Egypt
Egypt · Africa · updated 03.08.2026
Egypt is the most populous Arab country (around 107 million people in 2024 according to CAPMAS), with several parallel formal residence statuses for foreigners: employment residence through a Ministry of Manpower permit, student residence, citizenship in exchange for investment, and a residence permit for property ownership (a programme in place since the early 2020s). Naturalisation by investment requires no minimum period of prior residence: the decision is made by the prime minister on the recommendation of the specialised unit at the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), in exchange for an investment project, a property purchase or a foreign-currency deposit. Standard naturalisation on general grounds takes 10 years of residence and requires command of Arabic; dual citizenship is generally allowed with the authorities' permission. The cost of living is markedly lower than in Europe. Rule-of-law and control-of-corruption scores under the World Bank's methodology (WGI) are negative. Of the country's five largest and most tourism-significant cities, two — Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh — are entirely oriented toward Red Sea tourism and have historically been sensitive to fluctuations in international air links.
Some descriptions for this country are still Russian only: 96% translated. Numbers, prices and timelines are complete.
Entry
Entry rules depend on citizenship. Choose a passport to see the requirement for that one.
Work and visas
Visa types: The electronic visa is the only category the interior ministry publishes with figures of its own: the portal visa2egypt.gov.eg names the tourist visa as single entry for thirty US dollars and multiple entry for sixty-five, and lists the seventy-eight nationalities to which it is open. Neither the visa's validity, nor the permitted length of stay, nor the decision time is on the portal. · The work permit is issued by the labour ministry, and the application is filed by the employer, not by the foreigner. Two conditions are stated outright: foreigners must not exceed 10% of the enterprise's employees, and a letter must name two Egyptian assistants whom the foreigner undertakes to train. · The work permit duty rises year by year and is twice as high outside the ten-per-cent quota: from 5200 pounds for the first year inside the quota and 8200 outside it, up to a ceiling of 50 200. Whoever is already in the country pays on top of that 15 000 pounds «for exemption from recruitment from abroad». · Employment residence (residence for employment) — issued together with a work permit from the Ministry of Manpower; a separate, simplified procedure applies to employees of companies registered under Investment Law No. 72 of 2017. The exact official validity period and the list of requirements could not be confirmed in this session: the moi.gov.eg and manpower.gov.eg sites block automated requests (the WAF rejects even the Wayback Machine's archiving bot with the response “MOI Rejected Page”, and the manpower.gov.eg site itself is a single-page JS application with no server-rendered content). · Student residence — according to secondary sources (playroll.com, ellaithylawyers.com; not confirmed against a primary source), issued to foreign students on full-time programmes at accredited Egyptian universities for the duration of their studies, with annual renewal. · Citizenship in exchange for investment is administered by the Unit for Granting Egyptian Citizenship in Exchange for Investment, under the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), which reports to the Cabinet of the Prime Minister. Officially (gafi.gov.eg): no minimum period of prior residence in Egypt is required — unlike Cyprus and Spain, which the GAFI page itself cites for comparison. Investment options: setting up an investment project, buying real estate, or a foreign-currency deposit into the state treasury or a special account at the Central Bank of Egypt. The administrative fee is $10,000, transferred from abroad to the Central Bank of Egypt. The application is reviewed in 3–6 months; after a security-services check the applicant is issued a 6-month temporary residence permit to complete the chosen programme, after which citizenship is granted to the investor and their minor children (under 21) by decision of the prime minister. The scheme is an amended version of the 2018 law: back then it required a deposit of EGP 7 million and 5 years of residence afterwards (Wikipedia, citing Farid 2018 and Rahman 2018 — a secondary source, not verified against a primary one); the current version has removed the residence-period requirement. · A residence permit for property ownership — introduced in the early 2020s. According to convergent but non-primary sources (ellaithylawyers.com, kayandevelopment-eg.com, cairo-real.estate; the official text of the Ministry of Interior/Cabinet decision could not be found), the property value thresholds are: from $200,000 — a 5-year residence permit with renewal; from $100,000 — 3 years; from $50,000 — 1 year. AGENTS.md explicitly warns that for Egypt such figures from law firms are especially prone to being outdated (the thresholds have changed because of the pound's devaluation), so this is flagged separately in the report and the figures should not be treated as verified.
The domain moi.gov.eg has stopped being the interior ministry's site: on 28.08.2026 it serves a placeholder titled «Modern Minimalist Page» — not a WAF refusal, as was recorded earlier, but an unrelated page. The working channel to the ministry is now a different one, and better than the old: the visa portal visa2egypt.gov.eg answers a plain request in full, is signed in the footer «Ministry of Interior — Arab Republic of Egypt» and prints its own fees. The labour ministry has changed domain: manpower.gov.eg gives up only its home page and redirects to labour.gov.eg, whereas on labour.gov.eg the same work-permit page is served in full together with the table of duties. The basic law on the residence of foreigners still could not be confirmed against a primary source: the scan of the law found in the manshurat.org legal database has no text layer, and that database is not a state source and returns 403 on part of the requests. So not one ground here rests on the law: only on what the agencies publish themselves. The earlier entry, from an earlier date: the basic law on the residence statuses of foreigners (cited everywhere as Decree-Law no. 74 of 1952) could not be confirmed against a primary source — moi.gov.eg rejects all automated requests (including the Internet Archive's archiving bot) with an «MOI Rejected Page» code, and searching manshurat.org returns 403. Only one working channel to the ministry was found in that session: an archived copy of enationality.moi.gov.eg via the Wayback Machine (see officialSources.immigration) — but that department deals with the citizenship and emigration of Egyptians themselves, not with the residence of foreigners.
Long-term visas and residence permits
Foreign work permit of Egypt (work licence)
WorkEgypt e-Visa — single entry (tourism)
OtherEgypt e-Visa — multiple entries (tourism)
OtherProgramme terms change, and the final decision rests with the consulate or the country migration service. The data is collected from official sources on the date shown and is not legal advice.
Residence and citizenship
- Permanent residence after
- no residence period required
- Citizenship after
- 10 years
- Language
- For standard naturalisation — yes, an understanding of the Arabic language and society's customs (secondary source, see citizenshipNote). For citizenship by investment and for naturalisation through marriage to an Egyptian citizen, no separate language requirement appears in the sources found.
- Dual citizenship
- allowed
Dual citizenship: Allowed with the permission of the Ministry of Interior. Officially (an archived copy of enationality.moi.gov.eg, the “About the Department” section, see officialSources.immigration): the department accepts applications for permission to naturalise in a foreign citizenship “both while retaining Egyptian citizenship and without retaining it” — meaning the law allows both options, and the choice is formalised by explicit permission. This matches a secondary source (Wikipedia, “Egyptian nationality law”, citing Manby, 2016, pp. 74, 78): dual citizenship in Egypt has generally been allowed since 2004, subject to the authorities' permission. Restrictions: the president, the prime minister and their close relatives may not hold more than one citizenship; case law has also barred holders of dual citizenship from parliamentary seats. Acquiring a foreign citizenship without permission does not by itself strip a person of Egyptian citizenship — it is lost only by a separate decision of the Cabinet of Ministers (secondary source: Wikipedia, “Egyptian nationality law”, citing Badawy, 2014, p. 280; the primary source was not checked).
There is no separate “permanent residence” status between temporary residence and citizenship in Egypt: all the ordinary residence categories are fixed-term and renewable (see work.visaTypes). Standard naturalisation follows Citizenship Law No. 26 of 1975: 10 years of residence, an understanding of the Arabic language and society's customs and traditions, good standing and no criminal record, physical and mental health, and economic self-sufficiency (per a secondary source — the Wikipedia article “Egyptian nationality law”, citing Manby, “Citizenship Law in Africa”, 2016, pp. 81, 88; the specific article number of the law is not given, and the primary source did not open in this session). Simplified grounds under the same law, officially confirmed (an archived copy of enationality.moi.gov.eg, the General Administration for Passports, Immigration and Nationality at the Ministry of Interior, the “About the Department” section, see officialSources.immigration): a foreign wife of an Egyptian man may obtain her husband's citizenship under article 7 — after 2 years of marriage and an application to the Minister of Interior (the text speaks specifically of a “foreign wife of an Egyptian man”; the reverse case — an Egyptian woman and a foreign husband — is not mentioned in this section); children of an Egyptian mother may obtain her citizenship under article 3 of law No. 154 of 2004. See also residency.citizenshipExtra on naturalisation by investment.
Naturalisation by investment — the current version requires no period of prior residence in the country at all (officially, gafi.gov.eg, see work.visaTypes and officialSources.citizenship): citizenship is granted by decision of the prime minister after a security-services check, in exchange for an investment project, a property purchase, or a currency deposit plus a $10,000 administrative fee. Hence residency.prYears = 0. This is the result of amendments to the citizenship law adopted in 2018 (approved by the House of Representatives on 16 July 2018, ratified by President el-Sisi on 15 August 2018 — a secondary source, Wikipedia citing Farid 2018 and Rahman 2018): the original 2018 version required a deposit of EGP 7 million and 5 years of residence afterwards; the current version has dropped this residence-period requirement. The exact current dollar thresholds by investment option (reference materials from citizenship-by-investment agencies cite figures of $250,000 for a non-refundable contribution, $300,000 for real estate, $350,000+$100,000 for business investment, $500,000 for a refundable deposit) are not published on the official GAFI page and were not confirmed against a primary source in this session.
Documents
- Document certification
- consular legalisation
The country does not accept apostilles: documents go through consular legalisation in three steps — ministry of justice, foreign ministry, consulate.
Family
Partner
- Timeline
- No official regulation setting the timeframe specifically for residence (as opposed to citizenship) for a spouse could still be found — moi.gov.eg remains unreachable (see work.notes). An official timeframe was found for the one documented path — naturalisation of a foreign wife of an Egyptian citizen through marriage: the Egyptian Consulate General in London (egyptconsulate.co.uk/consular-services/obtaining-egyptian-citizenship/, page update date not given, checked 03 August 2026) describes the procedure verbatim as 'Both husband and wife to fill out a form each 6 months for a total period of 2 years' — the husband and wife file a form every six months over 2 years, confirming the wife's wish to obtain, and the husband's confirmation that the wife will obtain, Egyptian citizenship. This matches the already-found condition of art. 7 of Law No. 26/1975 on two years of marriage (see residency.citizenshipNote) — it appears the '2 years' refers specifically to this confirmation procedure. As in the Interior Ministry archive, the requirements on the consulate page are formulated only for the case of a 'foreign wife — Egyptian husband' (the document list includes 'Original Egyptian Passport for the Egyptian husband'); the reverse case (an Egyptian woman married to a foreigner) is again not described in any official resource found.
Only the citizenship route is officially confirmed, not a separate spousal residence status: a foreign wife of an Egyptian citizen can obtain her husband's citizenship under article 7 of Citizenship Law No. 26 of 1975 after 2 years of marriage and an application to the Minister of Interior (archived copy of enationality.moi.gov.eg via the Wayback Machine, 'About the Authority' section of the General Administration for Passports, Immigration, and Nationality — see officialSources.immigration; checked 02 August 2026). The wording on the page speaks specifically of a 'foreign wife of an Egyptian man' — the reverse case (an Egyptian woman married to a foreigner) is not mentioned in this section, and it could not be verified separately. No official regulation setting the processing time for ordinary (non-citizenship) residence for the spouse of a foreign resident/citizen could be found: moi.gov.eg — the main authority for foreigners' residence — blocks all automated requests, including the Internet Archive's archiving bot (an 'MOI Rejected Page' response even in Wayback Machine snapshots). The 2-year period from the timeline, found separately on the website of the Egyptian Consulate in London, is not the processing time for ordinary residence but the duration of the procedure for confirming the wife's intention to obtain citizenship through marriage; according to all sources found, Egypt does not provide for a separate sponsored spousal residence status.
Parents
Partner's parents
Pets
- Limit
- no limit
- Antibody titre test
- needed
Found on a second pass via a different channel: not the specialised Egyptian authority inside the country (GOVS/govs.gov.eg still publishes nothing beyond a dog-keeping licence, with no quarantine details — see below), but an official Egyptian resource abroad — the Egyptian Consulate General in London (egyptconsulate.co.uk). The FAQ section ('Can I take my pets with me? What are the required documents?', page update date not given, checked 03 August 2026) requires, verbatim: (1) an official export veterinary certificate from a vet, legalised first at the foreign ministry of the country of departure (for the UK, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office), then at the Egyptian consulate; (2) the animal's passport and proof of rabies vaccination; (3) a 'blood test (to show rabies antibodies)' — a rabies antibody blood test, with the consulate explicitly directing applicants to check the timing of this test with a vet and with the UK's DEFRA. Legalising the certificate at the consulate itself costs £20 — this is payment only for the consular document-legalisation service, not the overall cost of processing the animal, so it is not entered in estimatedCostPerAnimalEur. On the visa page of the same consulate (egyptconsulate.co.uk/visas/, 'Updated 3 July 2024'), the requirement is stated more briefly: 'health certificate legalised by the Veterinary authorities in the United Kingdom... especially Rabies'; rabies vaccination must be given no later than one month and no earlier than one year before travel. This is a primary source from the Egyptian side itself (the consulate is part of Egypt's state apparatus, located abroad), not a third-country retelling, but the text is oriented toward applicants from the UK: the legalisation authority named (FCO) and the fee amount (£20) are UK-specific local detail; legalisation details for dispatch from other countries may differ, although the structure of the requirements itself (certificate + vaccination + antibody titre) originates from the Egyptian side and should be the same regardless of the country of departure. rabiesTiterRequired=true is the only field for which direct official confirmation was found (a rabies antibody blood test is explicitly named as a mandatory document), hence verdict=difficult (comparable in difficulty to other countries where titre testing is officially confirmed). prepTimeMonths is left empty: only the minimum interval for the vaccination itself is explicitly stated (at least one month before travel), while the consulate does not give a figure for the time needed to take the antibody test and receive the result — adding the two periods together would amount to guessing. Quarantine on arrival, a limit on the number of animals per owner, and banned breeds are not mentioned in either consulate document — this is not 'no requirement' but 'no confirmation found', so they are left null/an empty list. The specialised authority inside the country (GOVS, govs.gov.eg, Presidential Decree No. 187/1984) still publishes only livestock veterinary matters and a mention of a dog-keeping licence with no further detail.
Safety
Climate
Quality of life
Cities
Cairo
tech hubEgypt's capital, the largest city in Africa and the Middle East, and the country's political and economic centre.
Moderate seismicity: the earthquake of 12 October 1992 (M 5.8), centred south of the city, killed about 550 people and damaged old buildings. Rare but destructive flash floods due to an overloaded storm drainage system (for example, March 2020). Regular severe air pollution: PM2.5 concentrations several times above WHO norms.
Alexandria
Egypt's second-largest city and the country's main port, on the Mediterranean coast.
One of Africa's large cities most vulnerable to sea-level rise: a significant share of its built-up area lies less than 2 metres above sea level. Regular winter storm surges and flooding of coastal and central streets (for example, November 2015 — with fatalities). Seismicity is lower than in Cairo.
Giza
A city on the west bank of the Nile opposite Cairo, part of the single Greater Cairo agglomeration, known for the plateau with the pyramids and the Sphinx.
Part of the Greater Cairo agglomeration, with the same risks: moderate seismicity (the 1992 earthquake was felt here too), occasional flash floods, and heavy air pollution.
Hurghada
A resort city on the Red Sea coast, one of Egypt's main tourist centres after Cairo.
Rare but destructive flash floods in the desert terrain (for example, the floods of November 1996 and March 2014 on the Red Sea coast); seismicity is low. The local economy went through a sharp, multi-year decline after the bombing of a Russian airliner in October 2015 and the resulting halt in charter flights from Russia.
Sharm El Sheikh
A resort city at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, one of Egypt's main tourist and conference centres on the Red Sea. The 2017 census counted just 14,642 permanent residents here — five times fewer than in 2006: after the 2015–2016 tourism downturn, labour migration receded, and the census does not count seasonal employment.
Low seismicity, occasional wadi flash floods after rare heavy downpours. After the bombing of a Russian airliner over Sinai in October 2015, air links with Russia and (until 2019) the United Kingdom were suspended for years, causing a sharp and prolonged drop in tourist flow and the city's permanent population.
Grocery basket
- Bread, 500 g
- $ 0,60
- Milk, 1 l
- $ 0,85
- Eggs, 12
- $ 1,29
- Chicken breast, 1 kg
- $ 4,21
- Cheese, 1 kg
- $ 3,50
- Rice, 1 kg
- $ 0,60
- Potatoes, 1 kg
- $ 0,36
- Apples, 1 kg
- $ 1,52
- Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 l
- $ 0,69
- Total
- $ 13,6
The same set for every country, so the comparison is fair.
Cost of living across the country
- Rent, 1 bedroom
- $ 145 a month
- Rent, 3 bedrooms
- $ 323 a month
- Utility bills
- $ 18,9 a month
- Home internet
- $ 11,9 a month
- Monthly transport pass
- $ 9,89 a month
- Single transport ticket
- $ 0,26
- Petrol, litre
- $ 0,37
- Cold medicine
- $ 1,75 for a week
Country averages. City prices, where collected, are shown above and are more precise.
Indicators
- Life expectancy
- 71,8 years2024
- Homicides
- 1,3 per 100k2017 · data lags behind
- Road deaths
- 9,4 per 100k2021
- Unemployment
- 6,8 %2025
- Unemployment, ages 15–24
- 18,3 %2025
- Inequality (Gini)
- 28,52021 · data lags behind
- Health spending per person
- $ 141 a year
- Air pollution, PM2.5
- 43,2 µg/m³2023
- Access to clean water
- 97,3 %2024
- Internet, fixed line
- 93,5 Mbit/s2026
- Internet, mobile
- 51,4 Mbit/s2026
Governance
- Political stability
- below average · -1
- Control of corruption
- below average · -0,8
- Rule of law
- below average · -0,8
- Government effectiveness
- below average · -0,1
World Bank estimates on a −2.5 to +2.5 scale, higher is better.
Natural hazards
- Earthquakes
- 4,6 out of 10
- River floods
- 9,9 out of 10
- Coastal floods
- 9 out of 10
- Tropical cyclones
- 0 out of 10
- Droughts
- 2,1 out of 10
- Tsunamis
- 5,9 out of 10
Each value carries the year it refers to. “Data lags behind” means this country's figure was collected noticeably earlier than the rest. Natural hazards use one 0–10 scale and are meant to be compared against each other.
Pros and cons
Compare with other countries in the region
Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Chad · Cote d'Ivoire · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Djibouti · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Eswatini · Ethiopia · Gabon · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Republic of the Congo · Rwanda · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · South Sudan · Sudan · Tanzania · The Gambia · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · Zimbabwe
Other countries in the region: Africa
Algeria · Angola · Benin · Botswana · Burkina Faso · Burundi · Cameroon · Central African Republic · Chad · Cote d'Ivoire · Democratic Republic of the Congo · Djibouti · Equatorial Guinea · Eritrea · Eswatini · Ethiopia · Gabon · Ghana · Guinea · Guinea-Bissau · Kenya · Lesotho · Liberia · Libya · Madagascar · Malawi · Mali · Mauritania · Morocco · Mozambique · Namibia · Niger · Nigeria · Republic of the Congo · Rwanda · Senegal · Sierra Leone · Somalia · South Africa · South Sudan · Sudan · Tanzania · The Gambia · Togo · Tunisia · Uganda · Zambia · Zimbabwe