No more visas on arrivals for visitors to Egypt

6th April 2015 If you visit Egypt or you plan to, you should listen up. The country is toughening their visa laws because of security issues, according to them. Now Egypt wants independent travelers to obtain visas at embassies before traveling instead of paying for them when they reach the country. This new policy will affect all visitors not traveling with package tour operators and officials say it is designed to give intelligence services more time to be able to assess visitors. They also do not want Jihadists to use their country as a transit point or to involve their youths and others living there in terrorism.

Under the new rules that will become effective in May this year, tourists traveling with registered tour operators and planning to stay less than 15 days will get a free visa on arrival. This just might be a way to soften the blow, makes some sense.

Experts have predicted that the change will impact the country’s already struggling tourism industry but Egyptian officials insist the change will have little impact overall on tourism with the Egyptian foreign ministry saying that ninety percent of all tourists to the country visit with travel operators.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty is quoted as saying “For tour groups everything remains unchanged. They can obtain visas at airports, but individuals have to get prior approval from embassies,”

Would this amendment in policy stop you from visiting Egypt? You tell us