Do US citizens need a visa for Egypt?

US passport holders need a tourist visa, and there are two simple routes. The e-visa is applied for online before you fly and emailed to you to print, so you reach immigration already cleared. The visa on arrival is bought at the airport when you land. Both are single entry for up to 30 days, and a multiple-entry e-visa (valid six months) is available if you will leave and return, say a side trip to Jordan.

The e-visa is the calmer choice: it takes about three to seven days to approve, so apply a week or two ahead and skip the arrival-hall queue.

Fees have moved recently, so confirm the current amount before you pay, but as a guide: the e-visa is about $25 for single entry (around $60 multiple), and the visa on arrival rose to $30 on 1 March 2026. At the airport you pay in US dollars cash (or sometimes card) at the bank window before passport control, not to any tout.

The one official e-visa site is visa2egypt.gov.eg (note: .gov.eg, not .com). Egypt is a magnet for lookalike sites that charge $75 to $160 for the same $25 visa and harvest your data, so go there directly, never through a search ad.

If you are flying only to the South Sinai resorts, Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba, and staying in that region, you can often enter on a free Sinai-only stamp for up to about 15 days, instead of paying for a visa. It is handed to you on arrival.

The catch is real: the free stamp does not let you leave the Sinai, so no Cairo, no Luxor, no pyramids, and not the famous dive sites off the mainland. If there is any chance you will venture beyond the resort zone, get the full visa instead.

The single most common slip is passport validity: Egypt enforces the six-month rule strictly, and travelers are denied boarding or entry over it, so check yours before booking. You also need a blank page. To stay beyond 30 days, extend at an Egyptian immigration office before your visa expires; overstaying brings a fine paid at the airport.

For how money works once you are there, cash, cards, the pound and tipping, see the Egypt money guide.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Egypt

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Do I need cash in Egypt, or can I use cards?Short answer: cash, mostly. Cards work at hotels and upscale spots, but almost everything else runs on cash, including the constant tipping. Here is how to handle it.
• Uber or Careem in Egypt, and the Cairo airport taxi trapEgypt is one of the places where an app quietly solves the problem. Here is which one to install, why the old street cabs are best skipped, and how to get out of Cairo airport without the invented fees.
• Tipping in EgyptTipping in Egypt, called baksheesh, is not an extra: it is woven into daily life. The trick is to carry lots of small notes and give little and often. Here is how much, when, and in what currency.
• Common money scams in Egypt, and what they cost youEgypt is one of the world's great trips, and the hassles that do come up are almost all about money, not danger: overcharging, pressure, and a tip expected for everything. A few calm habits defuse nearly all of it. Here is each trap, what it costs, and how to sidestep it.
• Staying connected in Egypt.Egyptian data is cheap and the tourist packs are generous, so the local SIM is the answer on price. The two things worth knowing are where the signal stops and that the airport counters price higher than the shops in town.
• What does getting sick in Egypt cost a visitor?Egypt's medical money story starts at the cashier: hospitals expect payment, often in cash, before they will treat you. The second half is geography, because the places visitors actually go, the Red Sea coast, the desert, the temples upriver, sit a long way from Cairo's best hospitals.