Home Affairs rolls out final phase of Citizenship Reinstatement Portal

The Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, is proud to announce the launch of the second and final phase of Home Affairs’ ground-breaking online Citizenship Reinstatement Portal, a major new milestone in the Department’s digital transformation programme to deliver dignity for all.

This enhanced platform builds on phase one of the portal, which was introduced in late November 2025 following the Constitutional Court judgment of 6 May 2025 in the matter of Democratic Alliance v Minister of Home Affairs, which declared Section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act, 1995 unconstitutional. That ruling restored the citizenship of South Africans who had automatically lost their status after acquiring another nationality without prior ministerial permission.

The rollout of phase two of this project concludes the Department’s work to comply with the court’s ruling by building an efficient, secure and paperless online system for South Africans to confirm the reinstatement of their citizenship from anywhere in the world, without filling in a single form or standing in any queues.

After 12 008 people checked their status and 1 088 people already successfully had their citizenship reinstated during the last 11 weeks under phase one of this project, Citizenship Reinstatement Portal 2.0 now introduces real-time automated processing that reduces reinstatement turnaround times from six to eight weeks, to as little as one hour for qualifying applicants. 

Once a person is confirmed as a citizen through the portal, their record is automatically updated on the Population Register. Their profile is changed to “citizen” status immediately, and they receive real-time notification that they can proceed to apply for a South African Passport or Smart ID without further waiting periods. If citizenship cannot be verified immediately, the file is handed to a specialist who investigates the file and manages it to completion.

Minister Schreiber said: “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.”

Minister Schreiber concluded: “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.”

South Africans can access the upgraded Citizenship Reinstatement Portal at myhomeaffairsonline.dha.gov.za.

Media Enquiries:
Carli Van Wyk 
Spokesperson to the Minister
Cell: 079 166 3899

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