Please be informed that the Department of Home Affairs will no longer issue Temporary Passports as from 01 September 2014. South African citizens travelling abroad as well as to the neighbouring states are refused entry into a number of countries when travelling on Temporary Passports. This has resulted in accusations and claims against the Department in cases where citizens are refused entry into a particular country despite the Department having issued the Temporary Passport.
A Temporary Passport was initially issued as an interim travel document due to longer turn-around times taken to issue a permanent 10 years tourist passport. This turn-around time has improved drastically rendering issuance of Temporary Passports redundant. Finally, Temporary Passports have been abused for corruption purposes and this threat remains, which puts South Africa at risk of its travel documents being unreliable and not trustworthy. Elimination of Temporary Passports aims to remove this risk.
Only EMERGENCY TRAVEL CERTIFICATES (ETC) will be issued to an applicant under circumstances of emergency travel purposes:
- if passport is lost/stolen while abroad
- if traveling to countries accepting ETC on emergency cases, such as family member in distress that needs immediate assistance or deceased family members.