The South Africa visa from Pakistan

The short answer. A Pakistani passport needs a visitor visa for South Africa, applied for through the mission with documents and biometrics rather than online. South Africa is also strict about children's documents in a way few other countries are, and that is where family applications come apart.

South Africa is the long trip: Cape Town, the winelands, and Kruger for the animals. It is also the application on this page with the most paperwork for a family.

Children need more here than anywhere else

South Africa has, for years, required travelling children to carry documents proving who their parents are, and it applies at the border as well as in the application.

What that means:

• An unabridged birth certificate showing both parents, not the short

version. For a Pakistani family this is the full NADRA certificate, properly

attested.

• Consent from any parent not travelling, in writing. One parent taking

the children without the other means a signed affidavit and a copy of the

absent parent's passport.

• Where a parent has died or a child travels with a guardian, the relevant

legal documents.

Exactly what is required has been relaxed and tightened more than once, so we confirm the current position before the file is built. What has never changed is that a family turning up at the airport without it is a family that does not fly.

The rest of the file

The ordinary shape, and South Africa reads it carefully:

• The passport, with the validity and blank pages required, and South Africa

is firm about blank pages.

• Photographs to specification.
• Confirmed return flights and accommodation for every night.
• Bank statements, usually several months.
• Employment or business papers.
• A yellow fever certificate if you are arriving from or transiting a

yellow fever country, which for a Pakistani traveller routed through parts

of Africa or the Gulf is a real question rather than a theoretical one.

Cape Town and Kruger are a long way apart

This is the practical planning point. They are at opposite ends of a large country and the trip between them is a domestic flight, not a drive.

A proper trip is ten days or more: Cape Town and the peninsula, the winelands, then fly to the northeast for the park. Anything shorter means choosing one.

The seasons are upside down

South Africa is in the southern hemisphere, which people know and then book as though they did not.

December and January are high summer and the peak holiday season, which means the best Cape Town weather and the highest prices. June to August is winter: cold and wet in the Cape, and it is also the best game viewing in Kruger, because the bush is thin and the animals come to water.

So the ideal Cape Town month and the ideal Kruger month are not the same month. If the trip is both, something gives, and we would rather tell you which before you book.

Why does South Africa ask for so much for children?

The requirements exist to prevent child trafficking, and they are applied at the border rather than only at the application. They have been adjusted more than once since being introduced, so we confirm the current list rather than working from memory, but a family should plan on needing the full birth certificate and a signed consent from any absent parent.

Can I do Cape Town and the safari in a week?

Not well. A week does one or the other properly. Ten days to two weeks does both. We will say so rather than sell you an itinerary that is mostly airports.

Is halal food available?

In Cape Town, very widely; it has a long-established Muslim community and halal is ordinary rather than exceptional there. On safari it depends on the lodge and is arranged in advance.

Is it safe?

The honest answer is that it varies a great deal by place and by how you travel, more so than most destinations on this page. On an organised itinerary with transfers and established lodges it is a well-trodden trip. We will tell you plainly which areas we would and would not put a family in, rather than giving a reassuring answer that covers the whole country.

Before you pay anything

South African entry requirements, and particularly the rules for travelling children, change. We confirm the current position before every submission rather than trusting any list, including this one.

Send us the passports, the ages of any children, and say whether both parents are travelling. That last answer decides how much paperwork the family needs.