News report | | 02-09-2019 | ±4 minutes reading time

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has plans to implement an electronic visa for, among other groups, European travellers. The electronic visa will offer more possibilities for various travel purposes. It is currently already possible to apply for a visa for tourist purposes.

The Egyptian government has been working with a tourist e-visa for several years now. This means that travellers going on a holiday to Egypt can already apply for their visa online in advance. This is the so-called e-visa Egypt. In the coming years, more visas will be offered digitally. Due to the plans of the Egyptian government, it is likely that you will be able to apply for an online visa for things like business trips. This will remove the need to visit the embassy or consulate.

Egypt e-visa for different countries

The ministry explained that it wants to make various types of digital visa available for European travellers. This should attract more tourists to the country. The digital visa is therefore meant to draw in business travellers, to stimulate investments in Egypt.

Egypt will make it so the visa can be applied for in eight different languages. There are 46 countries that qualify for the fully digital visa for various travel purposes. These countries will be granted access to the e-visa system of Egypt. These include the USA, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain and Germany. The Egyptian government has hinted that this might be extended to the European Union in its entirety.

Replacement for visa on arrival

Aside from bringing in tourists, the digital visa is also meant to phase out the visa on arrival. The country has been advising against acquiring a visa after arrival at the airport for several years now. It can take a while to get this visa on arrival, as there are long queues. Furthermore, there are added costs, such as a stamping fee.

Tourist problems Egypt

Egypt experienced a revolution in 2011. There were also a number of attacks and other matters that made it so tourism suffered a serious blow. Since the revolution of 2011, the number of tourists has dropped. To make things worse, a Russian plane crashed over the Sinai desert in 2015. None of the passengers survived.

After the plane disaster, Russia decided to implement a ban on travel between Russia and Egypt. Afterwards, the United Kingdom decided to cancel all flights to Sharm El-Sheikh, citing safety risks.

Since 2018, the Egyptian tourist sector has been growing again. It is frequently chosen as a strategic position for companies, due to its position along both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The Egyptian government hopes to return the tourist sector to its pre-2011 state.

Egypt visa through e-Visa.ie

It is possible to apply for an Egypt visa through this website. Travellers headed to Egypt need to posses an Egypt visa before departure. This includes children travelling along. You will only be allowed to enter the country with a valid travel permit.

If you want to go on a holiday, you can apply for an Egypt visa online. But if you have a different travel purpose, you will have to go to the consulate of Egypt to apply for a visa. With the arrival of the Egypt e-visa for travel purposes other than tourism, this is likely to change in the future. It will then be possible to apply for an online Egypt visa for things such as business trips.

Egypt visa requirements

There are a number of requirements tied to usage of the online Egypt visa. For instance, all travellers must possess a passport. This means that even children require their own passport. ID cards are not accepted. If you are visiting friends or family in Egypt, you need to be able to present a letter of invitation.

Furthermore, you need to have an itinerary which shows all of the booked flights and overnight stays. People travelling as a group are advised to submit a group application for the Egypt visa. The visa is valid for 90 days, and it is available in both a single entry and multiple entry variant. The latter allows you to travel to Egypt an unlimited number of times, but each stay can only last a maximum of thirty days.

Egypt visa application

An Egypt visa application can be submitted in a matter of minutes and costs € 54,95 per person for a single entry visa. It is wise to keep the hotel and passport information at hand. These will be asked for when applying for the Egypt visa. It takes a few days before the visa is granted.

Those travelling to Egypt within seven days can make use of the urgency procedure. A visa will then generally be granted within two to five workdays.

Please note: this news article about the visa for Egypt is more than one year old. It might contain outdated information and advice, and no rights can therefore be derived from this article. Are you going on a trip soon and do you wish to do know what rules currently apply? Read all about the up-to-date information about the visa for Egypt.

e-Visa.ie is a commercial and professional visa agency, and supports travellers in obtaining, among others, the Egypt visa. e-Visa.ie is an official partner of the International Air Transport Association, IATA, with membership number 57231226, acts as an intermediary, is no law firm, nor does it employ lawyers, does not provide legal advice, and is in no way part of any government. You can also apply for a visa directly with the immigration service (25 USD per visa, via visa2egypt.gov.eg). However, not with our level of support. If you submit your application via e-Visa.ie, our support centre is available to you 24/7. In addition, we manually check your application and all the documents you provide before submitting it to the immigration authorities on your behalf. If we suspect any errors or omissions while doing so, we will personally contact you to ensure that your application can still be processed quickly and correctly. To use our services, you pay us 25 USD in consular fees, which we pay to the immigration service on your behalf, as well as € 31,16 in service fees as compensation for our services, including VAT. Our services have saved many travellers from major problems during their trip. Should an application be rejected despite our support and verification, we will refund the full purchase price (unless an application for a previous Egypt visa was rejected for the same traveller). Read more about our services here.