The 24-year-old midfielder will fly to London on Wednesday, having agreed a deal with Fulham earlier this month.

The UK demands that players from outside the European Union represent a country in the world's top 70.

South Africa have slipped from 70 to 72 in recent months, so the permit process took longer to complete.

"It's taken a long time to achieve", Dikgacoi's agent Mike Makaab told Sports reporters.

"He is very, very excited about joining the Premier League."

The South African international trained with his former Premier Soccer League side Golden Arrows to maintain his fitness.

Dikgacoi represented the Durban club for four years, but now faces his greatest challenge, according to his agent.

"Fulham are an extremely competitive team, as they showed last year, and Kagiso is going to have to work extremely hard to show the technical staff he deserves to be there," Makaab said.

"He's done very well with his fitness during this period because he's trained with Arrows but he's also done a lot of work on his own.

"It will probably take him a short while to get back to a top level but we are quietly confident that he will do very well."

Dikgacoi, who must depose either Danny Murphy or Dickson Etuhu for a place in Fulham's starting line-up, played in every South Africa match during June's Confederations Cup.