A visa is required to visit Egypt for business, tourism or any other purpose of travel. If yours is not one of the 78 nationalities that qualify for a visa-on-arrival or electronic visa, don’t fret yet. Your bucket list trip to the home of the last remaining Ancient World Wonder is still possible. According to The Ministry of Interior for the Arab Republic of Egypt, 180 nationalities are eligible for a visa on arrival provided they fulfil certain conditions. This exemption is known as a Third-Country Visa Exemption.
How does this Third-Country Visa Exemption work?
If you are a national of a country with a weak mobility score, you customarily have visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to very few countries. This Third-Country Visa Exemption allows some countries, like Egypt, to grant you easier entry requirements when you hold visas to certain other countries. For example: If you have a Nigerian Passport and a valid visa to the USA, you can obtain a visa on arrival or electronic visa in countries like Egypt, Panama, Mexico, Montenegro, and many more.
In the specific case of the Arab Republic of Egypt, if you possess a valid visa for the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Schengen Area, Japan, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, which has been used at least once, you’d be allowed to get a visa on arrival in Egypt.
Residence Permit vs Visa
Your residence permit is not to be confused with a visa as they are often two separate documents. A visa is a sticker on your passport or a printout usually with a QR code. A residence permit, on the other hand, is a document that grants you access to remain, live, or work in a country longer than the 3 or 6-month duration which is usually allowed for visitors.
This is why, for some countries like Canada, having a permit only does not grant you access to the country. You need both a valid visa (sticker on your passport) and a permit (usually a sheet of paper) to be allowed into the country. However, this is not the case for some countries like the United Kingdom, where your Biometrics Residence Permit (BRP) is the only document you need to move in and out of the country as a resident.
Conditions for visa on arrival in Egypt
To be eligible for a visa on arrival in Egypt:
- You must possess a valid visa for the USA, the UK, the Schengen Area, Japan, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. It cannot be expired.
- This particular visa must have been used previously to enter and leave the issuing country. This means if you have a UK visa, you should have used it to enter the UK at least once. Please note that if you had a used visa in the past which has now expired, it is not valid for a visa-on-arrival in Egypt.
- Since the visa should be used and still be valid, single-entry visas are ineligible because they become invalid once used.
- Residence permits like BRP, ILR, Canada PR card, etc are not eligible, as they are not visas.
How to get a visa on arrival in Egypt
Suppose you are eligible for a visa on arrival because of your passport, or by third-country visa exemption, you’ll get stamped at immigration in Egypt pretty easily after you do the following:
- Fill out the visitor form at the arrival hall
- Purchase a visa sticker from the bank counter in the airport’s passport control area for $25. Cash, debit and credit cards are accepted.
- Join the immigration queue (if any) with your passport, visitor form and visa sticker.
- Hand in the passport, form and sticker to the officer, and wait until your name is called and your passport is handed to you. This could take minutes or hours depending on the arrival traffic at the time of arrival.
Pro tip: If you take a flight from a destination where its citizens need a visa, chances are higher that you’ll spend more time at immigration. My flight to Egypt was from Toronto, so I spent less than an hour at immigration, but my friends came from Lagos later that day and spent almost 6 hours there.
How to get a visa on arrival in Egypt if you don’t have a qualifying visa
You can still get a visa on arrival in Egypt even if you are not a national of any eligible visa-free or visa-on-arrival countries and you do not have a qualifying valid visa. To get this, you’d need to get a pre-approved entry permit from Egypt and an “OK To Board” number.
At first, this might strike you as an incredibly lazy name, but you can’t fault the authority’s need to be extra clear that this number gives you permission to board your flight and get a visa on arrival in Egypt.
Kaijego can help you process this permit and get you a visa on arrival in Egypt with just a few steps:
- Book a return flight on EgyptAir for your travel dates.
- Make payment of $300 here with a card or here for naira transactions.
- Send us your passport data page and your return flight ticket. We’re available at @kaijego across social media platforms or by email at go@kaijego.com.
- Allow 15 business days for processing, and we’ll send you a document that includes your OK to Board Number, which is all you need to board your flight to Egypt.
- Upon arrival in Egypt, pay the $25 fee for your visa sticker and voila!
Egypt Visa-on-Arrival FAQs
Because you’re ordinarily ineligible for a visa-on-arrival in Egypt, the $300 fee is charged to process an entry permit that allows you get a visa-on-arrival. If you were eligible, you’d only have to pay the $25 fee on arrival.
A flight ticket booked on EgyptAir is needed to process an entry permit. If you have any eligible visas and do not need an entry permit, you can arrive in Egypt on any airline.
You are NOT eligible for an Egypt visa on arrival with a UK BRP only. You need a valid and used multiple entry UK, USA, Canada, Schengen, Japan, Australia or New Zealand visa to get a visa on arrival in Egypt.
It takes 15 business days to process an entry permit for your Egypt visa-on-arrival.
This is a single-entry visa, valid for 45 days.
You do not require bank statements or any other proof of funds to process your entry permit or Egypt visa-on-arrival. Additionally, travel history is not required, so first-time travelers are welcome.
You can get an Egypt eVisa here.
How to save more on your Egypt Visa
Can’t wrap your head around paying $300 for a single entry visa? It may be more affordable to book a travel package. A travel package includes hotels, activities, meals, visa, altogether booked as a discounted bundle rate. You could save up to 30% on your trip. To get a quote for your trip, talk to us here, or send a message through the chatbot you see at the bottom right corner of your screen.
Why does it have to be EgyptAir?
Okay, I’ll admit that no one asked this (yet). I’m simply hiding behind the cloak of attempted clarity and seizing the opportunity to nerd about this process.
After processing the entry permit, the ministry broadcasts an email to all EgyptAir station managers worldwide. This email contains a list of everyone whose permit has been approved for travel within that period. It also includes their OK to Board number.
At the check-in counter, when you show this number, they cross-reference it with the list they have. If you were to fly on another airline, they wouldn’t let you board your flight because they would not have received these emails.
On another hand, it may be an opportunity for the Egyptian Tourism Board to boost patronage of their flag carrier, which is a brilliant move on their part from a purely economic standpoint.
According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, international arrivals across Africa recovered 96% of pre-pandemic visitors. North Africa, in particular, is performing strongly. If you’re sold to the idea of visiting Egypt for the Pyramids, history, the Nile, or just sheer FOMO, then I hope this article provides all the information you need to make your Egypt trip easy and stress-free.
