A two-year stint in London to earn some pounds and see the world has long been a popular option for young South Africans finishing school or university, but that may not be an option for much longer.

The United Kingdom’s Border Agency and Home Office is completely overhauling its immigration system in one of the biggest drives to protect its borders in the last 45 years. And, individuals travelling on South African passports will be heavily affected warns Youth Discovery Programmes (YDP), a specialist in working holidays and gap years which manages more than 2000 working holidays abroad annually.

"All young South Africans between the ages of 18 and 30 wishing to apply for a two year 'working holidaymakers' visa for the UK should do so immediately," urges Marc Whitmill, general manager of YDP and UK visa specialist.

According to the recently released Statement of Intent on its Temporary Workers and Youth Mobility Scheme by the UK's Home Office, South African nationals will no longer be eligible for the two year working holidaymakers’ visa while transitional arrangements will be made for those South African nationals currently in the country under the scheme. The Home Office has not declared a date but YDP expects these changes to be effective mid-September this year.

Whitmill comments: "Although South Africa and the United Kingdom have always had a healthy relationship in this regard, it has been a bit one sided. The UK has always been relatively lax with its Working Holidaymaker Scheme despite South Africa not offering UK nationals similar opportunities."

Whitmill moves on to explain that theUnited Kingdom will abolish the Working Holidaymaker Scheme and replace it with the Youth Mobility Scheme, a new points based system comprising five tiers, similar to the one currently used in Australia.

"Those interested in a holidaymakers' visa equivalent would fall into tier five, which allows temporary workers and youth entering the UK to satisfy non-economic objectives. However, the Statement of Intent clearly says that countries need to meet qualifying criteria relating to the level of immigration risk posed, the country’s return arrangement policy and reciprocal opportunities for UK nationals."

Continues Whitmill: "South Africa doesn’t have a working holidaymaker scheme for young British citizens. But, the fact that our Immigration Laws do not cater for temporary work options coupled with our high unemployment rate and the recent spates of xenophobic attacks doesn’t bode well for us either. All things considered, it is looking very unlikely that South Africa will qualify for the new system."

The move comes after reports earlier this year that the United Kingdom is "likely" to strip SA of its "visa-free" status this year because of rampant corruption in the Department of Home Affairs.

South Africans would have to pay £63 (nearly R1000) and provide fingerprints, "facial biometrics" and travel documents to obtain visas, a Sunday Times report said.

More than 250 000 tourists, business people and family visitors to Britain would have to apply for visas each year.

"The door is being shut because corrupt Home Affairs officials have been dishing out genuine passports to people smugglers, foreign asylum seekers and — allegedly — suspected terrorists wanting to enter Britain," the report said.

As a result, British immigration experts said, the South African passport was "no longer worth the paper it's written on".