United States of America Visa Requirements for South Africans

Durban has stopped issuing visas

If you are in KwaZulu-Natal, read this first. The State Department has consolidated visa services across Sub-Saharan Africa, and routine visa services at the Durban consulate ceased on 1 August 2026. Durban appears on the published list of posts where routine visa services are no longer offered.

South African applicants now interview in Johannesburg or Cape Town. Be careful with older guidance: the US Embassy's own site still states in one place that visas are issued at its consulates in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, while announcing the change in another. If you already have a Durban appointment, watch your email for instructions rather than travelling to it.

How the US differs from a Schengen or UK application

There is no visa application centre in the sense South Africans are used to. There is no VFS, no TLScontact, no Capago. You complete the DS-160 form online, pay the fee, book an appointment through the official appointment service, and attend a face-to-face interview at the consulate.

The interview is short, and it is where the decision is made. That single difference reshapes everything: with a Schengen application the file does the work, and with a US application the file supports what you say in a conversation lasting a few minutes.

What it costs

The visitor visa application fee — the MRV fee — is USD 185 for a B1/B2 visitor visa. Other categories cost more: USD 205, USD 265 and USD 315 tiers apply to work, religious, intracompany and treaty categories.

Two things people get wrong about it:

Children pay in full. The South African appointment service states that all visa applicants, including children, must pay the fee. There is no child rate and no exemption, so a family of four pays four times.

It is payable whether or not you get a visa. The fee is described as non-refundable and non-transferable, and payment is required regardless of whether the application results in issuance. A refusal costs you the fee, and reapplying costs it again.

We do not publish a Rand figure because the fee is set in dollars and what you pay depends on the rate applied when you pay. Budget for the exchange rate on the day rather than a number you read somewhere.

The presumption you are up against

This is the part that catches South Africans, and it is not intuitive.

US law does not start neutral. The State Department's own manual instructs officers that an applicant is "presumed to be an immigrant until they establish to your satisfaction" that they qualify for a temporary visa, and the burden of proof sits with the applicant. You are not being asked to prove you deserve a visa so much as to displace an assumption the law already made about you.

To do that you must show a residence in South Africa you do not intend to abandon, that your stay is for a genuinely limited period, and that the length you have asked for matches the trip you have described. The usual evidence applies: employment and length of service, a business, property, dependants, study.

One warning worth taking seriously. The manual tells officers that if they doubt your intention to return, you cannot resolve that doubt by offering to leave a child, spouse or dependant behind. South Africans offer this constantly, believing it is decisive. Officers are instructed not to accept it.

If you have already been refused, the section number on your letter is almost certainly 214(b), and it means something more specific and less final than most people assume — see what a 214(b) refusal actually means.

Preparing for the interview

Because the decision happens in conversation, preparation is not only about documents.

• Be able to state your purpose in one sentence and have the itinerary to match it. Vague answers read as unformed plans.
• Know your own application. Inconsistency between the DS-160 and what you say is the fastest route to a refusal.
• Carry the evidence of ties, but do not expect to hand over a folder. You may never be asked for it. It exists so that you can answer confidently.
• Answer what is asked. Long, defensive answers create doubt rather than resolving it.

Where we can and cannot help

We prepare the DS-160, assemble the supporting evidence and run interview preparation with you. Nobody can attend the interview for you, and nobody can influence the officer. If your case is weak, we will say so before you pay USD 185 that you will not get back.

See how the US visa application service works, or ask on WhatsApp.