Do you need a visa to intern in South Africa?
For 8 and 12 week internships in South Africa, you DO NOT need to apply for a visa prior to departure.
Please make sure you have a valid passport for your travels and check to ensure it will not expire any time soon.
Please understand that you will enter on a visitor visa, to be obtained at Cape Town airport, while going through customs.
Important Additional Details: After getting off the airplane, please proceed to passport control. Let the customs agent know that you are entering the country for under 90 days as a visitor. You can state that you are doing “unpaid service learning”, but DO NOT indicate that you “have a job” or will be “coming to work”. There are totally different regulations surrounding formal work, and this may complicate the arrival. South African customs consider an internship a paid and/or specialized job by invitation. It is different than the common definition as a voluntary professional development experience.