Residency visas

Hi,

You can obtain residence based on a property of the value of 50 K USD. You need to beware on the source of legal information, because the developer might have his interests in selling properties in certain areas that will not qualify for the visa scheme.

The rule hasn't changes, and you will be able to get 1 year resident visa renewable for a further 3 years. Depending on your connections you might be able to get a 5 years residence based on you owning a property.

A tourist visa for most western nationals is renewable for 6 months and then another 6 months, for a max of 1 year. Then you will have to exit the country, unless your residence (based on property)  will be ready before your tourist visa expires.

If you are able to obtain 1 year tourist visa, and you wish to exit and re-entry the country on the same visa you will have to go to the passport office and pay a fee for the re-entry. If you exit without obtaining the exit permission from the immigration, your visa will be cancelled.

I must warn you that while in the past people were obtaining a visa renewal or extension with relative ease, now things are getting a little bit more complicated. Some EU nationals have been refused a renewal and some were able to get 3 months only. This is happening more in Alex and Cairo, less in Hurghada.

It is up to the officer to accept your application. You might write in the form that you require 6 months, but you might just get 3, depending on your nationality and officer's mood. : )

If you experience any trouble with your visa extension or renewal, contact me privately.

Super - thanks for the reply

http://www.moiegypt.gov.eg/English/Depa … otTourism/

Any gov website can be safely disregarded. Information are never updated. Laws change and sometime even officials are not sure a bout it.

The only way to really know what is currently going on is to have a chat with the officers that
'put the stamp'.

For instance, the rule on 50 K USD bank account deposit is not valid anymore, but ti is still listed in the website.

All the possibilities and visa types are not fully listed in any site.

Yes, I'd heard that the 50k in bank account rule was gone. I'd also heard that properties in "compounds" don't qualify, but I'm not too sure exactly what this means (eg, El Gouna or also large apartment sites with facilities such as gyms or do they mean like military compounds?). I actually emailed the Egyptian visa office yesterday for clarification, but don't know if they will reply.

I also thought I'd heard of people saying they'd easily obtained a 1-year tourist visa, but I was hoping you could upgrade this to a multi-entry visa.

I will see if the Egyptian visa office replies...

You can always apply for a multi-entry, only the validity is six months.