South Africa Hiring Trends For International Workers
By December 20, 2025, international talent in South Africa has stopped being approached with a bureaucratic wait-and-see model and instead turned into a high-speed, Points-Based System (PBS).1 With the full deployment of the Trusted Employer Scheme (TES) and the Remote Work (Digital Nomad) Visa, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has indicated that it is approaching a Global Talent First approach in order to address local critical shortages in skills.
In the case of international employees, it is the year of the Skills-First hire, when confirmed AI, renewable energy, and specialized engineering skills become more important than the degrees themselves.2
Best Recruitment Trends and Hottest Industries
South Africa is now experiencing a Deepening Skills Crunch, and 84% of the big companies are reporting a shortage of highly skilled local talent.3 This shortage has led to a recruitment vacuum to foreign nationals in the next growth engines:
The AI & Data Science Boom
- Digital Transformation: The financial district of Johannesburg (Sandton) is experiencing a massive drive towards automation by Multinationals.
- Rapidly Emerging Jobs: AI Literacy Specialists, Machine Learning Engineers, and Data Scientists.
- The AI-Free Task: Another recent development among SA recruiters is to provide an offline, human-only task during interviews to confirm that a candidate can think independently, without the help of AI.4
The Green Energy Revolution
- Infrastructure Development: Due to the national energy shift, Solar and Wind Engineers and Grid Infrastructure Specialists are in high demand.
- Sustainability Reporting: ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Analysts are currently essential to the JSE-listed companies to fulfill new climate disclosure requirements by 2026.
The Healthcare Talent War
Continued Shortages: The Registered Nurses (ICU/Geriatric), Anaesthetists and Public Health Experts have experienced a 15%/year growth in demand.
Working in the New 2025-2026 Points-Based System (PBS)
At the end of 2024.5 General Work Visa was restructured again, so that you are not required to wait to receive a Department of Labour (DoL) recommendation provided that you satisfy the 100 point requirement on the new scorecard.
The Digital Visa Programme Remote Work
The Remote Work Visa is an officially stabilized program that is set to be implemented in South Africa in March 2025 as the response to the global trend of Working from Anywhere.
- Eligibility: You need to earn a minimum of R650,796 (approximately 6 $35,700 USD) per annum (not in South Africa).
- Tax Benefit: South African income tax is generally not levied on you in case you remain less than 183 days as a resident of South Africa under the Double Taxation Agreements (DTA).7
- Family Access: 2026 trends depicts shift over to a more personalized work access by spouses to enable your partner to work remotely or locally with minimal challenges as compared to the past years.8
The Advantage of the “Trusted Employer Scheme” (TES)
In job search, focus on firms that are Tes (e.g. large banks, technology companies and manufacturers such as BMW or PwC).
- Quick Processing: Visas can take a long time to be processed, 5-10 days, not months.
- Minimal Documentation: In most cases TES employers are able to do away with the SAQA and DoL recommendation letters.
- High Trust: The applications are handled in a digital portal and the chances of success are much higher than conventional applications.
FAQs
Does the Critical Skills List refer to 2026?
Although the final big list was published in 2022, it is projected that a major update to add more Future-of-Work occupations, such as AI Ethics Officers and Carbon Credit Managers, will happen in mid-2026.
May I begin employment when my SAQA assessment remains pending?
Yes. You will be allowed to get a 12-month provisional visa under new 2025 regulations on condition of providing evidence that you have applied to SAQA.11 You will have to submit the final certificate within the same year to prolong the visa.
What is Skills Transfer Plan?
In most work visas, you have to present a plan to the South African company on how you are going to mentor a South African citizen in case you want a South African citizen to later on carry out the specialized job.
Is there still a demand on the foreign language speakers?
Absolutely. Cape Town and Durban BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) centres are aggressively recruiting German, French and Mandarin speakers as international support personnel.
What has been the impact of POPIA on recruitment of foreigners?
Only automated hiring decisions are now limited by the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).12 Employers should remember that your application should be reviewed by a human being to make sure that you will not be discriminated.
Final Thought
It is no longer an impossible market in 2026 that foreign talent cannot enter into but a fast-track market of high value talent in South Africa. To be as successful as possible, it is best to aim at the Green Energy or FinTech industries, initiate your SAQA review in the nearest future, and use the search with the help of the word Trusted Employers to avoid the conventional visa queue.
Disclaimer
This job information is not meant to be shared to cause emotional damage to individuals. Before applying, please confirm the information on the official employer or government site (the South African Department of Home Affairs).