The Canadian government has updated its travel advisory page for Egypt. According to it, neither the visa-on-arrival nor the e-visa will be accepted for Canadian citizens, but this will come into effect on October 1, 2023, rather than September 3, 2023.

The CBC has also updated its story to reflect the change in date from September 3 to October 1.

I guess that removes some ambiguity, though I still plan on cancelling my trip. Too much uncertainty and not worth the hassle.

So frustrated as we travel Nov 8 and my husband travels for business Oct so he can not give up his passport

I just applied for the e-Visa and their fields are so...... annoying... the address fields in particular, it says you can use comas, dots but in reality, it won't accept them so you just type in home and destination addresses with just spaces... which is so hard to read.

Removing VOA and e-visa for citizens of Canada is a really stupid move by Egypt, as there are still plenty of countries in the Mideast which offer visa-on-arrival and e-visa for Canadians. Requiring tourists to deal with an embassy or consulate for a holiday is so 1980s.

Egypt claims it is in response to Canadian government policies that make it difficult for Egyptians to visit Canada. This is illogical for multiple reasons.

First, Egypt is making it harder for citizens of a high-income country to visit and spend money in Egypt. This just penalizes Egyptians in the tourist-oriented industries, as Canadians will simply look to other destinations.

Second, the Canadian government has made it clear multiple times over the years that it does not base its visa policy on reciprocity, political considerations or public pressure. Visa requirements for citizens of third countries to come to Canada are based on refusal rates (countries with low visa refusal rates are more likely to qualify for visa exemptions in the future), evidence of abuse (such as overstays or someone working illegally in Canada while on a tourist visa) and the likelihood that a visa exemption will lead to a rise in refugee claims. Canada currently is seeing a spike in claims, including those made by people with visas who have flown to Canada.

https://www.reuters.com/world/americ...ay-2023-09-02/

Third, the situations for Canadian and Egyptian citizens in terms of travel will never be the same. Canada is a high-income country which does not produce refugees. Canadians are not likely to use the Egyptian VOA or e-visa system to make asylum claims in Egypt, work illegally in Egypt or overstay. Egypt, by contrast, is an authoritarian regime which is producing refugees and asylum claimants in certain countries, such as EU member nations.

Is your planned entry before October 1? Because as of that date, an e-visa, even an approved one in hand, will not be acceptable for entry into Egypt for Canadian passport holders.

Canadian needing Visa
 

We were in a bind as my husband needs his passport for business travel before our departure early November.
We are using Visa Connections which is costing us $400 per person. The Egyptian Consulate take $150 plus cost of secure return envelope and sending securely.
This is a cash grab by Egypt.
If it was not so close to departure and no refund I would cancel

My mother is (was) planning to visit Egypt in November. She's always dreamed of going to Egypt and this was going to be one of her last international trips. She acquired an evisa (issued Sept 1), and now the word on the street is it will not be honored. Hard to believe, and very unfortunate. Hopefully something changes. Since she has other international travel starting this month, and there is no consolute in Western Canada, I think she's SOL.

Does anyone have recent first hand experience of visiting the embassy in Ottawa to acquire a Egypt visa? How long it might take etc? I expect they will be overrun due to the recent changes to entry requirements.

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Visa are usually on reciprocity, developing countries don't have that many tools to protest (perceived) unfair treatment for visa applications. Developed countries expect easy and simple visa procedures for their business and leisure travellers but subject applicants from delveloping countries to provide extensive documents and visit the consulate in person to deal with very rude officials. The US and UK are the worst of the lot.

The Canadian government states explicity that it does not follow a policy of reciprocity when it comes to visa requirements. That's directly from the horse's mouth, so public perception of what a government should or shouldn't do regarding visas for citizens of third countries is immaterial.

Citizens of developing countries cannot expect equal treatment from consular officials in developed countries when compared with what Westerners receive when visiting developing countries, because migration flows (both licit and illegal) generally go only one way. Citizens of, say, Germany, are unlikely to claim political asylum in, say, Kenya. Citizens of Japan are unlikely to migrate to Myanmar in order to work in the underground economy. Citizens of Canada are unlikely to claim refugee status in Ecuador.

Anyone who doesn't believe this should take a glance at, say, the U.S.-Mexico border or the Mediterranean Sea. How many U.S. citizens are living in tents on the American side of the Mexican border, waiting to be smuggled into Mexico? How many Europeans are boarding overloaded rafts and fishing boats in order to migrate from Europe to Africa?

The flows only go one way. That's why the barriers will always be higher in one direction than the other.

So frustrating if I could get my money back I would cancel, it has left a bad feelin for a trip I was so excited about for my 70th.
We have paid a chunk of money to Visa Connection part of CIBT to get this done as my husband needs his passport for business travel before our trip to Egypt.

So my mum flew to Ottawa and went to the embassy to apply in person for a visa.

She arrived at 7:50am on Monday and had the applications submitted by 10am.

A day later she got a call saying that the eVisa she already had would be honored and to come pick up her documents. The pickup line took 90 minutes to get through.

So it only cost her $2500 and 3 days of her life to get that clarification.

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I am planning to take a flight from Spain to India via Cairo (yet to book). i need to change flights (2 different tickets) and have to retrieve my luggage at Cairo and re check in. I was wondering if i can go through immigrations / customs, retrieve luggage and re check in without a need for visa (as i will have to leave transit area)? The lay over time is 3 hours and i also need to find out if that is enough to go through all these processes at Cairo International Airport.

You will need a visa to do this, and 3 hours is do-able but not especially generous. Plenty of points (immigration, baggage reclaim, outbound security) where you could be queuing for quite some time.

Add to that, the airline checkin or gate agents at the origin for the 1st flight/ticket/itinerary will want to see your visa. No visa, no fly.

Perfectly logical. Not significant enough by any measure. Loss of revenue forgone is worth a lot less than gain in pride (and making a statement). See, visas (or lack of means to apply for) for Canadians.