Home Affairs has announced plans to expand passport and Smart ID services to hundreds more bank branches and banking apps as part of a major digital upgrade, in partnership with the Border Management Authority, Government Printing Works and the South African Revenue Service (Sars).
The partnership would leverage the technology capacity within Sars to transform all civic and immigration services, Home Affairs announced on April 3.
Other services that will be improved under the new agreement include:
- Launching an electronic travel authorisation system to digitalise and automate immigration procedures to eliminate inefficiency and fraud;
- Creating an option to select secure courier delivery of documents, eliminating the requirement to collect documents at Home Affairs offices;
- Upgrading the Movement Control System at all ports of entry; and
- Introducing Smart IDs for naturalised citizens and permanent residents.
Work to roll out these improvements is under way and the Department will announce developments in due course.
