Egypt visa for UK citizens in 2026: what you actually pay
Photo: kallerna · CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Key Highlights
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+2 more in the takeaways below
A single-entry e-visa to Egypt now costs about £22 ($30), not the £18 ($25) that many UK travel guides still quote. Visa-on-arrival costs the same £22 ($30). If your entire trip is Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba, you may not need either one.
Both fees rose in 2026, the e-visa in April and the visa-on-arrival in March, and a third rise is already law for 2027. What trips people up is the Sinai stamp: free, resort-only, and useless once your itinerary includes Cairo, Luxor or Hurghada. Get that wrong and you're turned back at passport control.
- E-visa now costs $30, not $25. The single-entry tourist e-visa rose from $25 to $30 around 27 April 2026; multiple-entry went from $60 to $65.
- Visa-on-arrival matches it at $30. That increase landed earlier, on 1 March 2026, and Cairo airport now also offers a $36 digital version, piloted from 1 August 2026.
- Four resorts need no visa at all. Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba get a free 15-day Sinai-only entry stamp instead.
- That stamp stops at the edge of the Sinai peninsula. Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Luxor and Cairo all require the full paid visa, no exceptions.
- A further rise is already law for 2027. It just hasn't taken effect yet, and doesn't touch a 2026 booking.
Applies to you if you're a UK traveller heading to Egypt in 2026
This applies to every British passport holder flying to Egypt for a holiday in 2026, whichever resort is on the booking. It works differently depending on where you're actually going, which is the part most guides skip.
- You're travelling on a British passport, for tourism, not business or study.
- Your trip is entirely inside Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba, for 15 days or fewer: you likely need no visa at all, just the free stamp.
- Your trip includes Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Luxor, Cairo, a Nile cruise, or any day trip out of the Sinai resorts: you need the full paid visa, e-visa or on arrival.
- You're staying longer than 15 days anywhere, including the Sinai resorts: you need the standard 30-day visa, not the free stamp.
| Where you're going | What you need | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba only, 15 days or fewer | Free Sinai entry stamp | £0 |
| Same resorts, more than 15 days | Standard 30-day visa | $30 |
| Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Luxor, Cairo or a Nile cruise | Standard 30-day visa | $30-$65 |
| A day trip out of a Sinai resort to the mainland | Visa bought on the day, at the resort | $30 |
If you're not sure which bucket you're in, the resort name settles it. Nothing else about your trip, not your airline, not your tour operator, changes which rule applies.
What actually changed in 2026
Egypt raised its two main tourist visa fees twice in 2026, both by $5. The e-visa went up in late April, the visa-on-arrival in March, and neither increase has been reversed since. None of this happened in a slow year for tourism either: Egypt logged a record 19 million visitors in 2025, and fees have gone up faster than the crowds.
The single-entry e-visa now costs $30, up from $25, per fee schedules reported by iVisa and VisasNews since around 27 April 2026 (Egypt's own e-visa portal was unreachable for direct confirmation at the time of writing). The multiple-entry e-visa rose from $60 to $65 on the same date. Visa-on-arrival moved first: it went from $25 to $30 cash on 1 March 2026, and the UK government's own travel advice now quotes that $30 figure directly (independently corroborated by Tempo), for a physical visa sticker bought at an airport kiosk before passport control.
There's a third option too, and it's newer and pricier than either. Cairo airport began piloting a digital visa on arrival on 1 August 2026. Pay by card at a self-service kiosk, through an app, or online before you fly, and it costs $36, the ordinary $30 fee plus a $6 digital service charge. We'd stick with the standard e-visa unless you're flying specifically into Cairo and want to skip the cash queue.
What you actually have to do
Apply for the e-visa online before you fly, or buy the visa-on-arrival with cash at the airport. Both get you the same 30-day stay; the difference is where you pay and how long you wait.
- Check which resort you're actually visiting. A Sinai-only trip needs no visa; anything on the mainland does.
- Apply at visa2egypt.gov.eg, not a third-party site. It's the only official ONLINE e-visa portal; every other site selling an Egypt e-visa online is a reseller adding a markup. (A second official route exists offline: in person or by post through the Egyptian Consulate General in the UK.)
- Pay in US dollars. The fee is set in USD even though you're a UK applicant, so your card converts it at your own bank's rate, not a fixed pound price.
- Or skip the e-visa and pay on arrival. $30 cash at the visa kiosk before passport control, no application needed.
- Check your passport before you travel. Six months' validity from your arrival date and at least one blank page, per the Foreign Office's own entry requirements.
None of this is worth sorting out at the airport in a panic. Our guide to a pre-trip document checklist covers passport validity rules for more than just Egypt, and it's worth working through a few weeks before you fly, not the night before.
Cost and timing, in full
The three paid options range from $30 to $65, in US dollars regardless of where you're applying from. All three cover the same 30-day stay per entry; only the number of entries and the payment method change.
| Visa type | 2025 fee | 2026 fee |
|---|---|---|
| Visa on arrival | 25 | 30 |
| Single-entry e-visa | 25 | 30 |
| Multiple-entry e-visa | 60 | 65 |
Every route went up by exactly $5 in 2026, whichever one you pick. Whether it's the e-visa or the visa on arrival is a question of timing, not cost.
| Type | Cost (USD) | Approx. GBP | Where you pay | Validity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-visa, single-entry | $30 | ~£22 | Online, in advance | 3 months to use, 30-day stay |
| E-visa, multiple-entry | $65 | ~£48 | Online, in advance | 6 months to use, 30 days per visit |
| Visa on arrival | $30 cash | ~£22 | Airport kiosk | 30-day stay |
| Digital visa on arrival (Cairo only) | $36 card | ~£27 | Kiosk, app or online | 30-day stay |
Fees shown as of September 2026. Re-check GOV.UK's Egypt entry requirements before you book if you're reading this more than a few months later.
Converted at the mid-September 2026 GBP/USD rate of roughly 1.35, none of the four options differs by more than a few pounds. The real choice is speed against certainty: an e-visa removes the airport queue, on arrival removes the wait for approval. Egypt's own portal doesn't publish a guaranteed turnaround, so apply several days before you fly and treat anything faster as a bonus, not a plan. We'd apply for the e-visa over the visa on arrival by default. It costs the same and means one less queue at the other end.
The exception every other guide gets wrong
The exception is the Sinai stamp, and most guides flatten it into "no visa needed for Egypt," which is wrong. It's a separate, free 15-day entry permission that only exists for four resorts, and it stops covering you the moment you leave them.
Booking a week in Hurghada because "it's the same as Sharm" and skipping the visa. It isn't the same. Hurghada sits on the mainland Red Sea coast, not the Sinai peninsula, and every Hurghada arrival needs the full paid visa.
- Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba: free Sinai stamp, 15 days, no visa needed
- Hurghada, Marsa Alam: full paid visa required
- Luxor, Aswan, Cairo, any Nile cruise: full paid visa required
- A day trip from a Sinai resort into Cairo or Luxor: buy the visa at the airport bank kiosk before you go
That list comes straight from the UK government's own advice: staying under 15 days in Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba gets you a free entry stamp, and it explicitly doesn't cover travel outside those resorts. GOV.UK's own guidance ties this specifically to arrival at Sharm el-Sheikh Airport: if you're flying directly into Taba, Dahab or Nuweiba's own airports, confirm the same stamp applies there before you travel, rather than assuming it automatically does.
Change your plans after landing and it isn't a disaster. Airport bank kiosks in Sharm el-Sheikh sell the standard visa on the spot, so a spontaneous day trip to Cairo is still possible, just not free. We'd photograph the passport stamp page and keep a digital copy of the visa confirmation regardless of which route you take. Something like TripProf's document storage keeps a scanned passport and visa confirmation together with the rest of a trip, which matters more at a border crossing than it does at home.
Photo: Marc Ryckaert · CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The $15 rise that's already law for 2027
Egypt has already signed a further fee rise into law for 2027, but it hasn't taken effect and it doesn't apply to a 2026 booking. Treat it as scheduled, not current, and read it as a short timeline:
- 1 January 2026 An existing $12 administrative levy on entry and transit visas takes effect, under an earlier 2025 decree.
- March to April 2026 Visa-on-arrival and e-visa fees each rise by $5, the increases this article covers.
- Late August 2026 Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly's Decree No. 2553 of 2026 is published in Egypt's Official Gazette, raising the $12 levy to $15.
- 1 January 2027 The $15 levy takes effect. What it does to the final visa price hasn't been published yet.
The decree itself is real and already law, reported by Egypt Independent and confirmed by VisasNews. What's genuinely unsettled is the arithmetic. The $15 levy is described as an administrative charge layered onto the base visa fee, not a replacement for the current $30 e-visa price. Neither source states the exact total a traveller will pay from January 2027, and Egypt's earlier $12 version of this same levy, in force since January 2026, gives a sense of scale without settling the final number. Book a 2026 trip and this doesn't touch you. Book for 2027 and treat any total quoted today as provisional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do UK citizens need a visa for Egypt in 2026?
Most do. British passport holders need either an e-visa or a visa on arrival for any trip outside the four Sinai resorts, and for stays over 15 days anywhere. Inside those resorts, for 15 days or fewer, the free Sinai stamp replaces the visa entirely.
How much does an Egypt e-visa cost for UK citizens now?
$30 for a single entry, about £22 at current exchange rates, up from $25. A multiple-entry e-visa costs $65, up from $60. Both increases landed around 27 April 2026.
Is Sharm el Sheikh visa-free for British tourists?
Yes, for stays of 15 days or fewer. You get a free Sinai-only entry stamp instead of a visa, covering Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba, and nowhere else.
Can I use the free Sinai stamp to visit Cairo or Luxor?
No. The stamp stops working the moment you leave the four named resorts. A day trip to Cairo, Luxor or the Pyramids needs the full paid visa, bought in advance or at the airport before you go.
Is an e-visa or visa on arrival cheaper or faster for UK travellers?
Both single-entry options cost the same $30. The e-visa is applied for online before you fly and removes the airport queue; the visa on arrival is bought with cash at the airport and needs no advance planning.
What's the Egypt multiple-entry visa fee in 2026?
$65, up from $60 as of around 27 April 2026. It's valid for six months and allows repeated visits, each capped at 30 days.
Will Egypt visa fees rise again in 2027?
A related administrative levy is already signed into law to rise from $12 to $15 on 1 January 2027. It hasn't taken effect yet, and how it changes the total visa price hasn't been published.
Key Takeaways
- Every fee rose by $5 in 2026. E-visa, multi-entry e-visa and visa on arrival now cost $30, $65 and $30.
- Sinai resorts are the exception, not the rule. Sharm el-Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba and Taba get a free 15-day stamp; everywhere else needs the full visa.
- Hurghada isn't Sinai. Mixing the two up is the single most common mistake in this whole topic.
- A further rise is law for 2027, not 2026. It doesn't affect a booking made this year, and the final total it produces isn't public yet.
- Sort your documents before departure day. A tool like TripProf can hold your passport scan and visa confirmation alongside the rest of a trip, so nobody's hunting for a PDF at the gate. Our guide to the US ESTA fee for UK travellers covers the same kind of paperwork on the other side of the Atlantic. If Egypt isn't your only visa this year, our Schengen visa guide walks through a different regime entirely.
We last checked these fees and the Sinai stamp rule against the UK government's own travel advice and the sources below as of September 2026. Visa rules change without warning, so re-check the official portal before you book if you're reading this more than a few months later. If Egypt is your first trip outside Europe, our list of first international trip mistakes covers the planning errors that catch people well before they reach passport control. If the pyramids and a Nile cruise are on the itinerary alongside a beach week, our Egypt budget guide has the cost side of that trip mapped out.
Sources
- UK Government (FCDO): Egypt travel advice, entry requirements: visa-on-arrival price, Sinai stamp rule, passport validity, digital visa at Cairo airport
- iVisa: Egypt increases tourist eVisa fees for 2026: single and multiple-entry e-visa pricing, effective date
- VisasNews: Egypt raises tourist e-Visa fees: e-visa fee increase, citing the official e-visa portal
- VisasNews: Egypt visa-on-arrival fee has officially increased: visa-on-arrival increase to $30, effective 1 March 2026
- VisasNews: Egypt to launch digital visa on arrival at Cairo airport: $36 digital visa, 1 August 2026 pilot
- VisasNews: Egypt, could visa fees rise by $15 starting in 2027: Decree No. 2553 of 2026, effective date, existing $12 levy
- Egypt Independent: Egypt to raise entry visa fees starting January 2027: decree number, Official Gazette publication, scope
- Tempo: Egypt raises visa-on-arrival fee for international travelers: independent corroboration of the March 2026 increase
- Ecofin Agency: Egypt visa-on-arrival fee seen rising to $30 from March 2026: early reporting on the visa-on-arrival increase
- Al Manassa: Egypt raises visa and consular fees to fund embassy upgrades: background on the $12 administrative levy that preceded the 2027 rise
- Egypt State Information Service: tourism records historic growth in 2025: context on Egypt's tourism volumes
- Trading Economics: GBP/USD exchange rate: currency conversion reference, mid-September 2026
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