Changing planes in OR Tambo's international transit area needs no visa for almost everyone. Leaving the airport means entering South Africa, which most Western passports can do without a visa for up to 90 days, while Indian passports need a visa or an ETA first.
No visa is needed to change planes at OR Tambo if you stay in the international transit area, unless you hold a Pakistani or Bangladeshi passport. To leave the airport, US, UK, Canadian, Australian and most EU passports need no visa for up to 90 days, with a passport valid for 30 days after you leave and two blank pages. Indian passports need a visa or an ETA: check the Department of Home Affairs' ETA portal and VFS before booking.
If you stay airside
O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) has an international transit area, and South Africa exempts travellers changing planes there from transit visas. So if you’re changing between two international flights on one ticket, you can wait airside without entering South Africa and need no visa.
- Who still needs a transit visa. Pakistani and Bangladeshi passport holders, even if they stay airside. Everyone else can change planes without one.
- Fingerprints and a photo. Transit passengers at OR Tambo can have their fingerprints and photo taken too, so expect it even if you never leave the transit area.
- Lost or delayed? The airport has an information desk in the transit area, open 24 hours.
- Connecting to a domestic flight, to Cape Town or Durban for example, means passing immigration in Johannesburg and collecting your bags before you check them onto the next flight, so the rules for leaving the airport apply.
- Extended passports. A passport whose expiry date has been extended by an endorsement isn’t accepted, even to change planes, so travel on one that’s valid in its own right.
- Children in direct transit may be exempt from the birth certificate and consent papers asked of children entering South Africa (below), but carry them anyway in case a delay means you have to enter.
If you want to leave the airport
Leaving the airport means entering South Africa, even for a few hours, so your passport decides.
| Passport | What you need to leave OR Tambo |
|---|---|
| United States | Nothing extra: up to 90 days without a visa |
| United Kingdom | Nothing extra: up to 90 days without a visa |
| Canada, Australia | Nothing extra: up to 90 days without a visa |
| EU and Schengen | Nothing extra for most, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland: up to 90 days. Check South Africa’s visa exemption list for yours |
| India | A visa or an ETA, arranged before you fly |
Visa-free entry
If your passport is on the list, you need nothing in advance: you queue at an immigration desk, give your fingerprints and a photo, and get a stamp for up to 90 days. Your passport must be valid for at least 30 days after you leave South Africa and have two blank pages for the stamps.
The ETA
The Electronic Travel Authorisation is South Africa’s online permission to visit, applied for on the Department of Home Affairs’ ETA portal. It lets travellers from some countries that need a visa come without one, and visa-free travellers may apply too to speed up the border. For a layover they don’t need it: without one, they’re handled at the normal desk.
- Timing. A decision usually comes within 24 hours, so don’t leave it to the day you fly.
- Validity. Usually up to 6 months, for several visits of up to 90 days each.
- Passport. For an ETA it must be valid for at least 7 months.
- Children. Applications for children aren’t open yet.
Indian passports
Indian passports need a visa or an ETA to leave the airport. Visa applications in India go only through VFS, not the High Commission, and the rules for Indian travellers have been changing, so check the ETA portal and VFS before you book. For a few hours in town the paperwork is rarely worth it: staying in the transit area needs nothing.
Children
A child entering South Africa should carry an unabridged birth certificate, the long form that names both parents. If a child is travelling with one parent or another adult, carry a parental consent affidavit as well. Airlines check at check-in, so have the documents to hand, not in a checked bag.
Yellow fever
If you’ve flown in from a country with a risk of yellow fever, or spent 12 hours or more in transit at an airport in one, you need a yellow fever certificate to enter South Africa. Most risk countries are in Africa and South America. Flying in from Europe, Asia, the Gulf or North America, you don’t.
If you’re on separate tickets
On two separate bookings, OR Tambo doesn’t treat you as a connecting passenger. You pass immigration, collect your bags, then check in again for your next flight and go back through security. So you need the right to enter South Africa even if you never leave the airport, and the time for all of it comes out of your layover.
At the border
Everyone entering South Africa goes to an immigration desk, where the officer takes your fingerprints and a photo and stamps your passport. No queue times are published, so we allow 75 minutes from landing to sitting on the Gautrain, a little more than at most airports, because every visitor’s fingerprints and photo are taken. A long queue costs you time in town, not your flight: the time you must head back stays the same.
Before you go landside
- Check whether your bags are checked through to your final destination. If they are, you leave with only your hand luggage.
- Keep your onward boarding pass, or the airline’s app, with you. If you don’t have it yet, check in online or in the app before you leave the airport: South African Airways closes online check-in 2 hours before an international flight and app check-in 90 minutes before.
- Plan to be back at the airport 90 minutes before departure, or earlier if you still need to check in or drop a bag. Check-in at South African Airways closes 50 minutes before departure.
How to get into town and how long you’ll have: getting into the city.