More bank branches to offer Home Affairs services in South Africa

News24 -  September 2021

The Department of Home Affairs plans to expand its partnership with banks to offer more services at branches across the country.

In a presentation to parliament on Tuesday (31 August), the department said that there are currently 27 bank branches that offer E-Home Affairs services across six different provinces.

The department said it plans to roll out these services to a further 43 sites in the near future.

“This initiative was done mainly to assist with the reduction of long queues at DHA offices and to expand the service platforms and allow citizens to apply for Smart ID cards and passports online.

“Applicants are only required to visit the bank branch to complete the biometrics, thereby reducing the time spent in the bank or DHA office.”

The department said that the rollout of pilot sites will be completed as soon as possible as this has been outstanding for a number of years.

All of South Africa’s biggest banks – with the exception of Capitec – offer the E-Home Affairs service at a handful of their branches.

Absa, FNB, Nedbank, and Standard Bank have had multiple branches supporting the service for several years. Discovery Bank and Investec Bank recently started participating in the programme with one branch each.

The tables below show all of the bank branches where you can book appointments to capture biometric data for your smart ID and passport application, and collect your documents when they are ready.

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