How to get residency in Egypt through property investment or bank deposit

What paperwork is required to obtain residency in Egypt?

1. Valid passport
2. Proof of investment in real estate or bank deposit
3. Proof of financial stability

How to get residency in Egypt?

You can get residency for yourself and your immediate family by making a bank deposit, or a real estate investment starting at $50,000 USD.

Bank Deposit

1-year option – Make a deposit of $50,000 USD in an Egyptian bank
3-year option – Make a deposit of $100,000 USD in an Egyptian bank

• Both options are easily renewable as long as you keep your deposit.
• The money that is deposited must be fresh money that enters Egypt from abroad.
• You can earn interest of around 5.25% (changes with time, but at time of writing around 0.5% better than US banks). Islamic banking options exist as well.
• You are permitted to add to your application your underage dependent children, senior parents and your spouse (up to four legal wives for Muslim applicants)

Real Estate Investment

You may also buy real estate in Egypt to qualify for residency. The initial term of your residency depends on the value of your investment:

1-year – property worth $50,000 USD or more
3-year – property worth $100,000 USD or more
5-year – property worth $200,000 USD or more

• All of these residency options are renewable provided you retain ownership of your property.
• You are permitted to add to your application your underage dependent children, senior parents and your spouse (up to four legal wives for Muslim applicants)
• The property must be registered in the government registrar – only around 7% of Egyptian properties meet this qualification.

Residency through rental contract

There is also a program which allows residency via rental contract. As long as you have a legal rental contract, you can get residency for 6-month terms. This is compelling as you can get extremely affordable rental units in Egypt.

Important to note that it is a single-entry residency which is voided if you depart Egypt. This means that it is a one way trip to Egypt. If you leave the country for family or business reasons even for just a day, you lose your rental contract residency and must start from scratch. This is why most people who value flexibility opt for one of the residency by investment options.

Who should get residency in Egypt?

There are almost 9 million foreigners living in Egypt, and this number may be higher in reality. Of these, there are around 300,000 HNWIs living in Egypt. Most are citizens of other Arab countries using Egypt as a Plan B or for lifestyle purposes. But a surprising number of Westerners also call Egypt home for part of the year.

• People from Africa and the Middle East who want to live in a familiar country that is affordable and welcoming.
• Europeans who want to enjoy year-round sunshine, especially in winter, without having to go far and while staying in a similar timezone.
• Western muslims who want to live in a country more respectful of their islamic values, but that is more welcoming than other countries in the region such as Turkey and the Gulf where they may face some level of discrimination.
• Western non-muslims who want to raise their families close to Europe and have access to very affordable international schools but with more conservative curriculum.
• Kite surfers, divers and watersport junkies who want to live on the Red Sea.
• Businesspeople that want easy access to Egypt large domestic market of almost 120 million consumers

Video: How to get residency in Egypt by bank deposit or real estate investment

Services in Egypt:

• Citizenship by Investment in Egypt
• My favourite real estate agent in Cairo
• How to get residency in Egypt by real estate investment or bank deposit

Articles on Egypt:

• Why the Egyptian Citizenship by Investment? Deep dive with the Egyptian government.
• Making a Real Estate Investment in Cairo, Egypt – a contrarian play
• Now is the time to pull the trigger on Egyptian Citizenship
• Investing in Real Estate in the New Administrative Capital of Cairo in Egypt
• The New Administrative Capital of Egypt. Why, What, and how?
• Red Sea real estate in Egypt with free citizenship

Transcript of “How to get residency in Egypt by real estate investment or bank deposit”

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hello, Ladislas Maurice from thewanderinginvestor.com. Today, I’m in Cairo, and we’ll be discussing residency by investment here in Egypt. I’m here with Hany and his immigration lawyer, Alaa. We’ve done already a bunch of content on citizenship by investment here in Egypt, but not residency by investment.

How to obtain residency in Egypt by bank deposit

LADISLAS MAURICE: How are you and how can one get residency here in Egypt?

ALAA: We are fine. First of all, there are two ways to obtain residency by investment. One, through a bank deposit, and the other through real estate investment. Bank deposit, you can get one up to three years renewable residency by investment.

LADISLAS MAURICE: What’s the difference between the one-year and the three-year? How does it work, concretely?

ALAA: One-year, you have to deposit $50,000 in one of the Egyptian national banks. And for the three years, you have to deposit $100,000. And lastly, this money comes from abroad to Egypt, like, to the National Bank in Egypt, this is for your bank deposit option.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Can I get interest during that time?

ALAA: Yes, you can. It’s average 5.25%.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Obviously, that changes with time, but I was comparing with US banks, it’s about half a percentage point more than in the US, just as a bit of a benchmark in case things change. Let’s say, I go for the one-year, is it just one year and then that’s it, or can I renew it?

ALAA: No, it’s renewable.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so the only difference, essentially, is that I just have a bit more paperwork. Because every year, I need to go back to you, and I’m, like, “Alaa, okay, we need to renew.” But essentially, that’s the only difference with the three years.

HANY: Yes.

ALAA: Yeah.

How to obtain residency in Egypt by real estate investment

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. What about the real estate option?

ALAA: The real estate option brand new, one year, three, and up to five years.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Up to five years?

ALAA: Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.

ALAA: For the one year, you have to buy property worth $50,000, and for the three years, you have to buy property worth $100,000. And for the five years renewable residency, you have to buy property worth $200,000.

Adding dependents to Egypt residency

LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s say, I do this, I come here, I buy a property. Who can come onto this visa? Who can join me? Can I bring my wife, my children, my parents? Can I bring multiple wives if I’m Muslim? How does it work?

HANY: Yeah, sure. The main applicant can add, immediately, his wife, dependents, and you can actually add your parents in this one, if they are seniors, which is different from the citizenship program. This one is more convenient if you are planning to stay in Egypt, and don’t want the residency, and want to have your immediate family members with you. As long as they are dependent on you, and you can prove that, then they can be added to your application.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay? Essentially, with just $50k, the whole family can move here to Egypt, chill on the Red Sea, benefit from a pretty nice lifestyle, it’s affordable, nice swimming, a lot of outdoor activities, etc.

HANY: There is a trick, also.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, what’s the trick?

HANY: That the property needs to be registered in the government registrar, which is–

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay, so what percentage of properties are registered? [laughs]

HANY: [laughs] we need to find a property that is one of the 7% that are already registered.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay.

HANY: Having said that, there is a new law now, or an adjustment to the law that is allowing property owners to register their properties faster and in a more convenient way. And I think this is going to be a huge leap in terms of registration and property registration. We are expecting this number to grow.

LADISLAS MAURICE: There’s also a program that a lot of people, a lot of the Russians were doing on the Red Sea. It’s the, essentially, residency through rental contract. So, as long as you have a rental contract, Turkey had that for a while and they removed it, as long as you have a rental contract, you can get a six-month residency, renewable. It’s quite interesting, because they’re, literally, you can get rents of, I’ve seen stuff going for $50 a month. I mean, it’s–

HANY: I wouldn’t go for the $50 one.

LADISLAS MAURICE: [laughs] Yeah, obviously.

HANY: But I mean, the difference is that with this type of residency, it’s a single-entry residency.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And that’s important.

HANY: So, it’s a tricky one.

LADISLAS MAURICE: It’s like a one way to Egypt.

HANY: Yes. And not just the Russians, everybody is doing it. We have Iraqis, we have Syrians, Lebanese, Sudanese, Libyans. A lot of nationalities are living here, and they’re doing this with rental, if they are planning to stay permanently.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Let’s say that you actually want to travel as well, so obviously, you have to go for residency by investment, not the rental contract.

HANY: I do recommend doing that, for sure.

Who should get residency in Egypt?

LADISLAS MAURICE: Who’s going through this program? Who goes for it? Because coming from a Western perspective, most people are, like, “Oh, why would anyone want to live in Egypt?” Who wants to live here?

HANY: We have almost 9 million foreigners living in Egypt, according to the United Nation immigration statistics that came out in August 2022. And this number is even conservative compared to the number we actually think it is since the Sudan war happened. I think the number has increased. I’m not saying that the 9 million is high net worth individuals. In fact, almost 150,000 to 200,000 of them are the ones whom we consider high net worth individuals living here.

The first category of people who move to Egypt are usually Arabic-speaking people from Arabic countries. They could be having problems in their homes or just moving here for lifestyle. And lifestyle could be religious lifestyle, and it could be very open lifestyle. We have the full spectrum of the way you can live in Egypt. The first ones are the Arabic ones. The other ones are Westerners.

Expat community in Red Sea region

HANY: And the number one buyers in the Red Sea, for example, are the Germans, because they enjoy the sun. Anyone who’s having horrible weather in his country, they usually come here and enjoy the sun and vitamin D.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. And even amongst that, there are different categories.

HANY: Yes, sure.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Say, all the retirees.

HANY: Yes.

LADISLAS MAURICE: But also, people who are very active, who like to kite surf, who like to scuba dive.

HANY: Scuba diving.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Water activities, all that, that’s really big here in Egypt.

HANY: Yeah. For Africa, in general, Egypt is one of the three nicest destinations to be living in in Africa, so we attract people from everywhere.

LADISLAS MAURICE: And I’m seeing something also from coming from the Western perspective, two types of people that could potentially be interested here, on top of the retirees and people who just want the Red Sea lifestyle. One is Muslims living in the West who want to move back to a more culturally conservative place to raise their children. People are moving to places like Cairo, where there’s some decent schools, mosques, etc. The children can run around, it’s safe. They prefer the environment to raise kids.

Living in Egypt as a foreigner

LADISLAS MAURICE: And also, funnily enough, if you’re a Christian, and you’re conservative, and you want to raise your kids overseas in a place that’s actually quite conservative, much more than in even conservative European countries or conservative Latin American countries, Egypt is a good destination for this. You have a lot of English-speaking schools that are affordable, where you have British teachers that are teaching there, etc. So really, international schools that are affordable, but that are that are teaching the curriculum, essentially, in a way that is kind of, like, back in the 90s or 2000s, so more conservative. And you have a lot of churches, so Orthodox churches, Coptic churches, Catholic churches. I mean, what, 10%, 15% of the population here is–

HANY: 15%, almost now, yeah.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah, 15% of the population is Christian. People think when they come to Egypt, it’s like, oh, it’s only Muslim, blah, blah, etc. But no, it’s a country with a lot of diversity and people from very different backgrounds. I find Egypt absolutely fascinating. I like coming back here on a regular basis. People need to go beyond the misconception. They come to Cairo, they just see old Cairo, which is absolutely horrific. It’s polluted, there’s traffic. It’s not nice. They go to the pyramids, then they just get, like, hustled. Then they go to the Red Sea. It’s nice, but then they buy in touristy shops, and they get hustled as well. But the reality is, when you go beyond that and you actually live locally with people, etc., it’s very livable. People don’t really hassle you. It’s very comfortable. But you just need to set one single foot outside of the normal tourist trail to see an Egypt that’s actually very attractive.

And you don’t have to stay in the polluted parts of Cairo, you can go to New Cairo, which is a lot less polluted, etc. It’s a huge country of 110 million people, with the Red Sea, a lot of culture, the whole Mediterranean Sea. I haven’t been yet to the Mediterranean Coast, Alexandria.

HANY: Yeah. But also–

LADISLAS MAURICE: We need to go there.

HANY: We need to go there. And it’s a big part, by the way, because it stretches from Alexandria to Libya. You have Upper Egypt, which has all the temples and this is also a very nice destination to go to. You can go also to Oasis. You can go to other parts of the River Nile. Red Sea is also, not just this part where we went to Hurghada, where there is other parts in the Red Sea that is amazing as well. You have the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the River Nile, north and south. A lot of places that you can visit.

Also, we are famous of being very hospitable to people. I know this might sound controversial to what the Westerners think, but we are the safe haven for the Middle East. In general, foreigners in Egypt are treated very, very well, and we take care of the foreigners very well in Egypt.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Just not airport taxi drivers. [laughs]

HANY: [laughs]

LADISLAS MAURICE: They don’t take care of foreigners.

HANY: Yeah, yeah, for the taxi drivers can be tricky, so get something else. But anyway–

LADISLAS MAURICE: Uber works everywhere, so that’s fine.

HANY: Yeah. The point is that people, since, for example, 1991 war in Iraq, they moved here. And they’re still living here, because they like it. Same happened with Syria, they moved here, still living here. Whenever there is a problem, they move here because they consider here where it is safe. And you can ask anyone from the West who is having expensive home, or not even expensive, you can buy a property from $50,000 up to $6 million, they’re moving here because they like it and they are treated well. So, why not?

How to contact Hany and Alaa

LADISLAS MAURICE: Yeah. If you’re interested in residency by investment, do get in touch with Hany and Alaa. There’s a link below. Also, you offer services for real estate services, citizenship by investment, etc. There are links below, as well as some analysis of the real estate markets on Cairo that I did myself, and as well of the Red Sea. All right, thanks.

HANY: Thank you very much.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Hany, always a pleasure.

HANY: Was a pleasure.

ALAA: Thank you.

LADISLAS MAURICE: Okay. Alaa, thank you.

HANY: Thank you.