Embassy of the United States

South African law requires that you have at least (2) two blank visa pages in your passport to enter the country. You will not be permitted to enter South Africa and will be forced to leave on the next available flight if you do not have two blank visa pages in your passport.

It is strongly recommended that U.S. citizens check the Country Specific Information for each country they plan to visit prior to departing the U.S. and continue to check for updates to the information while they travel.

For current information on traveling abroad, go to http://travel.state.gov/ and see the following links to U.S. State Department web sites.

Country Specific Information: Country Specific Information sheets are issued by the State Department for every country with general information for U.S. citizens travelling to or living in foreign countries. These sheets contain information on health conditions, crime, entry requirements, areas of instability and the contact information for the U.S. embassy and/or consulate(s) in the specific country.

Travel Warnings: Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department recommends that Americans avoid travel to a certain country.  Countries where avoiding travel is recommended will have Travel Warnings as well as Country Specific Information. You may also want to review Background Notes for a specific country.

Travel Alerts: Travel Alerts contain information about relatively short-term and/or trans-national conditions such as terrorist threats which pose significant risks to the security of American travelers.  Travel Alerts are issued when there is a specific threat that cannot be countered.  In the past, Travel Alerts have been issued to deal with short-term coups, civil or military violence, terrorist activity and anniversary dates of specific terrorist events.

List of Local Physicians: These lists [PDF format] provide the names and locations of physicians of various specialties within the Johannesburg (PDF 69K) and Pretoria (PDF 22K) areas. The Consulate assumes no responsibility for the professional ability or integrity of the persons or firms whose names appear on the list.