South Africa to let machine learning decide visa approvals via ETA

South Africa's Home Affairs plans to use machine learning to make automated, risk-based decisions on visa applications through its Electronic Travel Authorisation system, with humans intervening only when an anomaly is detected. The ETA is live at four airports and covers short-stay visas from 53 countries, with study and work visas to be added in early 2027.

• ETA is live at four South African airports and covers 53 countries
• Short-stay visa approvals are issued within 24 hours and stored on a phone
• Study and work visas will be added to ETA in early 2027
• The system replaces a backlog of over 306,000 paper visa applications