The ministry issued the clarification after social media posts and some media reports claimed the government had approved visa-free entry for citizens of Egypt and Tanzania and revised visa fees for other foreign nationals.
In a statement released on Monday, the ministry said it had taken note of publications alleging that South Sudan had introduced “new visa regulations granting visa-free entry exclusively to nationals of the Arab Republic of Egypt” together with a new visa fee structure.
“The Ministry of Interior unequivocally dismisses these claims as false, misleading, and without any official legal or administrative basis,” the statement said.
The ministry stressed that neither Interior Minister Gen. Aleu Ayieny Aleu nor the Directorate of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passports and Immigration had issued “any directive, policy decision, or statutory instrument” introducing changes to the country’s immigration or visa regime.
It further said the government “has not promulgated any increasing or restricting visa-free entry exclusively to the nationals of Egypt and Tanzania” and had not approved the visa fee schedule currently being shared online.
The ministry said any amendments to immigration regulations are made through established legal procedures and communicated through official government channels before taking effect.
It urged the public, diplomatic missions, airlines, development partners and media organisations to disregard what it described as misleading reports and rely only on official government communication regarding immigration matters.
The ministry’s statement comes as a July 2019 internal immigration directive has resurfaced online and has been widely shared alongside claims that South Sudan recently changed its visa policy.
The leaked correspondence, dated 24 July 2019 and signed by then Director for Immigration Maj. Gen. Nyang Thiciot Dak, instructed immigration officials at South Sudanese embassies, Juba International Airport, land border posts and immigration offices across the country to grant free visas to Tanzanian citizens.
The directive stated that the government had implemented Article 7 of the East African Community Common Market Protocol, which provides for the free movement of persons among partner states, and instructed immigration officers to “grant FREE VISA TO ALL TANZANIAN CITIZENS” seeking entry into South Sudan.
The document described the instruction as an implementation measure and stated that the order “must be implemented accordingly.”
Although the 2019 directive has circulated publicly in recent days, the Ministry of Interior made no reference to it in its latest statement.
Instead, the ministry confined its response to denying that any new policy or legal instrument had been issued introducing visa-free entry for Egyptian nationals or changing the country’s existing immigration framework.
The ministry also rejected reports of revised visa fees, saying no such fee structure had been approved.
The clarification leaves unanswered whether the 2019 immigration directive concerning Tanzanian nationals remains operational or whether it has since been superseded by subsequent government policy. The ministry’s statement neither confirmed nor revoked the earlier instruction, focusing solely on rebutting claims that a new visa regime had been introduced.
