Update 11/13 at 2:00 p.m.: The portal is accessible again.
The official electronic visa application portal for Egypt, visa2egypt.gov.eg, has been experiencing major system failures for several days, preventing any new submissions and leaving previously registered applications pending.
For nearly a week, travelers were sometimes able, though often with difficulty, to access the Egypt e-Visa application interface. However, every attempt to submit an application resulted in the same message: “Egypt e-visa has encountered an error. Please try again later.” This systematic blockage prevented applicants from completing forms and making payments online, confirming an internal malfunction of a portal already known for slowdowns and accessibility issues.
But in the past few hours, the situation has worsened: the site now displays only a “404 – Not Found” message, indicating total unavailability or a server access failure.
No official communication has yet clarified the nature of the outage or provided a timeline for resolution.
e-Visa portal outage: how can travelers obtain a visa for Egypt?
While the e-Visa portal remains unavailable, the fastest solution for many eligible travelers is obtaining a visa on arrival, issued at Egypt’s international airports.
This option, widely used before online applications became the norm, remains fully operational. Upon arrival, travelers simply need to present a passport (or, for some nationalities, a national identity card) valid for at least six months beyond the entry date, and pay the $25 USD fee, generally in cash. The visa, valid for 30 days, is issued within minutes at dedicated counters located before passport control.
Although it may involve a short wait during peak hours, this method ensures real continuity of service during the interruption of the electronic visa system.
For travelers wishing to secure their visa before departure, or for those not eligible for a visa on arrival, embassies and consulates of Egypt remain an alternative. Depending on the country, diplomatic missions may issue a standard visa or provide other procedures tailored to the current situation. This option can be especially useful for travelers with specific needs: business trips, long stays, multiple entries, or simply the desire to have the visa in hand before boarding.
VisasNews recommends that, as long as the outage persists, travelers check requirements specific to their nationality, contact an Egyptian embassy or consulate, consult their airline if needed, and plan for extra waiting time upon arrival in Egypt.
A tourism sector in full acceleration
This e-Visa system failure comes at a time when Egyptian tourism is experiencing exceptional momentum.
According to the Egypt’s Cabinet Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), forecasts from Fitch Solutions predict a steady rise in the number of visitors, with 17.76 million tourists expected in 2025 and 18.56 million in 2026, before surpassing 20.6 million by 2029. This growth is driven in part by the recent opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has quickly become one of the country’s major new cultural landmarks.
Recent figures confirm this upward trajectory: the 2023/2024 fiscal year welcomed 14.9 million visitors, a 7.2% increase, while overnight stays rose to 154 million. Tourism revenues have also surged, exceeding $14.4 billion, and already reaching $12.5 billion in the first nine months of the 2024/2025 fiscal year.
Beyond the numbers, the positive impact extends across the Egyptian economy: tourism now contributes 3.7% of GDP, compared to just 2.4% two years earlier. On the international stage, Egypt is also strengthening its appeal, entering the world’s top 25 most popular destinations for the first time, while maintaining its position as Africa’s leading tourist destination.
