In a stride towards enhancing digital services, Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber announced the launch of the second and final phase of the online Citizenship Reinstatement Portal.

This initiative marks a moment for South Africans who have lost their citizenship, allowing them to reinstate it conveniently without the hassle of paperwork or queues. 

Building on the first phase of the portal, this enhanced platform was launched following the Constitutional Court’s ruling on May 6, 2025, in the Democratic Alliance v Minister of Home Affairs case.

That judgment declared Section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act, 1995, unconstitutional, thereby restoring citizenship to South Africans who had automatically lost it after acquiring another nationality without first obtaining ministerial permission. The initial phase of the portal was introduced in late November 2025.

The completion of phase two signifies the department’s compliance with the court’s ruling. This project establishes an efficient, secure, and paperless online system. It will allow South Africans globally to confirm their citizenship reinstatement without the need for forms or queues.

“This online tool enables South Africans who have unconstitutionally lost their citizenship to conveniently reinstate their citizenship without filling in a single form or standing in any queues,” Schreiber said. 

To have your citizenship reinstated, visit the website myhomeaffairsonline.dha.gov.za and complete the application process.

Citizenship Reinstatement Portal 2.0 now offers real-time automated processing, dramatically cutting the reinstatement turnaround time for qualifying applicants from six to eight weeks down to as little as one hour. This improvement follows the successful completion of phase one, during which 12,008 people checked their status and 1,088 people successfully had their citizenship reinstated over the last 11 weeks.

“Through the second phase of this project, we have cut the turnaround time from six to eight weeks to just one hour,” Schreiber said. 

Upon confirmation of citizenship via the portal, the individual’s status on the Population Register is instantly updated to “citizen”. They receive a real-time notification indicating they can immediately apply for a South African passport or smart ID without any required waiting periods. Should immediate verification of citizenship not be possible, the file is escalated to a specialist for investigation and management through to completion.

Schreiber said this initiative serves a dual purpose: first, it restores dignity to those South Africans who were stripped of their citizenship; second, it advances their goal of delivering Home Affairs services remotely, and moving closer to achieving a fully digital identity system. 

“Citizenship Reinstatement Portal 2.0 represents a step change in how constitutional rights are implemented through modern digital public infrastructure. It shows how digital transformation can convert a Constitutional Court judgment into practical, real-world outcomes at speed and at scale. As part of our Home Affairs @ home reforms, we are leapfrogging from paperwork, queues, and long delays to secure, automated, biometric-enabled services that restore dignity and certainty,” Schreiber said. 

“The biometric verification technology we have rolled out for this portal, which enables a user to securely take a selfie and scan their passport to remotely confirm their status without any human intervention, paperwork or delay, also forms the core of the Digital Identity system that Home Affairs is working on. The enormous success of this portal, which has already seen thousands of users successfully verify their status from the comfort of their own homes using nothing but their smart device, provides a glimpse of the future we are building as we deliver Home Affairs @ home.”

thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za 

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