Egypt visa and entry rules for Cairo visitors

Who actually needs a visa

If you’re coming from the EU, the UK, the US, Canada, Brazil, or most other countries, assume you need a visa to enter Egypt. There is a short list of visa-exempt nationalities, and it changes from time to time, so don’t rely on secondhand information or a forum post from a few years back. The only place to confirm your specific case is the official government portal, visa2egypt.gov.eg. That’s true whether you’re flying into Cairo International Airport (CAI) or arriving some other way.

This page exists because the visa question comes up before almost anything else on a Cairo trip, and it’s the one part of planning where getting it wrong can mean missing a flight or standing in an unplanned queue after a long overnight journey. Everything else in this guide, from where to stay to how long to spend at the pyramids, only matters once you’re actually through immigration.

Your two options: e-Visa or visa on arrival

Most travellers choose between two routes into Egypt, and both lead to the same visa in your passport in the end.

e-Visa, applied for in advance. You apply and pay online through visa2egypt.gov.eg before you fly. The application asks for your passport details, travel dates, and payment, and the approved visa is linked electronically to your passport number. You still show your passport at immigration in Cairo, but you skip the on-arrival payment counter. This is the more predictable option: you know your visa is sorted before you leave home, rather than hoping the queue moves and the kiosk takes your card or cash without a hitch.

Visa on arrival, bought at the airport. For eligible nationalities, you can buy a visa sticker or stamp from a bank kiosk inside the arrivals area at Cairo International Airport, before you reach the immigration desks. This has worked reliably for a long time, but it depends on cash in the accepted currency, working kiosks, and a queue that can build up when several long-haul flights land close together. If you’re arriving late at night after a long flight, the e-Visa removes one more thing to deal with while tired.

Neither option is universally better. If your nationality is eligible for both and you’d rather not deal with anything at the airport, do the e-Visa before you travel. If you’re short on time to prepare or your travel dates are still shifting, visa on arrival keeps things flexible, as long as you’ve confirmed your nationality qualifies.

	e-Visa	Visa on arrival
Where you apply	visa2egypt.gov.eg, online, before travel	Bank kiosk at Cairo airport, after landing
Payment	Card, online, in advance	Cash, at the kiosk, on the day
Best for	Wanting it settled before you fly	Flexible dates, no time to apply ahead
Risk if something goes wrong	Support is online, before you travel	You’re dealing with it at the airport, in person
Cost	Check visa2egypt.gov.eg for the current fee	Check visa2egypt.gov.eg for the current fee

Notice what’s missing from that table: a number. That’s deliberate. Visa fees change, and this guide would go stale the moment they do. The official portal is the only place that’s kept current, and it’s also the only place that can tell you the exact figure for your nationality and visa type.

Passport validity: the six-month rule

Whichever route you take, your passport needs at least six months of validity remaining from the date you enter Egypt, and ideally a blank page free for the visa. This is a common trip-planning trap because it’s easy to check your passport’s expiry date, see it’s “valid,” and not do the six-month math. Airlines check this at check-in, before you’ve even reached Cairo, and can deny boarding if you fall short. Immigration in Cairo checks it again on arrival.

If your passport is close to that six-month line, renew it before you book flights, not after. This is the kind of detail worth sorting weeks in advance, alongside anything else on your pre-trip checklist, rather than the night before you fly.

Travelling with children

Children travelling to Egypt need their own passport and their own visa; there’s no shared-visa arrangement for family groups, even for infants. The same six-month passport validity rule applies to a child’s passport as to an adult’s, and it’s worth checking well before you book, since children’s passports can end up closer to expiry than a parent’s simply because renewal cycles for kids’ documents are often shorter in several countries. If only one parent is travelling with a child, some airlines and immigration checkpoints ask for evidence of parental consent or a note from the other parent; this isn’t specific to Egypt, but it’s worth confirming with your airline rather than assuming it won’t come up at check-in.

The e-Visa application process for a child follows the same steps as for an adult, submitted separately through visa2egypt.gov.eg: passport details, a photo, travel dates, and payment. There’s no discount or fast-track for minors built into the process itself, and the same advice applies about applying with enough lead time rather than at the last minute, especially if you’re travelling as a family and want every application confirmed before you leave.

Where these formalities actually happen

It helps to know where you’ll be standing when all this plays out. Most international flights land at Cairo International Airport (CAI), in Heliopolis, northeast of downtown Cairo. This is where the bank kiosks for visa-on-arrival are located, in the arrivals hall before you reach the immigration desks, and where e-Visa holders proceed straight to immigration with their approval already linked to their passport.

A smaller number of flights use Sphinx International (SPX), west of Giza. If you’re booked into SPX, don’t assume the process is identical; confirm with your airline how entry formalities work at that airport before you fly, since it handles far fewer international arrivals than CAI.

Once you’re through immigration, the practical part of the trip starts: getting from the airport to your hotel in central Cairo or Giza. That’s a separate logistics question from the visa itself, covered in our airport transfers guide, but it’s worth knowing before you land that the drive from CAI to a Giza hotel typically runs 60 to 90 minutes depending on traffic, and that’s after you’ve cleared immigration and collected your bags. Build that into your arrival-day plans rather than expecting to be at your hotel minutes after landing.

Arriving by land, sea, or on a connecting flight

Most visitors reading this are flying directly into Cairo, but the same visa requirement applies whether you enter by air, by land from a neighbouring country, or by sea on a cruise call. The process and the documents you need can differ by entry point, and this guide focuses on air arrival at CAI or SPX because that’s how the large majority of visitors reach Cairo. If you’re planning an overland crossing or arriving by ship, confirm the specific entry procedure for that crossing point before you travel, since visa-on-arrival availability and accepted payment method can differ from what’s described here for the airport.

If your Cairo trip is a short connection between two other flights rather than a full stay, whether you need a visa for the layover itself depends on how long you’ll be on the ground and whether you leave the airport. This is worth confirming against your specific itinerary and transit time rather than assuming a connecting flight exempts you automatically; see our guide to Cairo layovers for more on how that plays out in practice.

What the e-Visa application actually asks for

The e-Visa process on visa2egypt.gov.eg is a standard online visa application: passport details, a digital passport photo, your travel dates, and payment. Approval typically comes back well before most travellers’ departure dates, but the official portal is the place to check current processing times, not a travel forum. Print or save a digital copy of your approval to show alongside your passport if asked, even though it’s linked electronically.

A word of caution that applies to any government visa process: search results for “Egypt e-Visa” sometimes surface third-party sites that charge a service fee on top of the actual visa cost, or that aren’t the official portal at all. Go directly to visa2egypt.gov.eg rather than following a sponsored link or an unfamiliar URL. This is the same caution worth applying broadly when avoiding common tourist traps in Cairo: official channels first, always.

If your e-Visa application doesn’t go through

Occasionally an e-Visa application is delayed, comes back with a request for more information, or is rejected outright, usually because of a mismatch between the passport details entered and what’s printed in the passport, a photo that doesn’t meet the requirements, or a payment that didn’t process cleanly. If this happens close to your travel date, the practical fallback for eligible nationalities is visa on arrival at Cairo airport, paid at the kiosk in the arrivals hall rather than online. It’s worth checking the status of your e-Visa application a few days before you fly rather than the night before, so a rejection or a request for clarification doesn’t turn into a same-day scramble at check-in.

If your nationality isn’t eligible for visa on arrival and your e-Visa hasn’t cleared in time, that’s a case for contacting the portal’s own support channels directly, not for guessing at a workaround or trusting a third-party site that promises to fix it faster.

Other entry details worth knowing before you land

A few related points come up around the same time as the visa question, and they’re worth having settled before your flight rather than figuring out on the ground:

• Currency on arrival. Egypt uses the Egyptian pound (EGP), not the US dollar or the euro, for day-to-day spending once you’re through the airport. If you’re paying for a visa on arrival, or anything else at the airport, check which currency and denominations the kiosk or counter actually accepts; carrying some cash for this is more reliable than assuming a card machine will be available at that specific counter. More detail on currency and cards once you’re in the city is in our money, cards and ATMs guide.
• Customs and what you’re bringing in. Standard customs rules apply, covering duty-free allowances and restricted items; this isn’t a visa question but it’s part of the same arrivals process, so budget a few extra minutes if you’re carrying anything that might need declaring.
• Onward travel documents. If your Cairo trip is a stop on a longer itinerary, for example connecting on to Luxor and Aswan, your Egypt visa covers your time in the country regardless of internal flights or the overnight sleeper train; you don’t need a separate visa for internal Egyptian travel.
• Multiple entries and re-entering Egypt. If your trip includes a side trip that takes you briefly out of Egypt and back in, for example a short visit to a neighbouring country partway through your stay, check whether your visa allows multiple entries before you book that leg; a single-entry e-Visa won’t let you back into Egypt without applying again.
• Timing your arrival. If you’re landing late at night, having the e-Visa already sorted means one less queue to navigate on limited sleep before the 45-to-90-minute drive into the city. If you’re planning a Cairo layover rather than a full stay, confirm your visa situation still applies for a short stop; the rules are generally the same, but it’s worth checking against your specific transit time.

None of this replaces reading the official guidance for your own passport and travel dates. The point of covering it here is so you’re not sorting out visa basics for the first time in an immigration queue.

A realistic pre-trip visa checklist

Before you book flights or finalise your Cairo itinerary, run through this:

1. Check visa2egypt.gov.eg for your nationality’s current requirement: exempt, e-Visa, or visa on arrival.
2. Confirm your passport has at least six months of validity from your entry date, and at least one blank page.
3. If eligible for the e-Visa, apply online with enough lead time before departure; don’t leave it for the final days before you fly.
4. If planning to use visa on arrival, check what payment the airport kiosk currently accepts and carry appropriate cash.
5. Save or print your e-Visa approval, or note where the on-arrival kiosks are in the CAI arrivals hall.
6. Double-check which airport you’re flying into, CAI or SPX, and confirm entry procedures with your airline if it’s SPX.

Handle these six points before departure and the visa side of a Cairo trip becomes a non-event: a few minutes at immigration, and then you’re on your way to whichever first day in the city you’ve planned, whether that starts with the pyramids at Giza or a quieter first evening getting settled downtown.

Landing tired after a long flight is also when a lounge before your gate, or simply somewhere to sit while you get your bearings, makes more sense than it might have seemed worth booking from home. An airport lounge pass for Cairo International is worth considering if you have a long wait either arriving or departing.

Once the paperwork is behind you and you’re settled into your first days in the city, an afternoon downtown Cairo tour that ends with an Egyptian dinner is a gentle way to ease into the trip without tackling the pyramids on day one. For a later evening once you’re acclimatised, an evening Cairo by night outing shows the city at a different pace than the daytime sightseeing crowds.

The one number this page won’t give you

It’s worth repeating plainly: this guide will not quote a fixed visa fee. Fees change, they vary by visa type and sometimes by nationality, and a number printed here in September 2026 could be wrong by the time you read it. The only reliable source is visa2egypt.gov.eg, checked close to your travel dates. Treat any other figure you see, including on well-meaning travel blogs, as a rough guide at best, and confirm before you pay.