Australian visa outcomes for citizens from South Africa

How does the Department of Home Affairs treat visa applications from South Africa? See processing times, approval rates, and how your citizenship affects your application.

Country risk score

Medium risk

59/ 100

Processing timeAverage

Approval rate93%

Based on 173 countries with data

How is this calculated?

What this means for your application

Decisions take about the same time as average.

Approval rates are higher than for most countries.

You need strong, consistent evidence and careful preparation.

A well-prepared application can still succeed. Our tools and lawyer-backed review are designed for higher-risk countries.

Processing time

About average processing speed

Rank #87 of 173 countries

Based on volume-weighted comparison across all visa types South Africa citizens apply for.

Approval rate

93% of applications are granted

Global average: 92%About as likely as the global average

How common are applications from South Africa?

Very high volume

South Africa is one of the most common sources of Australian visa applications. Statistics are highly reliable due to the large sample size.Rank #18 of 173 countries (90th percentile)

Get personalised processing time estimates

Processing times vary significantly based on your country of citizenship and location. Get a personalised estimate for your specific situation.

Free - based on FOI data from Department of Home Affairs

How citizenship affects Australian visa outcomes

Why your country matters

The Department of Home Affairs treats visa applications differently based on the applicant's country of citizenship. This affects both how long your application takes to process and your likelihood of approval. Factors include the volume of applications from each country, historical compliance rates, and the complexity of verification processes.

Understanding the country score

The country score ranks your citizenship against all other nationalities based on two factors: how quickly applications are typically processed and how often they are approved. Approval rates carry more weight in the calculation since this is what matters most to applicants. The score ranges from 0-100, with higher values indicating faster processing and higher approval rates relative to other countries.

Data source

Our reports are based exclusively on official government data obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the Australian Department of Home Affairs: visa refusal rates (FOI Reference DA24/02/00115) and processing times (FOI Reference DA25/10/00449). We keep this data current by calibrating it monthly against official processing times published by the Department of Home Affairs.

What this means for citizens from South Africa

With a country score of 59, applicants from South Africa experience average outcomes compared to other nationalities. Processing times are about the same than average when compared to other countries applying for the same visa types. The approval rate for South Africa is 93%, which is 1% higher than the global average.

Compare other countries

Want to see how other nationalities are treated? Use our Country Risk tool to explore visa outcomes for any country.

Want to learn more?

For a deep dive into how country risk works, what factors the Department considers, and how nationality affects your visa journey, read our comprehensive guide to country risk.