Egypt starts replacing the paper visa sticker with a QR code at Cairo airport

Egypt began a pilot on Saturday 1 August that changes how visitors get their visa on arrival at Cairo International Airport. Instead of buying a paper sticker at a bank counter before passport control, eligible travellers can obtain a Visa QR Code and have it scanned alongside their passport. The code costs USD 36 in total, stays valid for 48 hours after it is issued, and can be generated before you fly, in the air, or after you land. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities says the pilot covers all arrival terminals at Cairo, runs alongside the existing paper process for now, and will be extended to other Egyptian airports in stages.

What the old process looks like

Arriving at Cairo on a visa on arrival has meant the same sequence for years: land, walk into the arrivals hall, queue at a bank counter before immigration, pay, receive a physical sticker, put it in your passport, then join the passport-control queue. It works, but it puts a payment transaction between the aircraft and the immigration desk, at exactly the moment when several wide-body flights tend to land together. The ministry has framed the change as a way to reduce queues and congestion at Egyptian airports. The practical shift is that payment and issuance move off the airport floor and onto a phone or a kiosk.

What exactly changed

From 1 August, travellers eligible for a visa on arrival at Cairo can generate a Visa QR Code through three channels: an official online portal, a dedicated mobile application, or self-service machines in the airport's arrival halls. A travel agency can also generate the code on a traveller's behalf. The code can be created before departure, during the flight, or after landing. It is valid for 48 hours from the moment it is issued, and can be shown on a screen or printed. At passport control, the border officer scans the code together with the passport. The total cost is USD 36: the existing USD 30 visa fee plus a new USD 6 issuing fee. During the pilot, the paper sticker remains available in parallel; once the pilot ends, the ministry says the sticker will be phased out and the QR code will become the standard route.

Who it affects

This matters to anyone who enters Egypt on a visa on arrival rather than an e-visa or a residence permit: a tourist flying in for a Nile trip, a remote worker basing themselves in Cairo or on the Red Sea for a few weeks, someone visiting family, or a business traveller in for meetings. It matters most to people landing late at night or in a bank of simultaneous arrivals, where the bank-counter queue is the bottleneck. It does not change who needs a visa, how long you may stay, or what you may do while you are there. If you hold an Egyptian e-visa or a residence permit, nothing here applies to you. If you are arriving at Hurghada, Sharm el-Sheikh, Luxor or Alexandria, nothing changes yet either: this is a Cairo pilot, and the ministry says further airports will be announced in advance.

What this means in practice

Treat the QR code as an option, not a requirement. The paper sticker still works while the pilot runs, so you are not stranded if the app or the portal does not cooperate. If you do use it, mind the 48-hour clock: generating the code the day before a long-haul flight is fine, generating it a week early is not. Budget USD 36 rather than USD 30, and keep a printed copy in case your phone battery does not survive the flight. Confirm first that your nationality is eligible for a visa on arrival at all, because this changes how the visa is issued, not who qualifies for one. Our Egypt country guide at /country-guides/egypt covers the underlying entry rules and stay limits, which the pilot leaves unchanged.