Expats in Dubai who want to travel to Egypt may need to apply for a tourist visa beforehand. Depending on your nationality, you may need to visit the Consulate General of Egypt to get a visa so you can travel to this country. Here’s a step by step guide how.
Egypt offers the traveler with a country rich in history and is known for its temples, mummies, hieroglyphs, and its pyramids. Here we outline the steps for your reference.
So for anyone interested in visiting Egypt soon, you may find the following information of vital importance:
Egypt Tourist Visa Requirements
The following are the documents received by the Egyptian Consulate.
Below are the steps to get the Egypt Tourist Visa
Processing Fee: 210 AED Application Fee
Processing Time: 3-4 Days
Address: Street 6, Khalid Bin Al Waleed Road, Umm Hurair 1, Consulate Area, Dubai (Near Burjuman Metro Station)
Phone: 04 397 1122
Fax: 04 397 1033
Website: http://mfa.gov.eg
Email: egyptconsulatedubai@gmail.com
Office Hours Schedule: Sunday to Thursday, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. & 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Other Important Notes:
Google Map Location of Egypt Consulate in Dubai
This is how I, a first-time visa applicant, was able to apply for my visa with only one trip to the Egyptian consulate. And this is how you can do it too. My unexpected journey began last July when The Bae invited me to spend my vacation month in his home country. As this was the first visa I personally applied for, I left nothing to chance.
Step 1: Visit the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website
Naturally, the first website I drifted to was http://mfa.gov.eg which listed the following requirements:
I visited many personal blogs by run-of-the-mill travelers, but as anyone would tell you, “Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.” A blog said one thing and another blog said another contradictory thing.
Pretty soon, my initial list of 4 requirements tripled in size. What’s worse, some of the bloggers had awful experiences at the consulate. I was even more scared than ever to go by myself. But it was time to face my fears… sort of.
Step 2: Email the Egyptian Consulate of Dubai
I reached out to the consulate in the comforts of my email. I was very specific about my situation that: (1) I am a Filipino citizen who (2) Is not living in the Philippines ATM but (3) Is a resident of the Dubai on a company-sponsored visa (I’ll get to that later).
In less than 24 hours, I received a reply with the following requirements:
As you can clearly see, there are requirements included in the email which were nowhere to be found in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
| Requirements Listed On The Website | Requirements Listed In The Email |
| 1. Visa application form (available online and/or at the consulate) |
2. Valid passport (up to 6 months at least)
3. Two (2) personal photos with white background
2. Valid passport (up to 6 months at least)
3. Two (2) personal photos with white background
4. Residence card in the foreign country (in case of expats)
5. No objection letter
These are the no objection letter and bank statement (for at least 3 months).
There are two lessons to be learned here:
I emailed them a second time if they had a specific format in mind for the no objection letter; if there was a required minimum amount for the bank statements; and if the bank statement could be substituted for a salary certificate. Again, in less than 24 hours, I got a response stating that a normal N.O.L. was acceptable; that there was no required minimum balance; and that a salary certificate could very well take the place of a bank statement.
The last question I posed was about the tourist visa validity period.
I was told that upon receiving my visa, I had up to 3 months to make my entry in Egypt and a maximum of 30 days to stay from the time of my entry. Since my trip was scheduled to be in December, the earliest I could start applying was in September.
Step 3: Prepare the documents
As early as July, I already informed my company about my vacation plan. When I approached our admin manager for the documents I needed from the company (Company trade license, NOL, and salary certificate), she happily agreed and even pitched in the idea of consulting an agent from ——– Travel and Tours. They have been handling all our company’s business travel needs for some time now. Because I was assured I would get the best rates possible, I decided to give them a shot.
(Not) Step 4: Contact a travel agent
When I first started emailing the travel agent, he seemed really cool. But less than a week into our correspondence, he sent me a bill worth AED 100.00. What for, you may ask? For sending me the visa application form (which he simply downloaded from the MFA website) and for sending me an even longer list of requirements which now included:
I badgered the agent with questions comparing his list to the one I got directly from the consulate. He just told me not to worry about the additional requirements, because he would “take care of everything” – oh, and don’t forget to send the payment for all those annoying questions. To save my company from potential embarrassment, I begrudgingly shelled out AED 100.00.
I talked to The Bae about the pros and cons of getting a travel agent. Initially, we found the idea of hiring somebody to do all the dirty work appealing. On the other hand, the service charge for the full service was a whopping AED 550.00 – at least four times the actual fee charged by the consulate. I suspended the decision and instead busied myself with preparing my remaining documents.
Step 4: Continue preparing the documents
By early September, The Bae had already booked two round trip tickets from Abu Dhabi (where he is currently based) to Cairo. Even though we were going to stay with his mother in a residential flat, it would save her the inconvenience of having to submit who-knows-what documents if we simply got a dummy hotel confirmation for a one month stay in Cairo.
Mine cost AED 50.00 from Travel Visa Bookings (https://travelvisabookings.com).
And boy am I glad I did!
The travel agent tried to rip me off of another AED 100.00 for a dummy plane ticket and hotel confirmation and was probably very disappointed that I had managed both on my own. The last straw was when he told me that their company had a strict No Refund policy, even if my application got denied for whatever reason.
As a point of reference, I knew that that should not be the case, because I had applied for a Chinese visa through a travel agency in the Philippines. When my application was denied, the agency gave me a full refund and wished me better luck next time. Ultimately, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Granted or denied, at least I would not have to risk AED 550.00 for nothing.
The weekend before my intended visit to the consulate, I had a new studio photo taken, because my last professional photo was taken over a year ago as a fresh-faced newcomer in the City of Gold.
Step 5: Brave the consulate
I made my way to the consulate on an early morning in mid-September armed with my folder of requirements. Bus commuters, you’re in luck! The Egyptian Consulate is just a 2-minute walk from Burjuman Metro Bus Stop C2. After a couple of wrong turns, I found my way to the main lobby filled with Egyptians of all ages. I approached one manning the priority number machine and told him I wanted to apply for a visa. He gave me a number and waited for the 16 other applicants before me. The lady behind the counter was very efficient and served each applicant for no more than 5 minutes.
However, when it was my turn, the applicant before me would not budge. I figured that there was something wrong or missing in her requirements, even though I could not understand her Arabic. Where she did not succeed in convincing the visa lady to take in her application, she succeeded in pissing her off.
By the time the annoyingly persistent applicant left, the woman behind the counter scolded me for bringing too many unnecessary documents. That’s right! The travel agent lied – no surprise there. She only took what were absolutely necessary, I paid the AED 140.00 application fee (update a reader mentioned that the fee as Nov 2018 is AED 210.00), and she gave me my receipt and priority number and told me to come back on Tuesday (as the process takes between 3-4 working days to complete).
I’ll save you the drama of the sleepless nights and skip to Tuesday afternoon.
Step 6: Take your newly-stamped visa
I returned to the Egyptian Consulate once more, this time to claim my passport stamped with the Egyptian visa.
I hope the above-mentioned experience and details will guide you in getting a tourist visa so to help you in preparing your travel from Dubai to Egypt.
Some photos of the author during her one month vacation in Egypt.
About the Author: Nichollette
Nicholette retired from teaching hormonal teenagers at the tender age of twenty-two to pursue a career in adulting in Dubai. From an early age, she has struggled with an incurable case of sarcasm, which she now channels through her writing. She reads fiction voraciously, eats anything edible heartily, and travels every chance she gets. She is less of a writer and more of a collector of stories penning her travels, thoughts, and things in between in her inappropriately-titled blog: http://thegrammarfuhreri n.wordpress.com
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