Converting Spousal Visa to Work permit,Is it possible?

Unless her qualifications fall within a Critical Skills List, she has to have a job offer and a contract and endorse her spouse visa with a work visa, for what she will have to submit all document for a tipical work visa.

If she falls within a critical skills, she can ask for a critical skills permit, it would be granted for 12 months is she does not have yet a contract, or up to 5 years if she has a contract.

For who long would you be in SA working?
Remember the procedure is super slow, a normal working visa can take up to 6 months just to gather the documents (because the certificate from the labour department takes too long to be issued, and police cleearance can be at least another 2 months) and for a critical skills she may need to be registered with the profesional body, another pain!

Another option is that she gets hired by a company that can make use of the premium facilities (usually big multinationals and universities), then her processing time gets reduced significantly.

Hope it helps.

Angie

You should also look into the option to get a work endorsement on your spousal visa. It then gets changed to a visitors visa 11(6) (not 100% sure its that one). Then no need to get a working visa.

Hi,

Thanks Angie & Anne.Big help.

@Angie,
Im have a 4 year work permit.Since my wife is not from SA,Does she still have to get the police clearance?

@ Anne
Do you have any info about how to get this work endorsement criterion?I thought its applicable only for the SA Permanent Residents,Can she still apply for a work endorsement cause I'm having a work permit?

Permanent Residence allows you to work, you do not need endorsment. On a temporary one you do, same as on spousal visa.

Yes, precisely. The laws changed recently so I'm not entirely sure what the process is for endorsing spousal visa. If your wife had to apply from scratch, she would have to do this from home country. It might be easier for spouses, but worse case scenario is that she has to have contract in place and go back to apply from home.